‘Inch by inch’: Myanmar rebels close in on key military base in Chin State

Photographs of fallen fighters adorn a wall of a rebel headquarters in Falam township, Chin State, a tribute to some 80 young men, starting with Salai Cung Naw Piang, 28, who was killed in May 2021.

The true toll on the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) extends beyond this hall and grows as war against Myanmar’s military grinds on in Chin State – a Christian region of the country bordering India where ethnic Chin fighters have expelled the military from most of their territory.

In a recent interview with CNDF Vice President Peter Thang, “We will go until the end, inch by inch,” he declared.

The Chin offensive, which was launched in mid-November and is known as “Mission Jerusalem,” has had a significant impact. About 50 CNDF and allied fighters were killed in the first six weeks, some buried alive after direct air strikes by jet fighters of Myanmar’s military regime on earthen bunkers, Thang said.

In the ongoing operation, Thang estimated that there were comparable casualties incurred by Myanmar’s military and more than 100 government soldiers.

The CNDF has encircled the regime’s final garrison in a hilltop base in Falam following the military coup in Myanmar in 2021.

“We are facing a difficult time”, Thang admitted.

He referred to Mission Jerusalem’s ultimate goal as “if God is willing to hand over the enemy, we will take it.”

According to Thang, who ran a travel agency in Yangon prior to the coup, taking and holding Falam, the former capital of Chin State, would also mark the first district center to be taken over by the country’s new rebel forces without the support of established ethnic armies.

“We have more challenges than others”, he said.

“The military has a lot of technology,” he said. We only have a small number of weapons, he continued, and some of them are inoperable.

Hilltop base besieged

About 600 rebels have besieged Falam and the roughly 120 government soldiers who are confined to their hilltop bases on a helicopter to survive, with the CNDF supporting fighters from 15 newly formed armed groups, including those from Myanmar’s ethnic Bamar majority.

Unlike established ethnic armies who are fighting to gain more territory for themselves, the rebel forces massed in Chin State said they aim to overthrow Myanmar’s military regime entirely.

Seizing Falam independently would mark a new chapter of Myanmar’s revolution, despite the CNDF and its allies’ successes in the Chin Brotherhood (CB) coalition’s previous victories against the military with support from the powerful Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State.

The military’s aerial assaults continue to be the biggest challenge in the conflict, though.

Operations against the hilltop base in Falam trigger bombardments from the military’s Russian and Chinese fighter jets, along with rocket-propelled grenades, artillery, sniper and machinegun fire from troops defending the outpost.

According to CNDF commanders, besieged soldiers once had a chance to exchange ideas with locals and had even become married to local Chin women. But that all changed when Myanmar’s security forces shot peaceful protesters demonstrating against the military’s ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021.

Demonstrators fought back, leading to the birth of a bloody uprising.

The first victim, a 19-year-old protester, was Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, who was fatally shot in the head by police in Naypyidaw, the nation’s capital on February 9, 2021.

In April 2021, armed with hunting rifles, the Chin launched the first significant battle of Myanmar’s uprising in Mindat town, which has since been liberated.

The rebels now have grenade launchers and assault rifles. They have the upper hand over the majority of the countryside and a few towns, but they continue to be underhanded as a result of the military’s isolation in the urban centers. Unable to launch ground offensives from their depleted ranks, the regime’s generals have turned to forced conscription and indiscriminate air strikes nationwide.

Since the coup, the military has killed at least 6, 353 civilians, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Observers predict even fiercer fighting this year given that there are at least 3.5 million internally displaced people in the nation, per the UN.

Some people passed away, while others scurried out of control.

According to CNDF defense secretary Olivia Thawng Luai, spouses share a home with some of the soldiers in the nearby hilltop holdout.

“Most soldiers want to leave their base but they are under the commander’s control”, said Olivia Thawng Luai, a former national karate champion. They are not permitted to leave the base or use their phones, she said.

The commander of the besieged base still has his own phone, according to another senior CNDF official, Timmy Htut, and the rebels call him frequently.

“One day he will pick up”, he said. When is he ready?

The military’s unsuccessful attempts to dispatch reinforcements to Falam. Helicopters, facing sheets of gunfire, have dropped conscripted airborne recruits on Falam’s outskirts, ordering them to fight their way into the town. There is no success here.

A captured soldier said his unit was dropped in without a plan, and, under heavy fire and pursued by resistance fighters, they scattered in chaos.

The soldier told Al Jazeera, “Some people died, and others fled in all directions.”

The headquarters reportedly stated that they could not waste their jet-strikes on a select few of us. The military, he continued, has lost “many skilful, valuable” soldiers since the coup.

He claimed that they “did their lives for nothing.”

The military leaders will ultimately hold peace talks, with the possibility of democracy in the end.

Among the people displaced by fighting in Falam, and who are forced to shelter under bridges and tarpaulins, a new generation prepares to fight.

Junior, 15, spoke from an air raid shelter close to the bomb-dropping jets while helping a Chin hospital camp.

Junior remarked, “I’ll do whatever I can.” “There’s no way to study in Myanmar. She said, “I don’t want this to happen to upcoming generations.”

‘ None of you would be alive ‘

The Chin resistance struggles with internal division, too. It has split into two groups: the Chin Brotherhood, which consists of six post-coup resistance groups, including the CNDF, and is led by the Chin National Front (CNNF), which was founded in 1988 with its allies.

Their dispute centres on who shapes Chin’s future – the CNF favouring a dialect-based governance structure, the CB preferring the governing of townships. The distribution of power is determined by the language and the land, which has occasionally resulted in violent clashes between Chin groups due to tribal rivalries and traditional mistrust.

Although mediation efforts by northeast India’s Mizoram authorities are progressing, analyst R Lakher for Myanmar described the division as “serious.”

On February 26, the two rival factions announced they would merge to form the Chin National Council, with a goal of uniting different armed groups under one military leadership and administration.

Lakher praised the development, but added that the process must be “very systematic” and include not just advocacy groups but also key political figures on both sides.

He claimed that “Chin civilians have suffered the most.” “Despite liberation, some cannot return home because of this internal conflict”.

He claimed that taking Falam would be “significant” because Tedim town’s proximity would make it easier for the CB to target and would help them advance in their negotiations with the CNF coalition.

Lakher estimated that Chin State had been liberated for more than 70% of that time.

“We’ve seen the junta being defeated across Myanmar”, he said. However, unity is required for pro-democracy forces.

He claimed that “bring all democratic forces together” was a top priority for the National Unity Government, which is referred to as Myanmar’s shadow government.

“With so many armed groups, there’s concern they’ll fight each other without strong leadership”, he said. While Bamar lands are still under military control, ethnic areas are being liberated. The Bamar people now determine the pace of the revolution.

Two trucks carrying captured regime soldiers passed Chin’s bombed churches, mustard leaf gardens, and mothers cradling babies in heavy shawls along the road leaving Falam town. The agitated prisoners of war claimed they had been made into military service as the trucks crossed paths with resistance fighters heading toward the front.

“You were conscripted five months ago”, a rebel fighter remonstrated with prisoners in the truck. What did you do at the time? he inquired. He then added:” We’ve been fighting the revolution. “

Another rebel participated in the rebuke.

He said, “Count yourself lucky to be captured here,” and not in the country’s harsh central drylands, where rebel units roam freely.

Source: Aljazeera