FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Armed conflict is not new to Myanmar. Images of internally displaced persons (IDPs) flocking to makeshift shelters and camps after the Myanmar Army has burned down their homes and villages have long been familiar in the traditionally military-run country. However, President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government’s recent use of fighter planes and helicopter gunships, including Russian-made Mi-35s, sometimes referred to as “flying tanks”, to fire on the positions of ethnic political resistance forces is believed to be unprecedented.

Read more from Karin Dean at Asia Times.