Myanmar’s army denies that generals were sentenced to death for surrendering key city to insurgents

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military government is denying reports that it sentenced six army generals to death or life imprisonment for their surrender last month of a regional military command headquarters on the border with China to an alliance of ethnic armed groups.

The generals were the key officers involved in the surrender of the headquarters in Laukkaing, a city in northern Shan state that had been a major target of the Three Brotherhood Alliance comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army.

Laukkaing’s fall was the biggest defeat suffered by Myanmar’s military government since the alliance’s offensive was launched last October, underlining the pressure the military government is under as it battles pro-democracy guerrillas and other ethnic minority armed groups.

The armed resistance began after the army used deadly force to suppress peaceful protests against its seizure of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

Independent media had reported that the six generals were put under investigation in the capital, Naypyitaw, after Laukkaing’s fall to the alliance. They had been sent back to territory still under the control of the military.

The independent media sympathetic to Myanmar’s anti-military resistance movement, including the online sites of Khit Thit and The Irrawaddy, reported Tuesday that three generals had been sentenced to death and three others to life imprisonment.

But the army’s press office, responding Tuesday to inquiries from journalists, denied the generals had received such sentences, calling the reports untrue.

The BBC’s Burmese language service on Wednesday reported that three top officers had been