Armed Forces Day: 114 Protesters Killed, Armed Ethnic Seize Myanmar Military Base In Kayin

Arms confiscated from Myanmar military headquarters. (Twitter/@chinmemes)

JAKARTA - The oldest and most influential armed ethnic group in Myanmar, the Karen National Union (KNU) announced that they had succeeded in seizing the Myanmar military regime's Thee Mu Hta military base in Mutraw District (Hpapun), Kayin State.

The attack on the base came as Myanmar's military regime held Armed Forces Day celebrations in the capital Naypyitaw on Saturday morning.

The exact number of casualties from the clashes is not yet known, but photos released by the KNU show at least five bodies and seven prisoners.

The commander of the KNU armed wing 5th Brigade, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Saw Htoo Ka Shaw said his party would fight with the community and students to overthrow Myanmar's fascist dictatorship.

"Their oppression and killing of unarmed civilians throughout Myanmar is against the beliefs of our revolutionary forces. We cannot accept inhuman acts, not only in Kayin State but also in other areas," he said.

"In our area, we don't want the army (to be present). And the army is carrying out such actions. There should be no place on earth for those who commit inhuman acts," he continued.

Separately, Deputy Chief of Staff of the KNLA, Lieutenant General Saw Baw Kyaw Heh, said that all elements of the Myanmar community must fight in whatever way they can.

"This time it must be a decisive revolution. Young people have lost their lives because of their inhuman actions (Myanmar military regime). So we don't want to forgive them," he said.

On March 15, another armed ethnic group, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), seized the regime's Alawbwam base, which is located near Dawhponeyang Town in Momauk City, Kachin State.

Then on Thursday 25 March, they succeeded in seizing the headquarters as well as the foremost strategic post of the Myanmar military which was in the border area with China in the Bhamo District.

The armed ethnic groups KIA and KNU have both stated that they rejected the February 1 military coup, which had drawn massive protests across the country.

Meanwhile, as many as 114 people in 44 cities were killed in the violence perpetrated by the Myanmar military regime throughout Saturday. Most of the victims were in the city of Mandalay, where 11 people died. Launching Reuters, the total death toll since the coup on February 1 reached more than 440 people.

#KNU attacked a Tamadaw camp at Thi Mu Ta this morning. ဒီကနေ့မနက် အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်အုပ်စု၏သီးမူထာတပ်စခမ်းတောင် ​ ကုန်းအား KNU တပ်မဟာ ၅ မှတက်ရောက်သိမ်းပိုက် . #WhatIsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/mqF5cAQ9Nv

— Nimrod from Burma (@NimrodAndrew) March 27, 2021

Myanmar Coup. The VOI editorial team continues to monitor the political situation in that one of the ASEAN member countries. Casualties from civilians continue to fall. Readers can follow the news covering the Myanmar military coup by clicking this link.