Myanmar: The decomposition of the military regime continues
Featured image: map which shows the advances and ongoing sieges of Operation 1027 in Myanmar. Source: The Irrawaddy
This month it is three years since the coup d’etat carried out by the military in Myanmar in 2021, and it is also the fourth month of Operation 1027. The offensive began at the end of October of 2023 and was a strong and unexpected blow to the Myanmar military regime, which sank it in a political and military crisis, and in fact the situation has continued worsening. The figures provided by local media make the situation of the Junta clear: dozens of armored vehicles and artillery pieces captured, jet fighters and helicopters down, dozens of locals and military bases taken or under siege, and constant withdrawals and territorial control lost by the Junta.
We already reported at the beginning of January on this situation of weakness and the development of the offensive against the military regime: “An article posted by the US think tank Council on Foreign Relations in June of 2023 already stated that the Junta was losing the war. The article claims that since the coup, the forces of the military regime have gone from 3-400,000 to 150,000, only 70,000 of which are combat soldiers, as a result of deaths, desertions and defections. It is pointed out that the military regime keeps loosing territory, and is not able to regain any. It is claimed that the military regime only had stable control of around 20 percent of the country’s townships. The situation of the military junta seems to have weakened further since this point in time.” The power of the military regime continue worsening and it has lost control over more territory that was being disputed with the resistance from the beginning of Operation 1027.
In the State of Rakhine, the Arakan Army, part of the resistance facing the Junta, has taken several military bases capturing large amounts of material. The Army of the military regime shows its demoralization and lack of faith in the regime, and precisely in this area there are news of hundreds of military defections towards the neighboring country, Bangladesh.
Facing this military crisis, the Junta has established new measures to ensure the recruitment of the young people. There was already a recruitment law from years ago, but now they want to put real efforts to recruit all young people, men and women, for periods between 2 and 3 years, and in case of being in a state of emergency, the young people will make a military service of up to 5 years. Additionally, the Junta has announced that in August they will most likely extend the state of emergency, which is currently active for another 6 months.
Besides to try to strengthen the weakened repressive forces of the old State, the military Junta continues trying to crush the resistance of the people by applying more terror against it. Heavy bombings against location from where the resistance has been reported to be operating and inflicting hard blows to the military regime. These massacres have the unequivocal complicity of imperialism. Recently, the intense involvement of Australian imperialism has been known, especially mining monopolies in the country, which in collusion with Chinese imperialism have continued to plundering the mining resources of the oppressed country. This has served to continue maintaining the bureaucratic-big landlord regime and its crimes against the people.
