BURMA COUP - 20

May 21: Just a note: It is getting challenging to post all the news now [to KNU Watch]. This is great. The revolution is expanding; there is so much to report. The protests continue. CDM and the strikes continue, and trade and the banks and oil delivery are shutting down. Many EAOs have engaged: Different KIA units, KNU units, the TNLA, the MNDAA, the AA (in the north), the KNPP, different Shan armies, the Shanni, the Rohingya, the Naga, the new CDF, and there are now some 40 local defense forces. These may have from 10 to 100 people, but they are growing in size, and getting uniforms and weapons. And there are all the other attacks, from small revolutionary cells, that are going on, too.

There are many new victories, up to ten or more, every single day.

The dictatorship is running scared. The police and soldiers don't come out except in large groups, and these are subject to ambush, too. The Tatmadaw cannot fight 50 separate armies! It can't win.

Keep it up! Expand the revolution even more! It is only a matter of time!

May 23: It took a long time to complete the update today because I got interrupted and had a conversation with a revolutionary leader. A couple of ideas came out of it. There was already a post about cutting the terrorists' supply. The way to think of the enemy is as a network, like with the Internet, with "nodes." The terrorist network starts with the main bases throughout the country, then in direct line by road to the next size bases, and then to the next, etc., all the way to the outposts. This is their supply network. If you cut the network in different places, you can create sieges, just like in the past when invaders attacked castles, and then sat around and waited for the people inside to run out of food.

Some steps are already underway. Rail lines have been cut. The KIA won't let the terrorists ferry reinforcements and supplies up the Irrawaddy. The KIA is also attacking the tankers full of jet fuel for the terrorists' helicopters and jets. The KNLA blocked shipments of food from Thailand for terrorist camps near the border.

The network that so far has not been stopped are the roads. The self-defense forces are only doing this in a local fashion, attacking terrorist convoys. But this is not systematic. Just like with the railways, all roads that lead to significant bases could be broken. The biggest prize of all would be the Rangoon to Mandalay road.

The other point is how to get more soldiers and police to change sides. We know they want to, but are afraid. Rather than have a national campaign to encourage this, another would be to print fliers and then have resistance personnel scatter them near the camps and outposts. "Join us, You will not be harmed. Leave your weapons behind. We must work together to change Burma. We must have a new, free country and remove the killer generals and other officers - the people who have been abusing you for years."

Done carefully, and as has already occurred with many police stations and army outposts, this type of program could get entire units to surrender and to change sides.