Defections have been plaguing the military junta of Burma in ever increasing numbers. From all quarters of the country, soldiers have been abandoning their posts and fleeing into the jungle. The riff between the generals and the soldiers has only widened as soldiers are forced to fend for themselves while the generals count their bounty. Injured soldiers are simply dropped from the ranks to live in abject poverty unable to work. And the chasm is increasing.Though the military many have great numbers many soldiers are indentured for the most part. Soldiers have secretly reported to sources that they are in constant fear for their loved ones safety and are compelled to stay in the military. Others have been forced into the military with similar extortion techniques. Loyalty is not in abundance within the ranks of Than Shwe’s slave army.
Cyclone Nargis was a bountiful windfall for the military according to military sources since many children lost their parents and were orphaned. Recruiting starving children has become the norm and Uncle Than Shwe was more than willing to adopt them into military service. Many children have defected and became a wealth of information since many kids were used in the handling of biological and chemical weaponry. *Child soldiers have reported many kinds of abuse by their adult counterparts since rampant homosexual rapes have occurred within Gen. Than Shwe’s elite fighting forces. Kids who threatened to reveal the conditions have been tortured to death and buried but a few have survived to tell the truth of the atrocities being committed by the regimes cadre.
Than Shwe’s generals are more divided than ever but are also in constant fear for the safety of their loved ones. With Than Shwe ordering his hard core loyalists to spy and even bug the homes of all his generals it is clear he is worried about an internal coup. Ironically even within his most loyal core there is dissention within the ranks. Many generals are simply waiting for Than Shwe to die so they can rid themselves of Than’s loyalists who’ve flaunted their association with Than Shwe in their faces. There is no question when Than Shwe is finally dead there will be a “Night of the Long Knives” as revenge and the power struggle ensues.
His legacy will be ripped from the annals of Burma’s history and his family will no longer have the security blanket they once enjoyed. Architects of a “New Burma” are simply waiting to cease control. Other targets are the western industrialists who’ve been lavished with gifts from Than Shwe causing even more hatred to simmer. Western industrialists have few places to go whence the killing begins since they are equally hated by the people of this enslaved nation.
But nothing underscores the disparity between classes within the ranks as the recent defection of *6 soldiers in Kachin State. They were from the Sarhmaw-based Infantry Battalion (I B ) No. 105 at a military encampment near Loije, Bhamo district where the shooting occurred. A carefully placed shot in the head dispatched their superior officer then they fled. Dozens of troops have abandoned their posts in this region alone and with good reason; many were forced into military service and used as slaves by the elite class who used indentured military personal like cattle. Though these men were in the same army the elite class treated them like the enemy and used them along side villagers to clear out mine fields. Month’s earlier Arakan border cops abandoned thei
