The regime arrested five of its soldiers for refusing to fight resistance groups in the Taninthari Region of southern Burma.

“They were afraid to go to the frontline and hid on Phayar Hill (pagoda),” said a local who wished to remain anonymous. He said a Buddhist monk reported them to the military, who beat the deserters before taking them away.

Locals told the NMG that the soldiers from Infantry Battalion 273 were captured in Paya village.

After the soldiers fled their camp in the Kanpauk area on 4 January, their fellow soldierssearched for them in Hpet Tawang, which is near Paya, and in the jungle. According to another anonymous source, the deserters were finally found four days later about twenty minutes by motorcycle from their base, and taken to the naval base in Mawrawaddy.

Last August, three deserters from the same battalion in Yay Phyu Township had managed to escape.

After the coup, a People’s Defence Force was formed, which has frequently clashed with Regime’s troops in southern Burma.