Myanmar Shadow Govt Exec Calls for More Intl Support

By Tomoko Tsuda / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

13:01 JST, August 15, 2023

BANGKOK — Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of Myanmar’s pro-democracy National Unity Government, or NUG, said that anti-junta forces have taken control of “more than half of the country,” in an online interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

He said that the forces, including the People’s Defense Forces, an armed group under the NUG, have resisted the national army with guerrilla attacks as the national army is superior in numbers, and called for more support from the international community.

Duwa Lashi La stressed that airstrikes by the national army, which indiscriminately target villages and hospitals, are a major obstacle to further expanding resistance.

According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy — Myanmar, a research institute with experts from Myanmar and abroad, 442 airstrikes were carried out from January to April this year, killing 693 people.

The NUG acting president asserted that the national army has only about 100 fighter jets, and that if they could shoot down half of them, they could prevent such loss of life. He also expressed his belief that “If we have air defense weapons, we will not be long to win this revolution. In four to six months, we will be able to seize the whole country.”

Although the situation differs from Ukraine, which has received air defense weapons from the U.S. and other countries in response to Russia’s aggression, he hopes for further cooperation from the international community.

“If the Japanese government wants to … help the people of Myanmar, we’d like to request [the government] … contact NUG directly,” he said. He added that there are 66 hospitals operated by the NUG and 159 clinics on the front lines of the fighting, and called for Japan to assist in humanitarian aid, health care and education.