Karen National Union (KNU) officials said that hundreds of government employees under the military junta left the area, and only a handful of senior officials remain in Hpapun Township, Kayin (Karen) State where the 5th Brigade of the KNU is stationed.

After the KNU’s 5th Brigade issued a warning on 29 January to all government employees in Hpapun Township under the military junta to leave their respective areas before 10 February, many employees left.

"Many civil servants have left. Only a few remain. The rest are reported to be less than 10 percent, and most of them are senior officials,” KNU central spokesman Pado Saw Taw Ni told Mizzima. “I think employees from only four or five departments have remained in the area. It is difficult to calculate the figure accurately.”

Although some senior officials under the military junta prevented their employees from leaving the town, the KNU provided assistance to the civil servants to leave without difficulty.

Despite reports that family members of the military junta troops were among the hundreds of the people who left Hpapun Township, Mizzima has not been able to confirm it independently.

The KNU said in a statement on 29 January that it had warned government employees to leave their respective areas so that the military regime’s administrative mechanism cannot operate in Hpapun District, the area controlled by the KNU 5th Brigade in the aftermath of the military coup in Myanmar.

"The main thing is that the collapse of the military regime’s administrative mechanism plays an important role in this movement. They (the military regime) could not control the area that is situated between the KNU territory and the military regime’s territory. This is an opportunity for the KNU to set up its own administration in the area,” said Pado Saw Taw Ni.

In addition, the KNU 1st Brigade issued a warning on 8 February urging all troops of the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), troops of people militia and government employees in Hpa-an Township controlled by the KNU 1st Brigade to withdraw from the area as soon as possible and not to cooperate with the military regime.

Fighting between the KNU’s troops and the military junta’s troops has been going on daily in some areas controlled by the KNU since the military coup in Myanmar over a year ago