Military council’s foreign minister U Than Swe accused the PDF resistance groups are not confronting with soldiers, but are attacking on unarmed civilians, monks and civilians.
Junta’s foreign minister made this accusation at the informal meeting on Myanmar issue held in Pattaya, Thailand, on 19 June. The meeting was organized by Thai officials.
This interview with spokesperson of Thahtaon district PDF, Aye Min Tun, about the response of PDFs to the accusation of junta council, ongoing armed conflicts throughout the country.
TLT: The military council has accused ethnic armed organizations of giving combat trainings to create armed conflicts in the country. What is your response to this?
Aye Min Tun: It is true that the ethnic armed organizations gave our PDFs the combat trainings. But it is totally wrong that we were emotionally vulnerable young people due to Covid-19 pandemic. We took trainings in our own decision and determination. We staged anti-coup protest peacefully. But the military brutally conducted deadly crackdowns on the protesters. Then, we chose armed revolution.
TLT: The military council said that the country which was peaceful and stable for nearly 50 years was plunged into chaos due to armed struggle. What is your response to this remark?
Aye Min Tun: They said that the country was peaceful and stable for nearly 50 years. If the military did not illegally take power in the coup, this situation would not be seen. If the winner party took office after the elections, these current situations might not happen. The military has pushed the establishment of PDF.
TLT: Foreign affairs minister of the military council accused PDF resistance groups are not confronting with soldiers, but are attacking on unarmed civilians, monks and civilians. What is your resonse to this accusation?
Aye Min Tun: We are conducting armed struggles as we do not like military coup. They illegally took power. So, we target the military council. We never attacked on civilians, monks and civil service personnel. We just fight against the military pillars.
TLT: The military council said they have capacity to defeat our ordinary armed groups easily, but they are carefully controlling armed struggles not to hurt civilians. What do you think about this?
Aye Min Tun: It is nonsense that they can easily crack down our forces. They are liars. We are not ordinary armed groups. Our young fighters are not ordinary fighters who have more capacity than their soldiers. We have more modern technologies. They are fighting against the coup. The military is attacking civilians with heavy weapons into villages, killing people and livestock and damaging villages. They committed all these crimes. No resistance groups or PDFs conducted these atrocities. It is the reality. We have records. We will publish these records in the future. When their camps were raided by our forces, they launched heavy weapons shelling. They always threatened us to carry out heavy weapon attacks if they were hurt. They are the cowards in the battle ground. Their heavy weapon attacks hit civilians in the villages.
TLT: What is your concluding response to the accusations of military council?
Aye Min Tun: If the military illegally took power, the ongoing chaos might not occur, and PDFs might not appear. The country will see peace and development. The country under the administration of civilian government for five years has enjoyed more development than their 50 to 60 years of ruling. The young generation began to enjoy the essence of democracy. At that time, the military coup has forced them to stage peaceful protest. However, they unavoidably chose armed struggle to root out the dictators from the country.
Than Lwin Times