Irrawaddy-Sept 7
Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) has said that its People’s Defense Forces (PDF) and allied ethnic revolutionary organizations (ERO)) have effective control of more than half the country after a year of waging a people’s defensive war against the military regime. In a speech on Wednesday marking the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a people’s defensive war against the junta, the NUG’s acting president Duwa Lashi La said that the regime has lost control of at least half the country, as the territorial dominance and military capabilities of PDFs and EROs has significantly strengthened and improved. The acting president said that the NUG has formed over 300 PDF battalions nationwide, while other township public defense forces have been formed in 250 townships out of 330 across the country over the last year. Public administration and judicial systems of the NUG have been established in 24 townships which are completely controlled by resistance forces. Education, health, municipal and social services have also been established by the NUG in the townships, the president said. “Amid our territorial dominance and as our military capabilities have strengthened, the operations, territorial control and public administration of our partner EROs have significantly improved,” said Duwa Lashi La. He added: “After one year of defensive war, the fascist terrorist military council no longer control half of the country’s territory.” On Monday, the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), an independent group of prominent former United Nations (UN) human rights experts, said that their analysis has found that the NUG and resistance organizations have effective control over 52 per cent of Myanmar’s territory. SAC-M said also that the Myanmar military can only claim to have stable control over 17 per cent of the country, as its rule is being actively contested elsewhere. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/nug-we-control-over-half-of-myanmars-territory.html
