Regime accuses AA of using battlefield black magic, says junta defector

By Admin 06 Aug 2025

DMG Newsroom

6 August 2025, Mrauk-U

Propaganda has been circulating to junta soldiers on the front lines that the Arakan Army (AA) is using black magic to attack the Myanmar military during the ongoing conflict between the two sides.

A junta conscript who defected to the AA said Myanmar military officers had ordered them to tie religious texts and women's longyi (htamein) to their guns to fight the AA.

"My superiors told me that the AA is fighting the Myanmar military in a dirty way. That is why we often attach religious texts to our grenades and tie pieces of women's longyi to our guns. We also tie pieces of women's longyi to our heavy weapons," said Nay Thura Myo, a junta defector.

Nay Thura Myo was a junta conscript who defected to the AA on July 27 during the Nat Yay Kan battle on the Ann-Padan front.

He said that propaganda within the Myanmar military claims that the AA tortures defectors, forces them to dig holes, and then executes them from behind.

The junta defector added that there were many junta soldiers as well as officers at the Nat Yay Kan junta base who wanted to defect to the AA.

He said although many junta soldiers have been sent to reinforce and prepare a strong defense at the Nat Yay Kan base, there are still casualties from AA sniper fire every day.

"The AA is shooting at us with snipers day and night. We cannot come out of the trenches day or night. There are 20 people who were shot by snipers and five were injured. Fifteen junta soldiers were killed by AA snipers," he said.

A junta commander from the military's Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 15 under Light Infantry Division No. 99 was killed by AA sniper fire, while a junta major from LIB No. 14 was also killed by AA drone bombing and artillery fire.

Fighting is reportedly continuing between the military and the AA near the Nat Yay Kan base, the last hilltop camp held by the military regime on the Ann-Padan road.

"How long the military regime can hold on to this junta base depends on the AA and allied forces fighting. The junta camps are quickly defeated once they are really attacked. So if the AA and allied forces attack in large numbers, this junta base will also be lost," said Zin Yaw, a captain of the anti-regime Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).

The defector Nay Thura Myo was transferred from the military's Padan-based Artillery Battalion No. 409 to the Nat Yay Kan junta base on May 5.

The military regime has forcibly recruited young men from across the country under the conscription law and sent them to the front lines.

Another soldier who defected to the AA on July 9, Aung Thet Htun, was forcibly detained by a ward administrator and sent to a military training school before being sent to the front lines.The regime's coercive recruitment tactics have proven fertile ground for defection sentiment among the ranks.