Anti-junta fighters defect to Myanmar military regime

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) are among the several resistance fighters that have reportedly defected to the Myanmar military since the third week of September, according to sources connected to anti-junta armed groups. The anti-junta fighters who surrendered their arms and joined the side of the military regime included four were members of the KNLA—an armed wing of the Karen National Union—who had been operating in Tanintharyi Region, as well as members of the People’s Defence Team (PDT) of Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region. People’s Defence Teams are commanded by the defence ministry of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG). The four KNLA defectors include a fighter who previously served in the Myanmar military, as well as three members who had once fought for the Kawthoolei Army (KTLA), another predominantly Karen armed group that separated from the KNU-commanded forces, the KNU’s Myeik-Dawei District secretary Padoh Saw Ehna said. The Myeik-Dawei District in Tanintharyi Region is territory claimed by the KNU’s Brigade 4, one of seven brigades under KNU command. “One of them is a former junta soldier who had defected to us but has now returned to the junta,” Padoh Saw Ehna said. “The other three who went with him were likely former KTLA fighters who joined us and have now followed him.” Resistance sources also confirmed that a total of six people facing disciplinary or penal action in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region, including one Ye-U Township PDT member, went to join the junta forces on Monday. Aung Thu Win, a member of the Ye-U Township PDT auxiliary unit who was suspended from duty temporarily for stealing and selling ammunition, helped five civilians in custody escape that evening. The group crossed the Mu River and met with junta troops in Kar Boe village tract, Kanbalu Township on the river’s opposite bank. “Six of them were sent to collect firewood that day,” a Ye-U Township PDT officer said, referring to the captive civilians. “Kar Boe village is across the Mu River from our territory, and they crossed the river to reach it. Our fighters were on guard duty, but they didn’t take much notice because the group often went on errands like that and one of our soldiers was accompanying them.” The defecting PDT member Aung Thu Win, who had participated in the armed resistance against military rule for nearly three years, was suspended from his duties earlier this month as a penalty for illicitly selling ammunition, the officer added. The five civilian detainees included two people from Kanbalu Township and two from Ye-U Township accused of links to the military, as well as a fifth person being held for saying he planned to sabotage landmines that the resistance forces were setting at the time. The escapees who fled were reportedly not carrying weapons. “The civilians were unlikely to be the ringleaders,” the PDT officer added. “Had they tried to convince the soldier to flee and he reported them, they could have been killed. It is highly probable that Aung Thu Win led the escape.” Junta propaganda Telegram channels circulated claims that all six of the escapees who joined the junta forces in Kar Boe, Kanbalu Township were members of the People’s Defence Forces (PDF). Most rural areas of Ye-U Township, which contains over 100 villages, are under resistance control. The nearest concentration of junta troops is in Kar Boe village tract across the river. After losing wide swaths of the country to resistance and anti-junta ethnic armed groups between 2023 and 2025—especially during the Operation 1027 offensive led by anti-junta groups in northern Shan State—the military junta has escalated field operations across Myanmar this year in a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing the territory. At the same time, the junta has stepped up psychological warfare methods to encourage defections from resistance groups. Junta-controlled media publicized recently that the regime had returned five resistance members who surrendered to the military’s command headquarters in Magway Region to their families. Regime-run outlets also reported that a coastal command centre had accepted surrenders and the handover of weapons from four resistance members. The command centre held a ceremony to celebrate the return of the fighters to their parents, during which authorities gave rewards of money to the families. KNLA members reportedly surrendering their arms and defecting to the junta’s Coastal Region Command, according to claims posted on pro-junta propaganda channels (Telegram)

Anti-junta fighters defect to Myanmar military regime

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defence Team under the command of the National Unity Government are among those who have changed sides this month

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