Notorious military-allied Border Guard Force appears to distance itself from junta

The Myanmar military proxy Border Guard Force (BGF) in Karen State has withdrawn hundreds of its troops from a shared base with the junta, raising questions about shifting loyalties, according to local sources. The base in question is located in Brigade 5 of territory controlled by the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA), according to a source from within the ethnic armed organisation cited in a Monday report by the Thai PBS news group. The location is said to sit opposite Thailand’s Sop Moei District in Mae Hong Son province. The withdrawal of some 300 BGF soldiers follows a January 11 announcement by their commander Saw Chit Thu that he would no longer accept financial support, such as salaries, from the military council, declaring the BGF to be proceeding as “neutral” in the fight against the junta, according to the Thai PBS article. Saw Chit Thu reportedly attended a January 19 meeting with junta information minister Maj-Gen Maung Maung Ohn and the military council’s chief minister for Karen State Saw Myint Oo at his home in Hpa-an Township. Thai PBS suggested that he affirmed he was ending the military support provided by more than a dozen of his BGF battalions. “I think he is making this move in order to protect his personal interests and businesses,” a source close to the BGF told Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity. He speculated that BGF troops may be tempted to “switch sides,” in the battles against the regime, given recent successes by resistance and ethnic armed forces and poor treatment by the junta. “They are not safe on the frontlines anymore as they have been used as the Myanmar military’s human shields,” he explained. “Given the circumstances, it seems [Saw Chit Thu] wants to prevent them from leaving by standing as neutral.” Saw Chit Thu is said to be transferring his troops to and fortifying the BGF’s defences around the notorious Shwe Kokko gambling city in Myawaddy Township on the Thai border. The project has been linked to reports of widespread human trafficking and online scamming, and is jointly operated by Saw Chit Thu’s Chit Lin Myaing Company and the Yatai International Holding Group, registered in Hong Kong. For his role in running Shwe Kokko, Saw Chit Thu was most recently hit by UK, US, and Canadian sanctions last December. Advocacy group Burma Campaign UK welcomed the move, describing the BGF leader as being linked to decades of human rights violations by soldiers under his command, “including recruitment of child soldiers, executions of civilians, torture, forced labour, and arbitrary and indiscriminate attacks on civilians as they fought side by side with the [Myanmar] military.” “In his past capacity as the leader of the DKBA and now at the Border Guard Force, which is under the ultimate control of the [Myanmar] military, Chit Thu has also been involved in drugs, extortion, human trafficking, and corrupt business deals,” Burma Campaign UK said in a statement, referring to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which Saw Chit Thu left in 2010 and taking command of the BGF. Myanmar Now contacted Saw Chit Thu by phone, but he hung up after this reporter introduced herself as such. KNU spokesperson Padoh Mahn Mahn declined to comment directly on the perceived shift by Saw Chit Thu and the BGF away from the military, only describing it as unsurprising and “good news.”

Notorious military-allied Border Guard Force appears to distance itself from junta

The BGF in Karen State, headed by Saw Chit Thu, reportedly withdraws troops from a joint army base, rejects military funds, and declares itself ‘neutral’ in the fight against the regime

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