Thai soldiers stand guard overlooking the Moei river on the Thai side near the Tak border checkpoint with Myanmar in Thailand’s Mae Sot district. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Myanmar and Thailand’s busiest trade crossing was closed for a second day on Tuesday (August 19, 2025) after the military junta pledged to throttle black markets funding armed opposition groups ahead of a disputed December election.
The military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, controls the Myawaddy bridge that carries more than $120 million of trade between the neighbouring nations every month, according to Thai customs figures.
However, along the highway linking the crossing to the commercial capital Yangon, its troops are fighting a civil war against an array of guerrillas who fund their fighting with lucrative toll gates.
Naing Maung Zaw, a spokesman for the military’s Border Guard Forces, said the crossing had been shut “for trading vehicles” since Monday.
The military has pledged to clamp down on illicit trade funding its opponents ahead of a December 28 election, which is already being criticised abroad as a ploy to rebrand continuing military rule.
The vote is also set to be blocked in huge tracts of the country administered by a kaleidoscope of pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic armed organisations that have found common cause since the coup.
A Thai security source based at the border, speaking anonymously, said the junta had “set regulations to make it uncomfortable for minority groups, to try to stop them from earning money or benefits”.
As the junta shut the crossing on Monday, it announced the late December start date for phased elections that it has trumpeted as an off ramp to the civil war.
The military has made limited gains against rebels in recent weeks, seizing back ground where it can now hold the election. The poll is expected to take weeks to complete.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pledged last week to combat border-based opposition fighters that “use the profits collected from illegal trade to strengthen their forces”.
Ahead of the polls, democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed after being deposed, with her party dissolved and other ousted lawmakers calling for a boycott.
The junta has also introduced harsh new laws dictating prison sentences of up to 10 years for critics or those who protest against the vote.
Published – August 19, 2025 09:31 pm IST
