‘Myanmar military build-up on Mizoram border to target CNA HQ’

AIZAWL: Reports of massive mobilisation of forces by the Myanmar military junta in the Chin State bordering Mizoram came in as the military council, which staged a coup on February 1, was preparing to target the headquarters (HQ) of the Chin National Army (CNA) called “Camp Victoria”.
The Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) opined that the military build-up by the junta at Thantlang, Hakha and Falam townships was aimed at launching an all-out assault on the military headquarters of the CNA.
Sensing the plans of the “Tatmadaw” (Myanmar army), the CNA and the local civil militia groups ambushed the junta soldiers several times in many places and claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties while destroying 16 military vehicles out of 35 trucks along the Hakha-Falam road during the later part of last week.
Sources said there are around 500 combatants at Camp Victoria, situated in the plains and sandwiched by hills with thick forest where hundreds of resistance fighters belonging to the Chinland Defence Force (CDF) and Chin National Defense Force (CNDF) had undergone guerilla training under the CNA fighters.
The CNA, formed in 1988, had waged a war against the Myanmar government demanding the right to self-determination, especially the military junta for over three decades.
The underground group claimed to have over 10,000 fighters across Chin State, Sagaing division and Magway regions in western Myanmar.
“Since the coup, the youths have joined us and we have been imparting training inside Camp Victoria and other places” CNA spokesman Salai Htet Ni said, adding that with the resistance fighters joining the CNA, the total numbers have crossed 10,000.
Camp Victoria’s commander Ceunawl told TOI over phone on Thursday that training of civilians who were taking up arms to fight the junta’s army is still on as more and more people joined the country’s anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
According to Ni, the CNA obtained a copy of secret plans for the attack on Thantlang township as well as extensive details concerning other operations in Chin state from a sergeant clerk named Tin Lian Biak and a driver from the military’s Hakha Tactical Command — both of whom had defected and joined the CDM on October 9.
The CNA leaders said they were ready to face the junta’s military onslaught while the advancing troops were crippled by ambushes by the CNA and the resistance fighters — the CDF and the CNDF combined — while proceeding towards the CNA headquarters.
Meanwhile, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG)’s defence ministry said there were 65 shootouts between the resistance fighters and regime forces in September during which 768 regime soldiers were killed, while 164 civilians lost their lives.