“Young people want to defend themselves from repression and arbitrary killings and we are not stopping them, instead we will help as much as we can … They understand the NUG stance and have finally decided they must do something.”

“The people understand that … they cannot rely on international assistance or mediation, as the has done nothing, even after more than a thousand people have been killed for no reason. They have clearly realized they must fend for themselves,” he said.

KNU foreign affairs officer Pado Saw Tawney said fighting has intensified because the people of Myanmar realize that-more than seven months after the junta seized power-nobody is going to come to their rescue. The Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Chin National Front (CNF), Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), have stepped up military operations in the areas where they operate, their spokesmen told RFA’s Myanmar Service on Tuesday. Two weeks on, fighting has ticked up in Karen, Kachin, Kayah, Chin and northern Shan states – all home to ethnic armies that have been at odds with the central government long before the Feb.

He called on the numerous branches of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias and EAOs to “target the military and their support pillars to take control of their regions,” while also urging “all levels of local administrators to stop working immediately.” 7, Duwa Lashi La, interim president of the five-month-old NUG, declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). Attacks on the military have seen a significant increase in wide swathes of Myanmar in the two weeks since the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the junta, ethnic army representatives said Tuesday.

Total annihilation free