Among the cruel ironies of the Myanmar civil war, now in its sixth year, is that for an army that is struggling to conscript soldiers, the Myanmar junta has repeatedly bombed its own troops held as prisoners of war.
In this garrison state, it appears everything may be sacrificed to keep the military and its civilian front government – recently installed following widely discredited elections – in power.
There has been some impressive progress by the National Unity Government’s People’s Defence Force and allied ethnic armies against the military’s front organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
