■ Nway Oo Myaing
These days, the military council is reviving and terrorizing the people with an obsolete strategy of "instilling fear and subjugation" by bombing villages in our Myaing and Pauk townships, launching ground columns, and burning down villages.
Having burned down over 10,000 houses and killed no less than 40 civilians in towns and at least 13 villages in Pakokku Township's Myaitchay, they are now applying the exact same methods. This is no new method; it is merely the same failed tactic practiced by successive dictatorial eras.
Subsequently, a military column of over 700 troops headed toward the oilfields of Pauk and Myaing, burning down over 504 residential houses and killing no less than 50 civilians between June, July, August, and September—a destructive campaign that continues to this day.
Re-employing their old "four cuts" method to arrest and slaughter civilians is, in reality, a clear display of just how much they are losing.
One could say this is a psychological warfare campaign conducted by the military council to mask their defeats on the ground and to crush the morale of the general public.
Through this psychological warfare of the military council, countless lives and homes across the Dry Zone (Anya region) have been ground into dust.
In truth, they know full well and with certainty that the people they kill, burn, and bomb from aircraft are civilians residing in civilian villages. Because they know this, their actions are deliberate; they are committing these acts in full awareness that they are crimes.
Their sole objective in employing this failed, antiquated method is to leave behind a brutal message: "This is what happens if you harbor revolutionary groups." They are violating military laws and carrying out these destructions with great effort to manufacture panic among frightened citizens and drive a wedge between the public and revolutionary groups.
When tens of thousands of war refugees, forced to flee from burned villages, are tracked down, fed, and cared for by various revolutionary and civil society organizations, it serves as a trap to burden revolutionary groups with immense social and logistical responsibilities in addition to military duties. Through this method, they attempt to exhaust and disperse the revolutionary forces.
Beyond these tactics, relying on airstrikes, heavy artillery, and ground columns to burn villages is also a silent admission of the military council's biggest weakness: an acute shortage of ground infantry troops.
Therefore, when they cannot control or dominate a territory, they reduce villages to ashes under the guise of "abandoning the territory" so that revolutionary groups cannot establish bases or take cover, before retreating.
When villagers return to their respective villages after the troops have departed, being greeted at the entrance by piles of smoldering ashes is an experience so agonizing that it feels as though one's heart is being grated with a blunt knife. This is precisely the sensation the military council wishes to inflict. It is a form of psychological torture meant to ensure that the people, having suffered such anguish, will not dare to participate in or support the revolution in any form.
However, the truth that the military council fails to grasp is that the people do the exact opposite of what the regime desires, dedicating their entire lives to supporting the revolution.
The actions of the military council—successively burning villages, arresting and killing civilians, and bombing from the air—are not acts of tactical dominance or territorial control. They are merely a "hopeless military strategy" born of vindictiveness and the destruction of people's lives. The more they employ this method, the faster their downfall becomes.
Throughout global and Burmese history, such scorched-earth tactics may cause short-term suffering to the people, but in the long run, they deeply root the intense hatred of the public, inevitably leading to a backlash that will uproot the dictatorial system from its very foundation.
[This article has been selected, edited, and presented as a segment with the intention of strengthening the revolution and enabling the general public to engage with and analyze diverse perspectives. The views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the stance of People’s Goal. Readers are welcome to write comments and discuss the article.]