Myanmar’s junta has sentenced to death three high-ranking officers who oversaw the surrender of a strategic town on the Chinese border to ethnic minority fighters last month, military sources told Agence France-Presse.
Hundreds of troops put down their weapons and handed over the town of Laukkai in Shan state to the so-called Three Brotherhood Alliance after months of fighting that saw the military lose swathes of territory.
The surrender was one of the biggest single losses for the military in decades and sparked further criticism of the junta leadership by its supporters.
Photo: AFP
After the surrender, the officers and their troops were allowed to leave the area by the alliance.
“Three brigadier generals, including the commander of Laukkai town, were given the death sentence,” a military source said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Another military source confirmed the sentencing.
Three other brigadier generals were sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the surrender at Laukkai, the two sources said.
Laukkai is the largest town seized by the Three Brotherhood Alliance — made up of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.
The alliance launched a surprise offensive across a swathe of northern Myanmar in late October last year and has seized several towns and lucrative trade hubs along the border with China.
Meanwhile, two people were yesterday killed in a crush outside a passport office in Myanmar, a rescue worker said, as thousands rush to leave the country to escape a junta military service law.
Two women aged 52 and 39 died early yesterday after hundreds of people surged to get in line at the passport office in Mandalay, a rescue worker who arrived at the scene said.
“There was a ditch near the crowd. They fell into the ditch and died from a lack of oxygen,” the rescue officer said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
Another woman was slightly injured, the officer said, adding that all three had been selling tokens assigning numbers in the queue. Local media also reported the deaths.
The junta earlier this month said it would enforce a law allowing it to call up all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve in the military for at least two years.
The law was written by a previous junta but never used, and it remains unclear how it would be enforced.
No details have been given about how those called up would be expected to serve, but many young people are not keen to wait and find out.
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