UNITS of an ethnic militia in eastern Myanmar that is nominally part of the military have switched sides to ally themselves with the country’s pro-democracy movement, its members said today.

The militia is said to have been responsible for carrying out attacks on army outposts and a police station in recent weeks.

The two Border Guard Forces units in Kayah state are believed to be the first military-affiliated militia units to change sides since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but following lethal crackdowns by security forces many local armed resistance groups have loosely organised into what is called the People’s Defence Force. 

They have allied themselves with major ethnic guerilla groups in border regions that have carried out armed struggle for decades, seeking greater autonomy.

There are about two dozen border guard units nationwide with a total of 10,000 armed personnel. The units were formed in 2009 from what had been autonomous ethnic insurgent groups that agreed to a truce with a previous military government.

The National Unity Government, a shadow civilian administration opposed to the military, claims that about 13,000 soldiers and police officers have defected to its side since the army seized power.

The two border guard units that have rallied to the resistance forces comprise mostly members of the Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front, an ethnic guerilla force formed in 1978 by breakaway members of the Karenni National Progressive Party. 

A KPNLF member told reporters on Sunday that almost all of the troops in the two units, each with about 300 men, joined local resistance forces that recently destroyed four army outposts and a township police station in Mese in south-eastern Kayah.

The KPNLF member said some of his fellow guerilla fighters quietly collaborated with local armed resistance forces even before the militia units openly joined the fighting against the army in Mese in mid-June.

Khu Nyay Reh, a Karenni National Progressive Party central committee member, said the militia’s members could not tolerate the army killing their family members.

He said the military government responded to the defections by dropping bombs on one of the border guard bases and other locations. 

He said about half of the township’s 6,800 people have fled into Thailand or are hiding in the jungle and nearby areas.