NMSP ambushes insurgent group near Thai-Burma border

2009 July 13
by peacerunning
Mon 13 Jul 2009, IMNA, AsahThe New Mon State Party, or NMSP, recently fired shots at the Nai Palai insurgent group, killing three and wounding one.
Sources told IMNA that the Nai Palai group was ambushed near the Kwan Ping, Tavoy District, Mon State, former site of NMSP brigade 111; they were on their way to a meeting with the Monland Restoration Party (MRP) and also the Nai Chan Dein insurgent group.
Nai Pan Nyut, MRP leader, said that the three groups scheduled the meeting on June 29th to talk about future and common plans. When the NMSP began to shoot, he added, the Nai Palai group fired back.
“The Nai Palai group came to meet Nai Chan Dein and [my group] at the border for our meeting. But during the trip…they were ambushed by the NMSP…Nai Palai members had less experience in fighting, so no one died from the NMSP,” said Nai Pan Nyut.
The Monland Restoration Party split from the NMSP in 2001, and since then the Nai Chan Dein and Nai Palai insurgent groups further split from the MRP. Nevertheless, the Chan Dein group has been involved in joint offensives with the MRP before and has done an effective job of utilizing quick-strike tactics and supporting itself through taxation of villagers and other methods.
An NMSP officer said that their troops fired at the Nai Palai group because the insurgents had been kidnapping and demanding money from villagers and that they had seized NMSP weapons by force.
“We fired at this armed group because the Nai Palai group runs rampant in our territory…and, also, this group asked for a lot of money from villagers so we have to shoot at them,” he said.