More than 40 junta-appointed local administrators have resigned in Yedashe Township following a warning issued by the local People’s Defence Force (PDF) earlier this month calling on them to step down from their posts by the end of October.
A photo of the warning was posted by the local PDF on Facebook along with three bullets on October 15.
The administrators who resigned cited health reasons for their departure.
Among those who left were two township-level administrators, a 100-household leader from an urban ward, and several administrators from rural areas.
A member of the Yedashe PDF told Myanmar Now that the group was closely monitoring the administrators who had not resigned.
“We will be engaging in urban guerrilla warfare as soon as possible. We wanted to warn them that we can no longer guarantee the safety of their family members,” a member of the Yedashe PDF told Myanmar Now.
The group will also be further watching the activities of those who did resign, he added, to ensure that they do not continue to covertly maintain ties to the coup regime.
“I appreciate that they took the people’s side, but if they are found to be operating secretly after their resignation, examples will be made out of them,” he added.
A Yedashe resident told Myanmar Now that the military council was reportedly planning to replace the dozens of now vacant administrative positions, and that those who had resigned were no longer authorised to issue necessary travel permission documents to locals.
He added that several people who had participated in past anti-dictatorship protests or who were accused of being PDF members had been arrested recently in Yedashe, allegedly based on intelligence provided to the military authorities by the local administrators.
Myanmar Now tried to contact some of the Yedashe administrators who recently left their positions, but the calls went unanswered.
Yedashe Township—46 miles from the military capital of Naypyitaw—has a total of 17 urban wards, 48 village tracts and 295 villages and is located in Taungoo District.
More than 150 local administrators in Yangon, Sagaing, and Magway regions have resigned from their jobs since the shadow National Unity Government issued the demand as part of its September 7 declaration of war against the junta. Many who quit cited health, family and security concerns in their resignation letters
