War inches closer to Pyin Oo Lwin, a military haven

While most of Myanmar bakes in a scorching heatwave, temperatures have risen only moderately in Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Region, a city 3,000 feet above sea level that is famous for its lush, shady forests, mild weather, and diverse abundance of flowers. The settlement became an unofficial “summer capital” under the British—who gave the hill settlement the name “Maymyo”—and since independence has retained its reputation as a retreat from Mandalay, Yangon, and other lowland cities during the hot season. It is also home to long-established military training facilities including the Defence Services Academy (DSA) founded in 1954, the military’s premier institution for officer training. Until recently, the combined hill resort and garrison town had also been spared from the Myanmar regime’s escalating war with ethnic armed organisations and pro-democracy resistance forces. Heightened security protects high-ranking junta officials’ homes and workplaces in the city, which civilians in surrounding villages often pejoratively refer to as “the military town.” Since last year, however, violence has spread closer to the normally quiet Pyin Oo Lwin, intensifying with the launch of the Operation 1027 offensive by anti-junta ethnic armed organisations in northern Shan State last October. The fighting is concentrated mostly in Nawnghkio Township, located in northern Shan State some 10 miles east of Pyin Oo Lwin. The area has strategic importance due to its proximity to the hill town, as well as to the town of Mogok, also in Mandalay Region, and the Mandalay-Muse highway, a major route for border trade with China. Map showing the location of Pyin Oo Lwin On April 15, the Mandalay People’s Defence Force (MDY- PDF), an anti-junta resistance group, seized a military base in Nawnghkio Township’s Thayet Kone village. The junta deployed ground and air forces in a bid to retake it four days later, prompting local civilians to flee the area as clashes escalated. “Serious battles have been breaking out recently. We will continue our work until we have eliminated the military dictatorship,” an MDY- PDF spokesperson said after the capture of Thayet Kone. Since then, clashes between the junta and resistance forces have continued. A man living in Pyin Oo Lwin’s urban Ye Nge Ward said the sounds of heavy artillery, detonating shells, and airstrikes could be heard distinctly from his neighbourhood. “We can hear loud bangs going off every day. The houses are even shaking. We assume that the war is drawing closer to us,” the local man said. “Some have already fled in fear of battles breaking out. Some have started digging trenches in their backyards to take shelter from bombs. The shops in the countryside are closing early and there’s barely anyone on the streets after 6pm.” The MDY-PDF comprises five battalions of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), the armed wing of the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), a cabinet formed and endorsed by ousted civilian leaders after Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. The PDF operates under the command of the NUG’s ministry of defence. According to a statement released by the NUG, around 60 junta troops had been killed and others injured, while two MDY-PDF members had been killed between April 19 and 25. The junta conducted 32 airstrikes in the same six-day period, according to the statement. A group of anti-junta resistance fighters belonging to the MDY-PDF at a jungle base in Mandalay Region (Supplied) Attacks inside Pyin Oo Lwin The day before attacking and taking over Thayet Kone, the MDY-PDF had also fired directly on targets within the town of Pyin Oo Lwin using 107mm electric charge-activated rocket rounds. While violence inside the town has been rare, this was not the first attack by resistance forces within Pyin Oo Lwin’s urban centre. Another resistance group commanded by the NUG, the local People’s Defence Team (PDT) of Pyin Oo Lwin Township, also carried out an attack inside the town on April 8, firing at least five 105mm artillery rounds onto the DSA campus. The shells fell near a statue at the military academy’s entrance, destroying a portion of the campus wall and a road outside the perimeter, according to local sources. The PDT reportedly attacked the DSA again with heavy artillery shells five days later, inadvertently causing civilian deaths. Locals said the military heightened security around the town after these incidents. “They built more bunkers at the security checkpoint near the DSA at the entrance to the town. There are fully armed soldiers deployed at those bunkers and there are five soldiers on each side of the road,” a driver from Pyin Oo Lwin said. Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing delivers remarks at a Defence Services Academy graduation ceremony in 2023 (Junta Ministry of Information) “The queue at that checkpoint often gets very long. They’re conducting more thorough security searches on the cars. They sometimes patrol around the town in trucks, and there’s a huge number of soldiers inside the airport compound. They’ve also fortified the fences at the front gate of the airport,” he added. Pyin Oo Lwin residents also noted how the recent violence had impacted the economy, which used to thrive with the usual influx of visitors during the hot season. According to data from Myanmar’s ministry of hotels and tourism, more than 20,000 foreign tourists visited Pyin Oo Lwin every year before 2021. However, the numbers plummeted following the military coup, according to an official of the Myanmar Tourism Association, who noted that “hardly any tourists” come to the area anymore, and that residents are being forced to flee. “Before, the real estate business would boom during this season, but now we barely have any visitors or tourists, and no one is buying or selling land. Prices for land have fallen through the floor in Moe Gyo Pyit village, near where the battles are happening,” the Pyin Oo Lwin driver said. Another man, who owns a trishaw, said his livelihood was suffering as a result. “The job doesn’t pay well without any tourists. I’m considering a change for the long term,” he said. Female members of the MDY-PDF stand in formation for a flag raising at their base camp in Namhsan Township, northern Shan State in December 2023 (AFP) Anti-junta offensives While the military’s tight security has deterred all but a few small-scale attacks inside Pyin Oo Lwin, the armed resistance has carried out sustained offensive campaigns for months in surrounding areas. In January of this year, the MDY-PDF took over junta bases in Than Bo village in Nawnghkio Township and in Kyauk Me Lay village in Pyin Oo Lwin, located 21 miles and 15 miles from the town, respectively. They also launched attacks on junta positions in April of last year, beginning with an assault on junta forces stationed near Ho Hko village in Nawnghkio. The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed organisation active in northern Shan State, began providing training, arms, and accommodation to PDF fighters in April, according to a BBC Burmese interview with TNLA spokesperson Tar Bone Kyaw. The initial objective of the subsequent joint offensive by the TNLA and MDY-PDF—dubbed Operation Taung Thaman—was to infiltrate Mandalay, the site of the junta’s central regional military command headquarters, according to an MDY-PDF spokesperson. After nearly 20 days of clashes—during which the junta air force carried out more than 30 airstrikes—the army deployed hundreds of reinforcements to the area. In addition to the heavy casualties among soldiers and resistance fighters, junta shelling during the battles resulted in civilian injuries and the deaths of at least seven villagers living nearby. The junta continued conducting regular airstrikes as fighting carried on into the next few months. TNLA troops at the ceremony for the 59th Ta’ang National Revolution Day on January 15, 2022 (Myat Pan / Myanmar Now) As the TNLA and PDF—including the MDY-PDF—launched another joint offensive campaign called Operation Kanaung, at least 17 battles broke out between July and September near Nawnghkio. Both sides used heavy artillery during these battles and dozens of junta officers including high-ranking commanders were killed, according to a September statement from the MDY- PDF. Photos accompanying the statement showed the bodies of junta soldiers including high-ranking officers, as well as captured weapons, ammunition, and military vehicles. The same month, the MDY-PDF and TNLA launched Operation Moe Lone Hmine in mid-September 2023 and seized two junta bases in Mogok Township. Fierce fighting broke out again in October, with anti-junta forces capturing three more junta bases in Mogok and Nawnghkio by the end of the month. Soon afterwards, the TNLA—a member of the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed groups alongside the Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army—would take over several northern Shan State townships as part of Operation 1027 between October 2023 and January 2024, when a Chinese-brokered ceasefire brought the offensive to a temporary halt. The same ethnic armed organisations attacked Pyin Oo Lwin in August 2019, firing shells at the Defence Services Technological Academy, marking the first time that the military stronghold had been targeted in several years. The act was reportedly in retaliation for Myanmar army offensives in the groups’ respective territories.

War inches closer to Pyin Oo Lwin, a military haven

Persistent anti-junta offensives have brought resistance fighters closer to the ‘military town,’ which has been largely sheltered from the open violence perpetrated by the coup regime throughout the country

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