One year since the launch of Operation 1027
DVB data states that resistance forces have seized control of 85 towns nationwide since the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State on Oct. 27, 2023. This includes Lashio, northern Shan State’s largest city, where the Northeastern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters was seized by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on Aug. 3.
“At the end of October 2023 [Operation 1027] dramatically shifted the conflict dynamics in Myanmar, resulting in a string of humiliating defeats for the Myanmar military and putting it on the back foot across much of the country,” said Richard Horsey, the senior Myanmar advisor at International Crisis Group.
The Brotherhood Alliance includes the MNDAA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA). The AA launched its offensive in Arakan State on Nov. 13, 2023, with it now closing in on the Western RMC in Ann Township, which is located around 199 miles (320 km) southeast of the Arakan capital Sittwe.
Stay tuned to DVB English News for more on the one year of conflict since the start of Operation 1027.
Myanmar Kyat plummets after Chinese border closures
The U.S. dollar exchange rate, which was 4,650 kyat per dollar on Oct. 24, rose to 4,800 kyat after Chinese authorities restricted trade through gates along the Burma-China border in Shan and Kachin states on Oct. 25. The Yangon Region Gold Entrepreneurs Association urged caution around rumors of rising gold prices linked to dollar scarcity caused by the border closures.
“There is dollar price manipulation related to the Chinese border closures, pushing the rate to 4,750 kyat today, which has also increased gold prices. The Yangon Region Gold Entrepreneurs Association advises against believing these rumors,” said a statement released by the association.
The exchange rate of the kyat, which had been strengthening since August, began depreciating last week. Beijing claims that it had suspended trade with Burma over the past month due to “security concerns.” The Brotherhood Alliance and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have seized control of most border gates in northern Shan and Kachin states since Oct. 27, 2023.
Over 100 elderly political prisoners lack adequate healthcare
Over 123 elderly political prisoners, including 39 National League for Democracy (NLD) party members, are being detained in prisons nationwide since the coup without adequate healthcare, according to the NLD Central Executive Committee.
“They face daily life-threatening conditions in prison due to inadequate basic healthcare, proper accommodation, food, and medicine,” Kyaw Htwe, an NLD Central Executive Committee member, told DVB. The NLD has documented that at least 107 of its members have been killed and 2,181 have been arrested since the 2021 military coup, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
At least 1,497 NLD members remain behind bars. Kyaw Htwe expressed particular concern about the health condition of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is 79 and being held incommunicado by the regime in Naypyidaw. Senior NLD officials, including jailed Mandalay Chief Minister and NLD vice-chair Zaw Myint Maung, have either died in prison or upon release on “medical grounds” without receiving adequate medical care.
News by Region
CHIN—The People’s Police Force Zoland and People’s Defense Force (PDF) Zoland claim they destroyed over 20 acres of poppy fields in Tedim Township, located around 117 miles (188 km) north of the Chinland capital Hakha, on Oct. 22-23. Both groups are affiliated with the Zomi Federal Union, a resistance group that administers villages in Tedim Township.
“Cultivation has notably increased after the coup. We learned that some businesspeople are involved, but we don’t know who they’re selling to. The field owners did not respond to our warnings,” a People’s Police Force Zoland spokesperson told DVB. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated that Burma has become the world’s largest producer of opium.
MANDALAY—The regime filed four charges against Nay Soe Maung, a retired colonel and son-in-law of former dictator Than Shwe, after he was arrested in Pyigyitagon Township on Oct. 23. The charges include unrest, sedition, terrorism, and using social media to “threaten the stability of the state.”
“At first, we thought he was charged only with [incitement], but members of the Office of the Chief of Military Security Affairs filed four charges against him on the night of his arrest,” a source close to the Pyigyitagon Police Station told DVB on the condition of anonymity. The regime’s Ministry of Commerce and Mandalay Region government declined to confirm the charges to DVB.
MAGWAY—A resistance group calling itself the Yaw Revolutionary Army Htilin stated that it recovered the bodies of five men that were killed by the military in Kyakhae village of Htilin Township, located around 190 miles (306 km) north of the Magway Region capital, on Saturday.
“Four of them were arrested and burned to death while the other man was shot dead during the early morning,” a spokesperson of the group told DVB. Kyaekhae residents claimed that an unknown number of military personnel were killed by resistance groups after they left the village on the same day.
SHAN—One civilian was killed and an unknown number of buildings were destroyed during airstrikes conducted by the Burma Air Force on Lashio and Hsenwi townships of northern Shan State, which are both under the control of the MNDAA, on Friday.
“One of the bombs dropped by two fighter jets landed on a factory near Lashio town, killing one civilian instantly,” a Lashio resident told DVB. Seven civilians have been killed by airstrikes in Lashio over the last week. At least 30 airstrikes have been carried out by the Air Force since August.
Read: Beyond the military’s spin: Understanding Myanmar’s revolution by James Shwe.
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