KNU accuses military of using drones to spy on its bases

The Karen National Union has accused the Tatmadaw of violating the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) by spying on its armed wing with drones.

Soldiers from different battalions of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) have spotted the drones flying above their posts in Karen state’s Hpapon township since September 2018, major Saw Kleh Do from the 5th Brigade told Myanmar Now.

Then in November last year KNLA personnel followed the drones and saw them land at Tatmadaw bases, he added.

“We agreed not to spy on each other during the ceasefire meetings. We are afraid they will abolish the NCA one day, and attack us like before,” he said.

The major’s brigade sent a letter to the Karen State Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee on Tuesday. The letter says Tatmadaw’s actions violated both the NCA and the military code of conduct.

The letter also called for an immediate halt to the Tatmadaw’s actions.

Under the NCA, signed in 2015, the two parties agreed to stop troop movements for territorial control, reconnaissance, recruitment, armed attacks, the laying of mines, acts of violence, destruction of property, and the launching of military offensives in ceasefire areas.

The agreement also forbids any direct or indirect action that may be regarded as hostile or contemptuous.

Maung Maung Latt, a spokesperson for the Tatmadaw’s Mawlamyine-based east command, said he had not been informed of the incidents mentioned in the KNU’s letter.

The Tatmadaw has battalions “everywhere” in the area near the KNU/KNLA’s 5th Brigade, he told Myanmar Now.

“We have to ask the sergeants there about taking (photographs) with drones. We don’t know because (the ceasefire monitoring committee) hasn’t said anything to us,” he said.

A different, national-level Tatmadaw spokesperson later denied the military was spying on ethnic armed groups using drones, but said local Tatmadaw battalions have their own non-combat drones for non-military purposes.

“We already know which armed group have battalions where,” Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team, said in a press conference in Naypyidaw Thursday. “We don’t need to bother taking their photos using drones.”

He said the Tatmadaw had been using devices similar to drones since the 1980s to take aerial photos of forests and dam locations.

Drones were spotted five times between November and December 2019 flying over 1st and 102nd battalions, major Saw Kleh Do said.

Battalion watchmen reported that the drones landed in the military strategic office in Hpapon township and the Tatmadaw-owned Kyarkho camp, he added.