There is widespread opposition in Myanmar’s army to the junta’s brutal crackdown on democracy protesters, with three quarters of soldiers opposed to it but too intimidated to break ranks, according to one of a number of officers to have defected recently.
Captain Lin Htet Aung is one of four junior officers known to have deserted the army and joined those opposed to the February 1 military coup. In interviews with Myanmar journalists he predicted that if unrestricted fighting broke out between the army and democratic forces opposed to it, there would be large-scale defections.
“I think 75 per cent or more military people know that what they are doing is wrong, but they cannot break free,” Lin Htet Aung told Radio Free Asia (RFA). “Members of the security forces are brainwashed into thinking that civilians are terrorists. Most know it’s unfair, but they dare not speak the truth.”
Two other army captains and one navy lieutenant have spoken publicly about their defections. More than 280 police officers, as well as more than two dozen firefighters, fled over the western border with India after refusing orders to shoot protesters.
There are likely to be more who hesitate about making their desertions known, for fear of reprisals against members of their families. Many military personnel live with their families in military compounds, where their movements and morale can be closely monitored, and contact with the outside world restricted.
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“Officers know what is happening but lower-ranking soldiers are not well educated and can’t make effective use of the internet,” Lin Htet Aung said. “We are not allowed to question the chain of command. If we dare to question or refuse, we face consequences . . . such as prison. That’s why commanders on the ground are committing crimes, even though they know it’s wrong.”
More than 700 people have been killed by the security forces since the coup, many of them shot in the head, a tactic that Lin Htet Aung confirmed is deliberate. “What they want is to intimidate the people into submission by blasting heads off,” he said. “That’s their plan.
“They thought the protests would end quickly. But people became more indignant and more resolute. Their plans failed.”
In his interview with RFA, Lin Htet Aung said that he had deserted with a group of his men in mid-March and spent ten days travelling to Myanmar’s border areas, where various ethnic armies have been fighting a long-running war for independence with the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar army is known.
The Committee Representing the National Assembly, which is made up of supporters of the imprisoned democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have declared their plan to bring these ethnic armed groups into a “federal army” to fight for her restoration. Such a military force is a long way off in practice and would face many political and military obstacles. The Tatmadaw enjoys superiority in numbers, training and equipment, and decades of struggle have failed to bring the ethnic groups together in common cause so far.
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If they did unite, however, Lin Htet Aung predicted that there would be more defections from the Tatmadaw. “If fighting began now, only a few [Tatmadaw] soldiers would defend their unit fiercely until the last breath,” he said. “A lot of soldiers would desert.”
Nyi Thuta, another army captain, said: “Anyone who co-operates with the army now is an accessory to their crimes. This is a battle between right and wrong.”
