Thai foreign minister urges Myanmar’s military to avoid violent attack on border town its army lost

By JERRY HARMER and JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI
Associated Press

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) — Thailand’s foreign minister says he has urged Myanmar’s military authorities not to violently respond to its army’s loss of an important border trading town to its opponents. He says that so far they seem 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 their 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 to resistance groups.