Next to India border, a camp to take on Myanmar junta

 Synopsis

The CNF leader, now in Aizawl, said the civilians from the Chin state and Sagaing division, who have taken up arms against the military junta, under the umbrella organisation called “Chindland Defence Force” (CDF), travelled far to reach Camp Victoria, just across the Farkawn village on the Indian side.

A Chin National Army camp in Myanmar across the Mizoram border

Chin National Army (CNA) cadres have been imparting arms training to civilians fighting the Myanmar military at the former’s “liberated area” called Camp Victoria on the banks of the Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiau, a high-ranking member of the Chin National Front (CNF), CNA’s political wing, confirmed on Tuesday.

The CNF leader, now in Aizawl, said the civilians from the Chin state and Sagaing division, who have taken up arms against the military junta, under the umbrella organisation called “Chindland Defence Force” (CDF), travelled far to reach Camp Victoria, just across the Farkawn village on the Indian side.

The “new recruits” refused to accept the camp’s CNA top brass’s contention that they could not give training due to the pandemic and the latter insisted that they should be trained to fight the Myanmar military which staged a coup d’etat on February 1. The CNF leader said that the CDF cadres were hell-bent that they should undergo “urban guerilla training” to fight back the Myanmar military or the “Tatmadaw” which is not only extremely brutal, but expert in fighting a plethora of ethnic insurgent groups since 1948, when Myanmar, then Burma, got its independence from Britain.

CNF leaders said the CNF/CNA’s revived movement after the military coup and Chinland Defence Force, which are also being trained at Camp Victoria, was led by the exiled Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG). The exiled administration is a loose alliance of anti-junta forces and has no command or control authority over the armed groups inside Myanmar itself.

The CNA’s Camp Victoria leadership had a close call earlier when the Tatmadaw tried to enter the camp and inspect whether Myanmar refugees, a majority of them belonging to police and fire service, were being harboured in the “liberated area”. “We warned the Myanmar soldiers that if they enter the Camp Victoria, established after the Nation-wide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signed in 2015, we would open fire,” the CNF leader said. The NCA was signed by the then Myanmar President Thein Sein and the signing was witnessed by observers and delegates from the UN, the UK, Norway, Japan and the US.

Officials in Mizoram said that at least 13,000 refugees from Myanmar, who had fled their country due to the coup, remained in Mizoram even after around 3,200 refugees returned to Myanmar due to the severe Covid situation.