Captured junta military officer advises colleagues to surrender

By Admin 27 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
27 December 2024, Mrauk-U

With the Arakkha Army (AA) having captured 13 townships in Arakan State as well as Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State, the ethnic armed group is now focused on seizing the whole of Gwa Township. Only Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Manaung towns remain under regime control.

In a video released by the AA on Thursday, Brigadier-General Kyaw Kyaw Than, the chief of staff of the military’s Western Command, who is in AA custody, urged officers and soldiers in Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Manaung towns to surrender to the ethnic armed group, citing difficulties with sending reinforcements to Arakan State due to its geographical position.

“Do not waste your lives under incompetent leadership. Contact the Arakkha Army and surrender immediately. Raise the white flag and lay down your arms. The AA will treat you according to the law. They provide captured soldiers with food, medicine, and care,” Kyaw Kyaw Than said in the video.

He also urged military leaders in Naypyidaw to accept their defeat in Arakan State and to stop the bombing and violence against civilians.

“I urged the leaders in Naypyidaw including the Senior General [Min Aung Hlaing] to accept the defeat in Arakan, considering the lives of rank-and-file members. Stop the airstrikes and violence against civilians. If you continue to commit those acts, you and your generations will face hatred and resentment from family members of military personnel and civilians,” he said.

The junta’s violent crackdown on anti-coup protesters has sparked armed resistance across the country. The Myanmar military has been drained by more than three years of clashes with ethnic armed organisations and resistance groups on multiple fronts, and it has heavily relied on airstrikes to defend against resistance attacks. It has also deliberately targeted residential areas with air and artillery strikes, inflicting heavy civilian casualties and massive destruction of property.

On December 20, the AA successfully seized the Western Command headquarters in Ann Township, capturing hundreds of junta soldiers including deputy commander Brig-Gen Thaung Tun and its chief of staff Brig-Gen Kyaw Kyaw Than.

Kyaw Kyaw Than said in the video that he is in good health and urged the families of prisoners of war like himself not to worry, stating that the AA treats captured soldiers according to the laws governing prisoners of war.