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Defying the military’s repression of the anti-dictatorship movement in Myanmar, a 24-year old protest leader has been leading rallies in rural Sagaing Region with the help of local defence forces for nearly four months.
The village demonstrations have come to represent not only the widespread public rejection of the junta, but the control over territory that resistance groups have gained throughout northwestern Myanmar.
Frequently at the forefront of these events is Than Kyaw Oo, chair of the Monywa University Student Union and member of the Monywa People’s Strike Committee.
He spoke with Myanmar Now on Tuesday about the need for both civil disobedience and armed resistance, the year ahead for the revolution, and the goal of achieving federal democracy.
Myanmar Now: Why are rallies being held in villages in Sagaing Region? How are the people responding to these events?
Than Kyaw Oo: It’s our duty to protest in Monywa town but we are focusing on the rural areas, because internet access has been cut off in many of these areas and people there may not be up to date with the current political situation.
In many of the places I’ve visited, the majority of the people and community leaders had given up participating in protests and are focusing more on armed resistance. They underestimated protests, in other words.
Over time, we managed to convince them to let us hold a trial rally. At the first rally, we tried to enlighten the people regarding the current political situation. Many civilians typically haven’t had much knowledge of politics, especially about federal democracy, which is our primary goal. That’s why we are trying to share with them what we know.
We explained why we were revolting against the dictatorship, what is currently happening politically, why the people need to come together as one, and why the people are the primary force that drives a revolution. We gave speeches on politics and fearlessness.
They soon began to believe that both armed resistance and protests were equally important in eradicating the dictatorship. The people began to understand that we couldn’t win this fight with armed resistance alone.
MN: What topics do you cover at these rallies?
TKO: Mainly the current political situation. We have recently acquired several political advantages. We talk about the political, military and diplomatic advantages we have over the dictatorship, and how the people’s support has brought several of these advantages.
Although the National Unity Government is acting as the front of the revolution, they’re not the leaders of this revolution. The people are the leaders of the revolution. The only reason we have made it this far is because of the people’s support. We try to focus our talks on that.
We also talk about why we are risking our lives to fight back against the dictatorship, and we tell them that armed resistance is a dangerous path and that we need the unity of the people to win this fight.
MN: Local defence forces are in charge of security at your rallies. What can you tell us about this?
TKO: Before every rally, I have to talk with village defence forces, village administration teams, and village leaders. We need to know what the villagers are like before we start each rally. The important thing is that we can’t just talk about fearlessness. We need to find out how much political knowledge the villagers have beforehand. We also need to find out what challenges the leaders are facing. After gathering all this information, we decide what to talk about.
Every time we meet with these leaders before rallies, they tell us that they will provide security for us and they ask us if they can be armed. We always agree to this as the people are more encouraged if they see the presence of armed resistance forces, so they follow us around in uniforms—armed with their handmade rifles—during our rallies.
MN: The military has been committing atrocities in the villages in Sagaing Region. However, if the local defence forces are providing security for anti-coup rallies and protests, does that mean that the resistance forces now have greater control over the region?
TKO: I’ve asked locals who are influential in these areas, and they have said that the military troops are mostly present in urban areas and outskirts, in order to maintain their administrative mechanisms. They have no control over the rural areas.
Our local defence forces have major control over those rural areas, at least through last year. In early 2022, the military started using the air force to carry out attacks, so that has become quite worrying. Normally, they wouldn’t dare to pass through these parts in cars as they fear getting attacked with explosives. They know that the local defence forces are here.
As well as not having control over rural areas, the military also is losing control of their own government mechanism. The local defence forces have demonstrated to us their influence over the area. One of the reasons why they are providing security for us is to demonstrate the solidarity that exists between the armed resistance forces and the community—not only to the people of Myanmar but also to the international community.
As for the control over the region, I think it’s safe to assume that the resistance forces have 80 to 90 percent control over the regions where they are now present. The military’s air force is really the main thing to worry about.
MN: Do you feel that the revolution will not be successful if there is only armed resistance and no public protests?
TKO: The first thing we need to acknowledge is that the General Strike Committee decided to divide the revolution into two parts. The first part is organising protests and political rallies in order to help make the public politically aware and keep the revolutionary spirit alive.
Another part is armed resistance, which would eventually completely overthrow the dictatorship. As the current chairperson of the Monywa Strike Committee, I deal with the on-the-ground matters. In every rally, I try to emphasise the fact that no organisation can exist for very long without the support and trust of the people. The people’s trust is the only thing that is keeping the defence forces going. The same thing could be said about local defence forces in various villages.
The armed resistance cannot achieve its goals without the support of the people. The people need to back the armed resistance for it to thrive. Once people start losing faith in the revolution, the concept of the revolution itself will start to fall apart. Another obvious example is that without funding from the people, the resistance forces will no longer be able to fight.
We are just trying to keep the people’s revolutionary spirit alive. We need to instil a type of mental strength within the people that cannot be shattered by the military’s oppression. As the people’s hatred of the military grows, the military fears that more people will join the revolution.
MN: What do the locals think about the local defence forces and People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) that accompany you to these rallies?
TKO: They greet and welcome them wholeheartedly. They regard the defence force members as the ‘people’s soldiers,’ or people that put their lives on the line for the well-being of civilians.
The public understands that the local defence force members, including those in the PDF, are not getting paid and that they are living off of donations. They understand that they are trying their best, using whatever weapons they can get with these donations. That’s why people love and care for them.
MN: What do people say is their reason for revolting against the military council?
TKO: They don’t say much apart from the fact that they can’t stand being oppressed by the military. The military is committing atrocious crimes. The people have said that the only way to defeat the military council is through armed resistance because ‘their skulls are too thick’ to understand diplomacy.
They know how good things were during the administration of the government elected by the people. We had a five-year democracy, after all. People are able to compare the situation then with the situation now. It’s clear why they are revolting against the dictatorship: they don’t like to stand by and watch as the military commits atrocities. There’s no other reason.
MN: Children and senior citizens are also in attendance at your rallies. Can you comment on the ages of the people present?
TKO: I found that senior citizens are very highly motivated. They have even said that they need to fight back against the military that has been terrorising the whole country and has no humanity. Elderly men have said they are ready to give their lives, armed only with a sword.
Sometimes I even cry during these rallies, because of the contrast between the people living in cities and cronies that are only donating to the revolutionary forces to protect themselves, and the elderly people in the rural areas that are ready to risk their lives for this cause.
MN: It has been nearly one year since the military staged the coup. As a protest leader, what would you like to say to the people at this time?
TKO: I think it’s safe to say that the revolution is progressing as expected. People are still protesting in major cities. Even if there are no protest mobs, there are still small flash mob groups.
This just highlights that the people have been winning in the 2021 Spring Revolution. As our leaders have always said, this is a game where we bet our lives. If we lose, we will have no life or future to return to.
We can see this in the way that the military has been terrorising the country. If they lose, they’d lose everything too, including their own lives. That’s why they are not going to hold back in this fight, as it could destroy their lives, as well. In other words, both sides are wagering their own lives in this game.
The people of the country will have to go through much more suffering… so many more bad things are yet to come. I say this not because I want to discourage the people but so that they are able to prepare for the worst.
Last year, the people won. We need more of their support this year to continue fighting. The only reason we are winning today is because of this support. The armed resistance is becoming stronger because of the people’s support.
We need to sit tight and keep fighting. We need all of our bodies and souls to win this fight. This is the only way to achieve federal democracy.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
www.myanmar-now.org
Iranian planes landing in Myanmar have raised speculation of secretive military-to-military cooperation, including possible sensitive Iranian weapons sales amid rising international calls to impose an arms embargo on the rights-abusing junta.
Diplomatic sources based in Southeast Asia who requested anonymity said that an Iranian delegation that landed in Myanmar on January 13 was either the second or third to visit since the military seized power and suspended democracy in a February 1, 2021, coup.
Iran is accused of providing military equipment and weapons to several repressive regimes, as well as to Tehran-aligned belligerents in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars. But Iran is not known to have military ties to Myanmar, which relies mostly on Russia and China as well as India for its armaments.
Moreover, in 2017, the deputy head of the Iranian Parliament called for the creation of joint military forces by Muslim countries to stop Myanmar military violence against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims that has driven hundreds of thousands into neighboring Bangladesh and the United Nations has said could constitute “genocide.”
According to data on Flightradar24, a plane owned by the Iranian cargo airline Qeshm Fars Air flew from Mashhad, Iran’s second-biggest city, to Myanmar last Thursday. The plane returned to Iran from Myanmar the following day, the flight tracker data reveals.
“This is the second time I have noticed an Iran flight. It is understood [to be] communication related to military technology,” Zin Mar Aung, foreign minister of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), told Asia Times.
“Military relations between [Myanmar’s] military junta, which seeks to adopt a military authoritarianism, and a country like Iran can be said to be a worrying situation, not only for atrocities against the Myanmar people but also from a regional and international security perspective,“ she added.
In 2019, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Qeshm Fars Air for allegedly transporting weapons to Tehran-backed groups in the Syrian civil war on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Qods Force (IRGC-QF), a military unit specialized in unconventional warfare.
In announcing the sanctions, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control specified two Qeshm Fars Air-owned aircraft of concern, one of which, with the registration “EP-FAA”, appears to have been the plane that flew to Myanmar last week, according to flight tracker services.
Qeshm Fars Air, which originally operated as a commercial airline between 2006 and 2013, restarted operations in 2017, and its fleet of two B747 aircraft have operated regular cargo flights to Damascus, delivering cargo, including weapons shipments, on behalf of the IRGC-QF, the US sanctions order said, warning those who provide support to the airline risk sanctions themselves.
The Irrawaddy, a local news outfit, reported before the coup in early January 2020 that an Iranian plane had briefly stopped at Naypyidaw’s airport that month. Sources then told the newspaper that it may have been delivering military cargo.
Asia Times has not been able to find reports in Iranian media of the visits to Myanmar by Iranian delegations since the coup, nor confirm the purpose of the Iranian delegation visiting Myanmar last week.
However, Asia Times has seen what appears to be a list of names of the Iranian visitors on last week’s delegation, as well as those who visited some months ago.
An Iranian analyst, who also requested anonymity, said that some of the names are the same as Iranian individuals with links to the military, including to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Asia Times could not immediately confirm independently whether they are the same people.
Nor is clear what type of weaponry Iran could offer Myanmar that would give the Tatmadaw a potential new edge in its confrontation with a burgeoning anti-coup popular resistance, including new People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) that are attacking the junta across the country.
Sources monitoring the recent Iranian flights suggest Tehran may be offering to provide Myanmar’s junta with guided missiles, a procurement that would raise eyebrows in neighboring nations including Thailand and India. The junta has increasingly used aerial bombardments and helicopter-borne gun attacks against resistance forces.
More than 1,400 civilians have been killed by security forces since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights group. Reports of military torture, rape and executions are commonplace on Myanmar social media.
The NUG, a shadow government set up last April by ousted parliamentarians and civil-society groups, declared a “people’s defensive war” in September and has called for armed resistance against the junta.
The European Union has proposed a binding international arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the coup and post-coup abuses. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution last year calling on all states to “to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar.”
However, analysts reckon that it will be difficult to stop the sale of munitions and equipment to the junta even if an embargo is imposed, which seems unlikely.
“China and Russia, the two largest providers [of weaponry], are likely to block any UN Secretary Council resolution or abstain,” said Hunter Marston, a researcher on Southeast Asia at the Australian National University.
Some NUG members have said that an international embargo should only be imposed on arms sales to the junta and not its supporters.
At the same time, there are rising calls for democratic Western countries to supply weapons to outgunned anti-junta forces, who are currently relying on ethnic armed organizations and other groups along the border with Thailand for their until now meager arms.
asiatimes.com
The village demonstrations have come to represent not only the widespread public rejection of the junta, but the control over territory that resistance groups have gained throughout northwestern Myanmar.
Frequently at the forefront of these events is Than Kyaw Oo, chair of the Monywa University Student Union and member of the Monywa People’s Strike Committee.
He spoke with Myanmar Now on Tuesday about the need for both civil disobedience and armed resistance, the year ahead for the revolution, and the goal of achieving federal democracy.
Myanmar Now: Why are rallies being held in villages in Sagaing Region? How are the people responding to these events?
Than Kyaw Oo: It’s our duty to protest in Monywa town but we are focusing on the rural areas, because internet access has been cut off in many of these areas and people there may not be up to date with the current political situation.
In many of the places I’ve visited, the majority of the people and community leaders had given up participating in protests and are focusing more on armed resistance. They underestimated protests, in other words.
Over time, we managed to convince them to let us hold a trial rally. At the first rally, we tried to enlighten the people regarding the current political situation. Many civilians typically haven’t had much knowledge of politics, especially about federal democracy, which is our primary goal. That’s why we are trying to share with them what we know.
We explained why we were revolting against the dictatorship, what is currently happening politically, why the people need to come together as one, and why the people are the primary force that drives a revolution. We gave speeches on politics and fearlessness.
They soon began to believe that both armed resistance and protests were equally important in eradicating the dictatorship. The people began to understand that we couldn’t win this fight with armed resistance alone.
MN: What topics do you cover at these rallies?
TKO: Mainly the current political situation. We have recently acquired several political advantages. We talk about the political, military and diplomatic advantages we have over the dictatorship, and how the people’s support has brought several of these advantages.
Although the National Unity Government is acting as the front of the revolution, they’re not the leaders of this revolution. The people are the leaders of the revolution. The only reason we have made it this far is because of the people’s support. We try to focus our talks on that.
We also talk about why we are risking our lives to fight back against the dictatorship, and we tell them that armed resistance is a dangerous path and that we need the unity of the people to win this fight.
MN: Local defence forces are in charge of security at your rallies. What can you tell us about this?
TKO: Before every rally, I have to talk with village defence forces, village administration teams, and village leaders. We need to know what the villagers are like before we start each rally. The important thing is that we can’t just talk about fearlessness. We need to find out how much political knowledge the villagers have beforehand. We also need to find out what challenges the leaders are facing. After gathering all this information, we decide what to talk about.
Every time we meet with these leaders before rallies, they tell us that they will provide security for us and they ask us if they can be armed. We always agree to this as the people are more encouraged if they see the presence of armed resistance forces, so they follow us around in uniforms—armed with their handmade rifles—during our rallies.
MN: The military has been committing atrocities in the villages in Sagaing Region. However, if the local defence forces are providing security for anti-coup rallies and protests, does that mean that the resistance forces now have greater control over the region?
TKO: I’ve asked locals who are influential in these areas, and they have said that the military troops are mostly present in urban areas and outskirts, in order to maintain their administrative mechanisms. They have no control over the rural areas.
Our local defence forces have major control over those rural areas, at least through last year. In early 2022, the military started using the air force to carry out attacks, so that has become quite worrying. Normally, they wouldn’t dare to pass through these parts in cars as they fear getting attacked with explosives. They know that the local defence forces are here.
As well as not having control over rural areas, the military also is losing control of their own government mechanism. The local defence forces have demonstrated to us their influence over the area. One of the reasons why they are providing security for us is to demonstrate the solidarity that exists between the armed resistance forces and the community—not only to the people of Myanmar but also to the international community.
As for the control over the region, I think it’s safe to assume that the resistance forces have 80 to 90 percent control over the regions where they are now present. The military’s air force is really the main thing to worry about.
MN: Do you feel that the revolution will not be successful if there is only armed resistance and no public protests?
TKO: The first thing we need to acknowledge is that the General Strike Committee decided to divide the revolution into two parts. The first part is organising protests and political rallies in order to help make the public politically aware and keep the revolutionary spirit alive.
Another part is armed resistance, which would eventually completely overthrow the dictatorship. As the current chairperson of the Monywa Strike Committee, I deal with the on-the-ground matters. In every rally, I try to emphasise the fact that no organisation can exist for very long without the support and trust of the people. The people’s trust is the only thing that is keeping the defence forces going. The same thing could be said about local defence forces in various villages.
The armed resistance cannot achieve its goals without the support of the people. The people need to back the armed resistance for it to thrive. Once people start losing faith in the revolution, the concept of the revolution itself will start to fall apart. Another obvious example is that without funding from the people, the resistance forces will no longer be able to fight.
We are just trying to keep the people’s revolutionary spirit alive. We need to instil a type of mental strength within the people that cannot be shattered by the military’s oppression. As the people’s hatred of the military grows, the military fears that more people will join the revolution.
MN: What do the locals think about the local defence forces and People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) that accompany you to these rallies?
TKO: They greet and welcome them wholeheartedly. They regard the defence force members as the ‘people’s soldiers,’ or people that put their lives on the line for the well-being of civilians.
The public understands that the local defence force members, including those in the PDF, are not getting paid and that they are living off of donations. They understand that they are trying their best, using whatever weapons they can get with these donations. That’s why people love and care for them.
MN: What do people say is their reason for revolting against the military council?
TKO: They don’t say much apart from the fact that they can’t stand being oppressed by the military. The military is committing atrocious crimes. The people have said that the only way to defeat the military council is through armed resistance because ‘their skulls are too thick’ to understand diplomacy.
They know how good things were during the administration of the government elected by the people. We had a five-year democracy, after all. People are able to compare the situation then with the situation now. It’s clear why they are revolting against the dictatorship: they don’t like to stand by and watch as the military commits atrocities. There’s no other reason.
MN: Children and senior citizens are also in attendance at your rallies. Can you comment on the ages of the people present?
TKO: I found that senior citizens are very highly motivated. They have even said that they need to fight back against the military that has been terrorising the whole country and has no humanity. Elderly men have said they are ready to give their lives, armed only with a sword.
Sometimes I even cry during these rallies, because of the contrast between the people living in cities and cronies that are only donating to the revolutionary forces to protect themselves, and the elderly people in the rural areas that are ready to risk their lives for this cause.
MN: It has been nearly one year since the military staged the coup. As a protest leader, what would you like to say to the people at this time?
TKO: I think it’s safe to say that the revolution is progressing as expected. People are still protesting in major cities. Even if there are no protest mobs, there are still small flash mob groups.
This just highlights that the people have been winning in the 2021 Spring Revolution. As our leaders have always said, this is a game where we bet our lives. If we lose, we will have no life or future to return to.
We can see this in the way that the military has been terrorising the country. If they lose, they’d lose everything too, including their own lives. That’s why they are not going to hold back in this fight, as it could destroy their lives, as well. In other words, both sides are wagering their own lives in this game.
The people of the country will have to go through much more suffering… so many more bad things are yet to come. I say this not because I want to discourage the people but so that they are able to prepare for the worst.
Last year, the people won. We need more of their support this year to continue fighting. The only reason we are winning today is because of this support. The armed resistance is becoming stronger because of the people’s support.
We need to sit tight and keep fighting. We need all of our bodies and souls to win this fight. This is the only way to achieve federal democracy.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
‘We can’t win this fight with armed resistance alone’
A protest leader from Monywa describes how anti-dictatorship sentiments in rural Sagaing are strengthening and junta control over the region is diminishing
www.myanmar-now.org
Iranian planes landing in Myanmar have raised speculation of secretive military-to-military cooperation, including possible sensitive Iranian weapons sales amid rising international calls to impose an arms embargo on the rights-abusing junta.
Diplomatic sources based in Southeast Asia who requested anonymity said that an Iranian delegation that landed in Myanmar on January 13 was either the second or third to visit since the military seized power and suspended democracy in a February 1, 2021, coup.
Iran is accused of providing military equipment and weapons to several repressive regimes, as well as to Tehran-aligned belligerents in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars. But Iran is not known to have military ties to Myanmar, which relies mostly on Russia and China as well as India for its armaments.
Moreover, in 2017, the deputy head of the Iranian Parliament called for the creation of joint military forces by Muslim countries to stop Myanmar military violence against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims that has driven hundreds of thousands into neighboring Bangladesh and the United Nations has said could constitute “genocide.”
According to data on Flightradar24, a plane owned by the Iranian cargo airline Qeshm Fars Air flew from Mashhad, Iran’s second-biggest city, to Myanmar last Thursday. The plane returned to Iran from Myanmar the following day, the flight tracker data reveals.
“This is the second time I have noticed an Iran flight. It is understood [to be] communication related to military technology,” Zin Mar Aung, foreign minister of the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), told Asia Times.
“Military relations between [Myanmar’s] military junta, which seeks to adopt a military authoritarianism, and a country like Iran can be said to be a worrying situation, not only for atrocities against the Myanmar people but also from a regional and international security perspective,“ she added.
In 2019, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Qeshm Fars Air for allegedly transporting weapons to Tehran-backed groups in the Syrian civil war on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s Qods Force (IRGC-QF), a military unit specialized in unconventional warfare.
In announcing the sanctions, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control specified two Qeshm Fars Air-owned aircraft of concern, one of which, with the registration “EP-FAA”, appears to have been the plane that flew to Myanmar last week, according to flight tracker services.
Qeshm Fars Air, which originally operated as a commercial airline between 2006 and 2013, restarted operations in 2017, and its fleet of two B747 aircraft have operated regular cargo flights to Damascus, delivering cargo, including weapons shipments, on behalf of the IRGC-QF, the US sanctions order said, warning those who provide support to the airline risk sanctions themselves.
The Irrawaddy, a local news outfit, reported before the coup in early January 2020 that an Iranian plane had briefly stopped at Naypyidaw’s airport that month. Sources then told the newspaper that it may have been delivering military cargo.
Asia Times has not been able to find reports in Iranian media of the visits to Myanmar by Iranian delegations since the coup, nor confirm the purpose of the Iranian delegation visiting Myanmar last week.
However, Asia Times has seen what appears to be a list of names of the Iranian visitors on last week’s delegation, as well as those who visited some months ago.
An Iranian analyst, who also requested anonymity, said that some of the names are the same as Iranian individuals with links to the military, including to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Asia Times could not immediately confirm independently whether they are the same people.
Nor is clear what type of weaponry Iran could offer Myanmar that would give the Tatmadaw a potential new edge in its confrontation with a burgeoning anti-coup popular resistance, including new People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) that are attacking the junta across the country.
Sources monitoring the recent Iranian flights suggest Tehran may be offering to provide Myanmar’s junta with guided missiles, a procurement that would raise eyebrows in neighboring nations including Thailand and India. The junta has increasingly used aerial bombardments and helicopter-borne gun attacks against resistance forces.
More than 1,400 civilians have been killed by security forces since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights group. Reports of military torture, rape and executions are commonplace on Myanmar social media.
The NUG, a shadow government set up last April by ousted parliamentarians and civil-society groups, declared a “people’s defensive war” in September and has called for armed resistance against the junta.
The European Union has proposed a binding international arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the coup and post-coup abuses. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution last year calling on all states to “to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar.”
However, analysts reckon that it will be difficult to stop the sale of munitions and equipment to the junta even if an embargo is imposed, which seems unlikely.
“China and Russia, the two largest providers [of weaponry], are likely to block any UN Secretary Council resolution or abstain,” said Hunter Marston, a researcher on Southeast Asia at the Australian National University.
Some NUG members have said that an international embargo should only be imposed on arms sales to the junta and not its supporters.
At the same time, there are rising calls for democratic Western countries to supply weapons to outgunned anti-junta forces, who are currently relying on ethnic armed organizations and other groups along the border with Thailand for their until now meager arms.
What is Iran's Revolutionary Guard doing in Myanmar? - Asia Times
Iranian planes landing in Myanmar have raised speculation of secretive military-to-military cooperation, including possible sensitive Iranian weapons
asiatimes.com
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Myanmar fighter jet crashes into lake, killing pilot
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Myanmar Fighter Crash
Recovery workers recover wreckage in a lake where a jet fighter crashed in the Sagaing region of Myanmar Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. The jet crashed into the lake Wednesday during a training flight in the country's northwest due to a malfunction, state-run media reported. (Khit Thit Media via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Wed, February 16, 2022, 1:05 PM·2 min read
BANGKOK (AP) — A Myanmar fighter jet on Wednesday crashed into a lake in the country’s northwest, state-run media reported, blaming the incident on a technical malfunction.
The crash took place in a region where there is active combat between Myanmar's army and forces opposed to army rule. The military later said in a statement the pilot had died.
State-run MRTV said the plane crashed into a lake 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the town of Sagaing. The jet lost contact with a military air base at Tada-U in neighboring Mandalay Region at 10:43 a.m. as it was beginning its training maneuvers, the report said.
A local rescue worker said body parts found at the crash site were taken away by a military helicopter. He said the crashed plane was a Chinese-made model, painted in the standard blue color favored by the air force.
The rescue worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said there were no reports of casualties on the ground.
A local resident, who also asked that his name not be used to avoid recriminations from the government, said villagers heard a “very loud” sound of the plane crashing near the southeastern shore of the lake.
Sagaing Region — one of seven administrative regions in Myanmar, plus its capital city — is a stronghold of armed resistance to the ruling military, which seized power in February last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Opposition to the takeover was initially peaceful, but the use of lethal force by the authorities escalated the conflict to what some some U.N. experts have described as a civil war.
Major offenses by the military, including air strikes, have driven many thousands of people from their homes and caused an unknown number of civilian casualties.
Most combat aircraft in Myanmar’s military come from China or Russia, which also supply other armaments. Many Western nations maintain an arms embargo, in addition to other sanctions.
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