Resistance forces detained 14 members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia on Thursday as the men were en route to the Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township, where they said they would be stationed on a security detail.
Three Salingyi-based guerrilla groups—Alpha Column Company 1, Alpha Special Force and Company 3, and Chindwin Galone Yarzar—carried out the arrests at 11am.
The militia members were reportedly recent graduates of a 25-day training provided by the military’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 308 under the Southwestern Command in Thabaung Township, Ayeyarwady Region, more than 460 miles south of Salingyi.
Images shared by the Chindwin Galone Yarzar force showed a Thabaung militia guidebook, which outlined “ethical principles” for members, confiscated during interrogations.
According to the resistance group’s information officer Htet Naing, most of those detained on Thursday were from Thabaung, and in their 20s and 30s.
When asked why they were travelling to the Letpadaung site, they reportedly said that they were told they would be guarding the mine, which is a joint venture between China’s Wanbao Mining Ltd. company and the Myanmar military-run Myanma Economic Holdings, Ltd.
“They said they were expected to serve as security guards in Wanbao. Those who contacted these militiamen have ties to military veterans,” Htet Naing explained, noting that officers had recruited them from within their communities.
“They gave militiamen training with a gun and the militiamen had to take turns holding the gun one by one,” Htet Naing said, adding that the sessions had been delivered by LIB 308 lieutenants and corporals.
The captives have since been transferred to the People’s Security Team under the home affairs ministry of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG).
“They will be managed in compliance with the law,” Htet Naing said.
Also on Thursday, a 20-year-old policeman who had worked as a security guard at the Letpadaung copper mining project for nearly a year surrendered to another area resistance group, Thaman Kyar.
He told Myanmar Now after defecting that immediately after completing the junta’s police training, he was assigned to work at the Wanbao site, but had not accompanied the 200 troops stationed there on any external operations. Some 180 were policemen from the local Yinmabin District Police Battalion, along with 30 to 50 Myanmar army soldiers, who typically would take the lead in patrolling the area.
He confirmed that regular trainings had been taking place on-site at Letpadaung, with the military teaching militiamen and police how to operate heavy weaponry. Around 10 such programmes had been held during the last year, he added, with around 15 participants in each round.
The policemen described the junta as “actively recruiting” Pyu Saw Htee members to serve on Wanbao’s security team.
According to Thaman Kyar, the morning after the policeman’s defection, Myanmar army soldiers in the area carried out a search of the neighbouring Hpaung Katar village.
Although Wanbao announced in May of last year that the Letpadaung project had been suspended since the February 2021 coup, residents have said that operations appear to be resuming.
More than 40 people living near the mining area in Wet Hmay village were forced from their homes this month after the military occupied and fenced off their community, ordering them to leave. Most members of the community’s 100 households had already vacated the location in 2010 after being made to accept compensation from the then-government in exchange for their lands. It was part of a 7,867-acre confiscation that included more than 5,000 acres of agricultural land to make way for the copper extraction initiative.
Salingyi, where Letpadaung is located, is one of 40 townships in Myanmar under martial law, and is considered a resistance stronghold.
According to an August 10 statement from the Salingyi Township Public Administration Team—which operates under the NUG—more than 400 homes in 13 villages in Salingyi have been burnt down in junta arson attacks, and 17 civilians killed by the troops stationed at the Wanbao site.
