[ Frontier Myanmar ] ‘A threat to the revolution’: Pyusawhti returns to post-coup Myanmar

People on our street believe that the fire was the work of Pyusawhti,” said Htike Thu, referring to a recently formed pro-military network. “No one can go outside during curfew. Only Pyusawhti can ignore the curfew because it is partners of the military,” he added.

The network, named after a famous semi-mythical Bamar warrior prince from the second century CE, is alleged to be working with the junta to launch attacks aimed at spreading terror and tarnishing the reputation of the People’s Defence Forces and other resistance groups.

Pyusawhti also shares its name with a town and village defence scheme established by U Nu’s civilian government in 1956 to assist the Tatmadaw in counter-insurgency activities. Some Pyusawhti groups quickly fell under the control of influential politicians and were known as a “party army”, writes John Buchanan in Militias in Myanmar, published by the Asia Foundation in 2016.

It is unclear when the latest incarnation of Pyusawhti was formed, or by whom, but the purpose seems clear: to work with security forces against those opposed to the military. 

The groups have increasingly been in the news since mid-May, when they became more active in response to a wave of attacks targeting junta-appointed ward and village tract administrators and their offices.

On May 14, a letter from Pyusawhti leaders calling on the group’s members to infiltrate anti-junta organisations and inform on their members to the military circulated on social media. The letter also called on Pyusawhti members to help undermine support networks for the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Around the same time, social media pages and groups using the name Pyusawhti became more noticeable, and many of them published threats against members of the National League for Democracy and those helping to fund the CDM.