Tatmadaw

As Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Tatmadaw and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Soe Win also has responsibility for the serious human rights violations by the Tatmadaw in connection with its business interests in the extractive industries in Myanmar.

This new threat perception, previously insignificant under the nation's isolationist foreign policy, led Tatmadaw leaders to review the defence capability and doctrine of the Tatmadaw.

Although the Tatmadaw regard themselves as custodians of the unity and integrity of the Union, the effect of their repression has been the opposite.

Many victims and families won’t know who was responsible for the blasts — the Tatmadaw or anti-military groups — as all sides of the conflict use mines.

The Tatmadaw has deployed its indiscriminate “four cuts” strategy against the very people it swears to protect; the heinous tactics once used with impunity in ethnic minority areas have now been set loose on the Bamar heartland.

Entire villages have reportedly been burnt down for failing to comply with the Tatmadaw’s writ.

The Tatmadaw has lost control of much of Myanmar’s border areas and countryside to the PDF, and ethnic militia's which have now aligned with the PDF.

A defense council ruling in 1973 allowed officers to serve as long as the Tatmadaw needs them.

And we can’t interview the Tatmadaw at all.

At Saturday’s press conference, Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun repeated the military chief’s vow that the Tatmadaw will do whatever it can to ensure a free and fair election.

But foreign companies doing business with the tainted organs of the Tatmadaw may soon find that the cost of doing so is simply too high.

He called U Aung Ko’s statement baseless and said that the military, known as the Tatmadaw, would file a complaint with the government according to legal procedures.

He was just less of a troglodyte than other senior officers of the Tatmadaw.

However, nothing will be achieved from swearing at the Tatmadaw.

In another similar case, Tatmadaw soldiers were convicted but pardoned by the military commander-in-chief after serving only 7 months of a 10-year sentence.

In the current political landscape, there are ethnic parties, the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups; democratic forces including the NLD—particularly democratic forces—should be on the same side.

It has continued to fight against the Tatmadaw in what it says is an effort to reclaim the sovereignty of ethnic Rakhine people.

Pyithu Hluttaw lawmaker U Pe Than, from Arakan State’s Myebon Township, also criticised the Tatmadaw’s statement.

Since early March, the Tatmadaw had prepared for the outbreak by reallocating resources for military hospitals and now mobilizing combat medics to Chin state for quarantine.

Tatmadaw (Myanmar ) operations against these camps have also created pressure on the militants.