Fearing Of Guerrilla Attacks, Myanmar Military Regime Troops And Their Families Flee From Yangon

JAKARTA - Family members of the Yangon-based military regime troops are worried that the military council may not be able to protect them from the growing guerrilla group presence in the city, according to a police officer.

Speaking to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity, the Yangon Police officer explained that families with links to the Myanmar military regime's security and administration mechanisms moved in greater numbers to the military capital Naypyitaw following an assassination attempt by the resistance against those working for the junta in Yangon.

He cited the April 7 shooting of the deputy governor of the junta-controlled Central Bank, Than Than Swe, and three days later of Major Gaday Phyo Aung, a junta-appointed administrative official for Lanmadaw Township, as increasing the exodus.

The Yangon Regional Command under the Government of National Unity claimed responsibility for the attempt to kill Than Than Swe at his home, naming him one of the group's more than 1.100 administrative and economic targets over the past seven months. Another urban guerrilla group was reported to be behind the fatal shooting of Major Gaday Phyo Aung near Mawtin Harbor.

However, Naypyitaw locals report witnessing an increase in new arrivals over the months.

"Starting January this year, a lot of new people started settling in Naypyitaw," said a taxi driver from the region, noting that most appeared to be family members of military officers, as reported by Myanmar Now, April 25.

Their presence has raised land and house prices in Pobbathiri Township, located in central Naypyitaw, according to local residents. Most of the villages consist of residents with military ties, due to the presence of the Naypyitaw Kodam.

"Real estate prices jumped significantly after so many new settlers arrived. Plots of land in Pobbathiri that no one wanted to buy even for four to five million kyats (2.150 - 2.686 US dollars) have been sold for 20 million kyats (10.748 US dollars)," a 35-year-old man who lives in the village said.

Another local with ties to the military said officers had also moved to Pobbathiri from Mandalay, citing 'security reasons'.

After a series of attacks by defense forces at checkpoints, a junta informant, and even a military convoy in August and September last year, the activity of the resistance movement in Naypyitaw has subsided.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military toppled the elected civilian government, led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, in a coup on February 1 last year.

Suu Kyi remains detained at an undisclosed location in Naypyitaw, facing various criminal charges. After peaceful protests against the junta were targeted in a deadly crackdown in the months that followed, many opponents of the coup regime took up arms in response to the military's efforts to stamp out dissent.

Many political activists and members of the armed resistance were then forced to relocate to liberated areas, under the control of armed ethnic organizations to avoid arrest, torture or death at the hands of the Myanmar army.

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