MAE SOT, Thailand — Thailand’s foreign minister on Friday said he urged Myanmar’s military authorities not to violently respond to its army’s loss of an important border trading town to its opponents, and that so far they seemed to be exercising restraint. Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara spoke during a visit to Mae Sot, which lies directly across a river from Myanmar’s Myawaddy, where army troops abandoned their last defensive position early Thursday.
Their hasty escape ceded virtual control of the busy trading town to guerrillas of the ethnic Karen National Union and its allies, including members of the pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces. Myanmar’s once-mighty armed forces have suffered a series of unprecedented defeats since last October, losing swathes of territory including border posts to both ethnic fighters and guerrilla units.
The army's setbacks of the past few months have been noted by Myanmar's neighbors, who have generally been wary of intervening in the crisis there, said Moe Thuzar, a Myanmar scholar who is a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. 'Already, we have heard the Thai prime minister acknowledge that the Myanmar military is losing strength.
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