Armed conflict in Shan State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks

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Description: "A Ta’ang armed group said it fought with the Burma Army (aka Tatmadaw) many times in early November despite initiating an unilateral ceasefire with other members of an ethnic alliance. “The highest number of clashes occurred in Kutkai township in northern Shan State. Fighting also happened in Namhsan and Namkham township too. Why are the clashes happening? It’s because they’re (Tatmadaw) entering our areas and attacking us,” said Maj. Mai Aik Kyaw, in charge of Palaung State Liberation Front/Ta’ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA). According to the major, there have been at least 5 clashes between November 1 to 6. Full-blown battles with the Tatmadaw have been avoided because the PSLF/TNLA is refusing to retaliate against their offenses, he said. But if the Army keeps attacking them it will negatively impact the unilateral ceasefire they and other groups in the Northern Alliance have initiated. “Fighting is not the solution. We have to seek a solution through negotiation and dialogue,” Mai Aik Kyaw said, commenting that lately there’s been more clashes than dialogue..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Thailand)
2019-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-13
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Description: "Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) soldiers fought with the Burma Army (aka Tatmadaw) multiple times this month with clashes breaking out in Mongkai township, located in southern Shan State. A military column of forty soldiers under Tatmadaw’s LIB-757 clashed with the RCSS/SSA in the jungle near Ho Hkai village-tract in Mongkai township on the evening of November 9. Sai Lon, an MP for Mongkai township, told SHAN that he’s monitoring the situation and prepared to assist villagers if necessary. “As far as I know, fighting started after the Burma Army’s military column climbed the Loi Tunn hill north of Ham Ngai village, in Ho Hkai village-tract, in Mongkai township. Nobody was injured because this location is still far from the village.” SHAN attempted to reach RCSS/SSA’s spokesperson by phone multiple times but wasn’t able to reach him for comment..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Shan Herald Agency for News" (Myanmar)
2019-11-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-13
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Topic: BRI, China, Conflict, EAOs, mediation, mediator, Military, Negotiations, Northern Alliance, Peace Process, Peace talks, pipeline, Resources, Tatmadaw, Weapons
Topic: BRI, China, Conflict, EAOs, mediation, mediator, Military, Negotiations, Northern Alliance, Peace Process, Peace talks, pipeline, Resources, Tatmadaw, Weapons
Description: "China has been vying to lead the region, if not the world, economically and politically since President Xi Jinping took power. As Xi’s power has grown, China has sought to expand its leadership role across the region and beyond through economic expansion, political influence and military modernization. On the economic front, China has initiated the far-flung and ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will be instrumental in expanding its investment and power projection in many countries. Myanmar occupies a strategically important geographical position for the BRI projects, through which China seeks to build links to the Indian Ocean, then to the Middle East and Africa. Myanmar’s political instability and civil war, however, are major barriers to the BRI. Particularly, fighting in northern Shan State, where many of the BRI projects are to be implemented, is disrupting the scheme’s implementation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2019-09-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-16
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Description: "Armed conflicts are likely to intensify in Kokang self-administered division, Ta,ang self-administered division and Rakhine State as clashes between Tatmadaw (defence services) and Ta,ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) are going on in some parts of northern Shan State amid the announcements of ceasefire, according to the Brotherhood Alliance. The Brotherhood Alliance issued a statement, stating that they would halt fighting with the Tatmadaw from September 9 to October 8 and implement peace measures more practically. Before the ceasefire announcement of the Brotherhood Alliance, Tatmadaw announced on August 31 that it would extend the ceasefire statement to September 21 and stop military activities in five military commands. During the ceasefire announcement, Tatmadaw’s air forces were launching offensive on the Brotherhood Alliance with the use of heavy weapons and that resulted in the clashes going on, according to the statement of the Brotherhood Alliance. The deployments of the Tatmadaw as required caused armed conflicts to be more likely to rise in Kokang self-administered division, Ta,ang self-administered division and Rakhine State, the statement of the Brotherhood Alliance said. The Tatmadaw failed to follow the ceasefire announcement, launching offensive on the Brotherhood Alliance at a time when steps were being taken to hold the second-time informal meeting between the government and the four armed groups of Northern Alliance in Kengtung on September 17, with the intervention of China, according to the statement of the Brotherhood Alliance..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-09-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-14
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Description: "The TNLA said that clashes were still common, despite a unilateral ceasefire declared by the Burma Army late last year. The Burma Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) have clashed repeatedly since Sunday in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township, in the latest sign that a unilateral ceasefire first declared by the Burma Army at the end of last year is doing little to end hostilities there. According to Maj. Mai Aik Kyaw of the TNLA, the two sides started fighting early Sunday afternoon as the Burma Army brought reinforcement troops into the area from Lashio. They exchanged fire three times that day and twice on Monday, he said. “Their reinforcement troops entered into this area yesterday [August 4]. This has continued until this morning. What I can say is that there will be more clashes in this area in the coming days,” he told NMG on Monday. The clashes on Monday occurred near the villages of Nam Hyon and Tarmohnye in Kutkai Township. According to local sources, fighting between TNLA forces and troops from the Burma Army’s Light Infantry Division (LID) 99 based in Tarmohnye closed the Kutkai-Tarmohnye road for most of the day. “They have clashed since early this morning [August 5]. The road was closed around 7am, trapping many cars and people. It reopened around 3 or 4pm. Many people heard the sound of guns shooting and the firing of heavy weapons,” one Kutkai resident told NMG..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Canada) via BNI Multimedia Group (Myanmar)
2019-08-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-14
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Topic: Belt and Road
Sub-title: Ethnic strife and national pride halt Beijing-championed infrastructure projects
Topic: Belt and Road
Description: "A recent decision by the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, not to extend a cease-fire aimed at ethnic armed organizations excluded from a nationwide peace agreement puts the country's Belt and Road projects in further limbo. Multiple projects have already been halted, including the key Myitsone dam hydropower project in in Myanmar's northernmost state of Kachin. But ethnic strife is not to blame. Rather, the dam has run up against nationwide opposition and an International Finance Corp. report strongly advising against damming the upper reaches of Myanmar's major rivers. Meanwhile, work on a feasibility study for another project has been suspended as a result of the renewed hostilities. Tatmadaw forces in late September assaulted a Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army base in Kutkai, squarely in the middle of the proposed route for the China-led Muse-Lashio-Mandalay rail project in northern Shan state. One day after fighting recommenced, a Myanma Railways spokesman announced the suspension, blaming the instability. The attacks signal the failure of Chinese attempts to broker peace between Myanmar's vigorously independent military and a group of armed organizations known as The Northern Alliance..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Nikkei Review" (Japan)
2019-10-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: IDPs, Northern Alliance, Northern Shan State, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Tatmadaw, TNLA
Topic: IDPs, Northern Alliance, Northern Shan State, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Tatmadaw, TNLA
Description: "Over 100 people from Kong Sa Village who were displaced by clashes in Kutkai Township in northern Shan State say they are short of food and lack proper accommodation. They fled to Mengtung Village after the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) clashed with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) near their village on Sept. 24. “They are 40 households and 141 people in total. They are staying at the monastery. And it is not suitable for them all to sleep together. They also need food,” said Mai Ai Kham, manager of the Mengtung camp for internally displaced people (IDPs). The IDPs are short of food. They do not dare go outside the village because they fear landmines, said Sai Bu from Kutkai who is assisting IDPs in Mengtung. “They are very short of food. They need basics like rice, oil, salt and onions. There are landmines around the village and it is not even safe to collect firewood. Provision of groceries will help them,” she told The Irrawaddy. Over 500 people from three villages are also taking shelter at churches in the areas, she added..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2019-09-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-04
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Description: "A trio of ethnic armed groups have escalated their fight with the military in Myanmar’s Shan State. This alliance has long been outside the country’s peace process. With China’s help, the government should pursue bilateral ceasefires – and longer-term rapprochement – with the three organisations. What’s new? On 15 August, an alliance of ethnic armed groups staged coordinated attacks against strategic targets in northern Myanmar. The offensive left up to fifteen people dead, and clashes reportedly continue in the northern part of Shan State, creating concerns for civilians’ safety. Why did it happen? The three ethnic armed groups behind the attacks have been largely excluded from the peace process for the past five years. In recent months, the government has proposed bilateral ceasefires to the groups but has set unrealistic demands and accompanied the offers with military pressure. Why does it matter? The attacks mark a serious escalation in Shan State’s conflict. They represent a rejection of bilateral ceasefire terms that the Myanmar government has proposed to the armed groups. While the Myanmar military has not yet responded with significant force, the brunt of mounting violence will inevitably fall on civilians. Myanmar’s military has not retaliated in the heavy-handed way many observers expected, given the attacks’ provocative nature. Instead, it has focused on securing key infrastructure and reopening the highway to the border with China. Contrary to most expectations, the military has also extended its unilateral ceasefire from 31 August to 21 September. The government negotiating team has moved quickly to resume talks with the groups, with meetings held on 31 August and 17 September. On 9 September, the Brotherhood Alliance announced a one-month ceasefire but also warned that it would retaliate if attacked. China, which wields strong influence in the border areas and over some of the groups, has also been encouraging dialogue and de-escalation. The Myanmar military could still decide to strike back, however. A counteroffensive would have dire consequences for the area’s civilian population, particularly ethnic Ta’ang (also referred to as Palaung), whom government forces suspect of providing support to the TNLA. Myanmar’s military and, to a lesser extent, the three ethnic armed groups have a history of human rights violations. Already, there are reports of indiscriminate shelling and mortar fire, as well as attacks on local aid groups’ vehicles and civilian cars and trucks on the highway. Thousands of residents have fled their homes, some pre-emptively out of fear of being targeted by forces on either side. Humanitarian access, which is already constrained, is likely to become more difficult..."
Source/publisher: "International Crisis Group (ICG)" (Belgium) via Reliefweb
2019-09-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
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Description: "Three ethnic armed groups fighting with Myanmar's military in northern Rakhine state and northern Shan state have unilaterally extended a cease-fire until end of this year, according to a statement released by the alliance on Friday. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA), originally declared the ceasefire Sept. 9, and it was to end on Oct. 8. In the announcement, the alliance said it was ready to strike a bilateral cease-fire agreement if the Tatmadaw, as Myanmar's national army is called, was also willing. "On our sides, we will not launch any offensive against the Burmese military. We will cease all offensives," AA spokesman Khine Thukha told RFA's Myanmar Service. "Because this is the time we are holding peace talks, we think it's best to stop all the fighting. That's why we are doing what we can. We expect it is helpful to build trust between the two sides," he added. While Khine Thukha spoke of peace negotiations, he blamed the army for a recent eruption in fighting..."
Source/publisher: RFA (USA) via "SingaporeNews.Net" (Singapore)
2019-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-24
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Description: "Myanmar government peace negotiators and the Northern Alliance group of ethnic armies on Tuesday did not reach an agreement on a bilateral cease-fire to end hostilities between the rebel forces and national military in northeast and western Myanmar, though they decided to meet again for further discussions, spokesmen for the parties said. Myanmar military representatives also participated in the meeting with representatives from the four Northern Alliance groups — the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) — in the eastern Shan state town of Kengtung. Armed conflict has raged for most of this year between three of the rebel armies and government army in Myanmar’s northern Shan state and between the AA and national soldiers in Rakhine state, leaving scores of civilians and soldiers dead and displacing thousands of local residents. Zaw Htay, director general of the President’s Office, told a news conference that government negotiators and the Northern Alliance agreed to seven points of a draft bilateral cease-fire, including the holding of further talks, the establishment of liaison offices to prevent further fighting, and the return of displaced civilians. He called the talks with the rebel armies positive because they aimed to build trust between the parties, though they yielded no cease-fire agreement. “We had expected to sign [a deal], but they didn’t have a mandate to sign it,” Zaw Htay said. The Northern Alliance has a month-long temporary truce in effect through Oct. 8, while a unilateral cease-fire by the Myanmar military expires on Sept. 21..."
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Source/publisher: "Reliefweb" via Radio Free Asia (USA)
2019-09-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
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Topic: CHINA, MYANMAR, UNITED WA STATE ARMY, NATIONAL CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT, FPNCC
Sub-title: China-backed ethnic army is under pressure to disarm but tells Asia Times ‘if we don’t have weapons, we have nothing’
Topic: CHINA, MYANMAR, UNITED WA STATE ARMY, NATIONAL CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT, FPNCC
Description: "Shops, hotels and restaurants in Panghsang, the unofficial capital of Myanmar’s northeastern area controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), display signs in three languages: Wa, Chinese and Bamar. But while Wa, Chinese and other ethnic dialects are widely spoken in the city, very few residents can speak or read, Bamar. Other social and political influences from the country’s largest ethnic group are also largely non-existent. The UWSA and its political wing, the United Wa State Party (UWSP), have what the country’s many ethnic armed organizations crave: an autonomous region with no interference from central authorities, armed forces equipped with sophisticated weapons and, most significantly, bilateral ceasefire agreements with the Myanmar military, one of which has held firm for three decades. Now, however, the UWSA is under pressure to also sign the government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), an initiative launched by the previous military regime that the current elected administration has made a pre-condition for political talks on the fractious nation’s future as a unitary state or federal union. “The government wants us to give up our weapons, but we can do that only when a political agreement has been reached, and when there is peace in the whole country. Only then, not now,” said Zhao Guoan, a member of the UWSP’s politburo’s standing committee tasked with handling foreign affairs, in an Asia Times interview..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
2019-09-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
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Description: "As the fighting between Myanmar security forces and Arakan Army (AA) members intensified after three days of encounters, the Myanmar Tamadaw today used three helicopters to launch airstrikes in Min Bya township of Arakan. According to a witness, the strikes were conducted at around 2 pm and it lasted for 20 minutes only. “Three helicopters flew over the mountain range of Kyaw Kha, near to Dai Thar village under Min Bya township, from where the security forces conducted the airstrikes,” added the witness. Kyaw Kha range witnessed the encounters since the morning hours and by 2 pm the airstrikes were reported. A young woman from Pyin Young village, which is 2 miles away from the location, informed that they could see a wave of smoke in the sky over the battlefield. A village administrator of the area revealed that the fighting broke out on Saturday and it continued till Monday, where both sides have used small guns and artilleries..."
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group" (Myanmar) via Narinjara
2019-09-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-18
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Description: "Fighting between the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) intensified in northern Shan State on Friday, near the town of Namhsan, according to locals. The fighting broke out despite a recently announce one-month ceasefire between the groups. The fighting broke out around 7 a.m. when the Tatmadaw attacked a TNLA base at mountain pagoda locals called Taung Yoe Pagoda, according to TNLA spokesperson Major Tar Aike Kyaw. It halted a bit after 9 a.m. but resumed at 1 p.m. and was ongoing for the rest of the day, he said. “Our troops are based on that mountain. Fighting broke out because they came and attacked our troops,” Major Tar Aike Kyaw, TNLA spokesperson, said. Locals told The Irrawaddy that the Tatmadaw brought in two army helicopters to reinforce ground attacks at around 2:30 p.m., which were firing long-range artillery. Tatmadaw spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun confirmed to The Irrawaddy intermittent fighting had occurred in the area Friday, and that the Tatmadaw employed helicopters..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-14
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Description: "The Myanmar government on Friday stressed the importance of an upcoming meeting between its peace negotiators and the Northern Alliance group of ethnic armies to try to end escalated hostilities in northern Shan state, and warned of possible negative consequences should the talks fail. Tun Tun Oo, vice chairman of the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC), will lead the team of negotiators meeting with leaders of four Northern Alliance groups — the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)—the eastern Shan state town of Kengtung on Sept. 17, said government spokesman Zaw Htay. Hostilities intensified after the Northern Alliance, except for the KIA, attacked various locations in war-torn northern Shan state and neighboring Mandalay region in mid-August in retaliation for what they said were offensives by Myanmar soldiers in areas the groups’ control. They carried out further armed assaults on bridges and border passages to disrupt trade routes in the border region..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)"
2019-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-14
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Description: "The alliance of three ethnic armed groups that has been fighting the Myanmar military in northern Shan State on Monday announced a unilateral one-month ceasefire as a trust-building gesture amid peace negotiations aimed at producing bilateral ceasefire agreements between the government and the armed groups, local sources said. The Myanmar military has already imposed its own ceasefire in the region The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), who refer to themselves as the Brotherhood Alliance, said in a statement that the ceasefire would be in effect from Monday through Oct. 8. “In order to facilitate the peace negotiations, we have declared a one-month ceasefire,” Brigadier General Tar Phone Kyaw of the TNLA told The Irrawaddy on Monday. “We will try to build trust with them for one month as a trial period,” he said.
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-09-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-10
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Topic: MYANMAR, UNITED WA STATE ARMY, NATIONAL CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT, BAO YOUXIANG
Sub-title: UWSA leader Bao Youxiang tells Asia Times in an exclusive interview why the world’s arguably largest and best-equipped non-state army is reluctant to lay down its guns
Topic: MYANMAR, UNITED WA STATE ARMY, NATIONAL CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT, BAO YOUXIANG
Description: "Columns of soldiers goose-stepped in perfect formation on a parade ground. Trucks towed heavy weaponry while armored fighting vehicles drove past a grandstand of observers. The ceremonial show of force along the Myanmar-Chinese border in mid-April was similar to military muscle-flexing in many places in the world. But this was no normal fighting force; it was the United Wa State Army (UWSA), arguably the largest and best-equipped non-state army worldwide. The ethnic Wa were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of their own military force in what effectively amounts to a self-governing buffer state between Myanmar and China. Myanmar security authorities prevented foreign journalists from attending the celebrations at the UWSA’s Pangkham headquarters, which was attended by thousands of tribesman from both sides of the China-Myanmar border.
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
2019-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
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Sub-title: Myanmar’s United Wa State Army, a militia long known for drug trafficking, has emerged as the core of resistance to the government’s peace plan
Description: "After nearly six years of fruitless peace talks in Myanmar, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the country’s largest and most heavily armed ethnic force, has asserted its until now dormant power over the process. Behind the UWSA looms China’s security services, a key but often unspoken actor in Myanmar’s northern ethnic wars. Together they have outmaneuvered and marginalized the Western governments, peace promotion outfits and think tanks that have been intimately involved in Myanmar’s peace process since it was first launched by then President Thein Sein in 2011 and since sustained by Aung San Suu Kyi’s nearly one-year-old elected National League for Democracy party-led government. Western government-sponsored seminars, workshops​ and “capacity-building” peace projects have been overshadowed in the past year by the UWSA’s more concrete and impactful initiatives. Those have included meetings held at its Panghsang headquarters​ in the autonomous area it controls near the Chinese border, where ethnic armed groups have agreed on common strategies to deal with Myanmar’s central, civil and military authorities. The UWSA has also impacted the battlefield by providing its ethnic allies with munitions to fight against the Myanmar army..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times"
2017-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
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Sub-title: Understanding the behaviour and motivation of the three groups that launched attacks in Shan State on August 15 is key to charting a course forward for the peace process.
Description: "WITH FIGHTING in Rakhine State since January and escalating bloodshed in northern Shan State, Myanmar is enduring a level of conflict unprecedented in recent years. This state of affairs has further diminished the already gloomy prospect for any progress in the peace process before the 2020 elections. The peace process, with all its weaknesses and incapacity, may not be completely to blame for the recent fighting. However, the timing, location and specific patterns of the conflicts taking place in recent years require more analysis if a resolution is to be achieved in future. With perhaps some minor exceptions, the most significant armed conflicts in Myanmar since 2011 have taken place between Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, and the four organisations under the Northern Alliance banner: the Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army. Most of the fighting has taken place in Kachin and Shan states, where there is often an overlap in territory among and between the ethnic armed groups and the Tatmadaw. The military alliance among the four groups is categorically distinct from the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee, which is a political organisation and does not automatically and directly carry military commitment to mutual defence – a point that was made clear at the second Panghsang Summit in 2017. The KIA, as the leader of the Northern Alliance, has been engaged in active conflict with the Tatmadaw since June 2011. Its support of the three other organisations is easily understood – to distract and mitigate the military pressure it faces from the Tatmadaw..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-09-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
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Description: "One of the factors that caused clashes, I think, is ethnic armed groups’ declining trust in the peace process. The process started in 2011 and the NCA [Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement] was signed in 2015. Despite the peace process having been going for so long, no tangible results have been seen in terms of equality, self-determination or self-administration, which ethnic people demand. With their trust declining in the peace process, they might be feeling more stronger that they must take up arms for their rights. This is one of the factors. Secondly, although those three groups of the Northern Alliance participated in the peace process after 2011, they were rejected from taking part in the signing of the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015. They were asked to give up their arms [in order to take part in the peace process, and they didn’t], so they were not recognized. They started to be recognized only around the end of 2018. [The government] said bilateral [ceasefire] agreements will be signed. But then, they are in the very first stage of building understanding. Under the circumstances, they have started to fight for their political recognition. This is the political reason. And as to the military reason, though the Tatmadaw has declared ceasefires in areas of two of the groups, it has not declared a ceasefire in Rakhine State, the area of the AA [Arakan Army]. Fierce clashes are ongoing there. At the same time, in northern Shan State, [there are operations that] the military will call regional security measures, but ethnic armed groups will call [those operations] offensives into their territories. These led to between 30 and 50 skirmishes during the ceasefire period. Militarily, they [the rebel groups] launched those attacks to assist the AA and draw the Tatmadaw’s attention away from Rakhine State..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-08
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Topic: China, Myanmar, Rohingya
Sub-title: Renewed violence between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military in Shan State has thrown joint China-Myanmar development plans into question. Relying on China to broker peace seems an increasingly risky gamble.
Topic: China, Myanmar, Rohingya
Description: "Since mid-August, violent clashes between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military have increased in Myanmar’s Shan State. On August 15, members of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups attacked the Myanmar military’s Defence Services Technological Academy in the northern Shan State town of Pyin Oo Lwin, as well as a police outpost, a narcotics checkpoint and a key bridge on the highway to China. “We haven’t seen anything like this in decades of civil war in Myanmar,” said David Mathieson, an independent analyst in Yangon. At least 15 people were killed in the violence and over 7,000 people have fled their homes as fighting continues. “We have to flee quite frequently, but this time has been the worst,” said Maung Kyan, a local resident of a village near the town of Kutkai. Northern Alliance groups have targeted trade routes linking China’s Yunnan province to Mandalay and the rest of Myanmar, prompting the closure of two key border points at Muse and Chinshwehaw. Chinese officials have met with both sides in an attempt to stop the fighting. Northern Alliance leaders met with government representatives for peace talks in Keng Tung on August 31 but there’s been no news of progress towards a resolution. The conflict area in Northern Shan is central to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Both the Chinese and Myanmese governments have pushed forward with development plans for the area without securing lasting peace with the ethnic armed groups in Shan State..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today"
2019-09-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-08
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Description: "A group of 20 armed men in plain clothes blocked the highway near Kutkai in northern Shan State on September 3 and set fire to seven southbound vehicles, after ordering their drivers and passengers to hand over their money and mobile phones. No casualties were reported in the incident, which took place at about 6pm near Namkut village, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of Kutkai, on the main trade route between Myanmar and China. Three of the drivers told Frontier that armed men ordered about 30 people to leave the vehicles, before splashing them with petrol, setting them on fire and fleeing. Most of the vehicles were trucks transporting textiles and other goods loaded at Muse, on the border with China. They were en route to Lashio and the Mandalay Region capital, Mandalay, their drivers said. Frontier asked the drivers who was responsible, but they were unable to identify the assailants..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-09-05
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-05
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Description: "The Northern Alliance (NA) and the government peace negotiators were unable to reach an agreement to end the fighting in northern Shan State at Saturday’s meeting in Keng Tung, according to a leader from the group of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). Leaders of the four NA members—the Kachin Independence Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)—met with officials from the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) in Keng Tung, eastern Shan, on Saturday amid an escalation in the fighting in northern Shan State and Rakhine State. Brigadier-General Tar Phone Kyaw of the TNLA, who spoke on behalf of three of the NA members—the TNLA, AA and MNDAA, who are known as the Brotherhood Alliance—told The Irrawaddy on Monday that during the meeting, the NA proposed ways of ending the fighting. “We asked them to halt their military offensives in ethnic areas including [those of the] Arakan, Ta’ang and Kokang. This is the first point. Secondly, we asked them to stop shelling civilian targets, and to stop murdering and torturing civilians. Thirdly, we asked them to start real peace talks,” he said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-09-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-03
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Sub-title: Differences between the Tatmadaw and the three Northern Alliance allies behind recent brazen attacks in the north must be overcome for peace to have a chance.
Description: "THE BOLD attacks by three members of the Northern Alliance on Tatmadaw, infrastructure and other targets in northern Shan State and neighbouring Mandalay Region since August 15 have shocked the nation. They included an audacious attack on the Defence Services Technological Academy in Mandalay’s Pyin Oo Lwin Township, one of the nation’s most heavily fortified towns. The academy was one of five targets hit in a coordinated dawn operation on August 15 that included a police post on the Goktwin bridge in northern Shan’s Nawngkhio Township, a toll gate, narcotics checkpoint, and a bridge on the road linking Mandalay, Lashio and Muse, disrupting border trade with China. The three groups, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Arakan Army, have since struck at other targets in northern Shan and the fighting has displaced thousands of villagers. The fighting involving the three groups, all non-signatories of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, has again focused attention on their differences with the Tatmadaw and the challenges facing the peace process. The National League for Democracy government and the Tatmadaw are dealing with three categories of ethnic armed groups, depending on what agreements they have signed, or in some cases, not signed. The first are the ten ethnic armed groups that have signed the NCA. They include the Karen National Union, which has suspended its involvement in the peace process, a situation that needs to be resolved before peace talks can move forward..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-09-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-02
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Description: "Five ethnic Kachin civilians including a nine-year-old boy and an infant girl were killed early on August 31 in northern Shan State’s Kutkai Township, after intensive clashes broke out in Maw Hit village between the Tatmadaw and members of the Northern Alliance. Fighting started at about 6am in the jungle just north of Kutkai town, near the highway that connects the town to Muse on the Myanmar-China border. Alarmed by the fighting, residents of the majority-Kachin village fled to the house of the village head. At 12.30pm a mortar shell hit the house, according to Mai Mai from the Humanitarian Strategic Team-Northern Shan State, a local CSO. She said the shell killed five people from two families. Sumlut Htoi Ja, 34, was killed beside her daughter Zahkung Nang Pan, 14, and her son Zahkung Zau Hkun Lat, aged 9. Lajin Lu San, 18, and her four-month-old daughter Lasham Seng Hkawn were also killed. “There was fighting the whole day until 2pm,” said U Myo, a member of Kutkai-based civil society group Karuna. He said that at least 15 mortars were fired..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-09-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-02
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Description: "CHIANG MAI, Thailand—Five civilians including three children were killed when mortar shells struck their homes in Kutkai Township’s Mawhit village in Shan State on Saturday. The fighting erupted in Kutkai between the Myanmar military and the Brotherhood Alliance of three ethnic armed groups while the groups’ leaders were holding peace talks with the government in Keng Tung, eastern Shan State, on Saturday. An 18-year-old woman and her 5-month-old daughter; and a 34-year-old woman and her son, 9, and daughter, 14, from Mawhit village, Kutkai Township in northern Shan State were killed by mortar shells and their homes were destroyed, according to Kutkai residents. “Three of them died immediately from the shelling and two others died after arriving at a hospital in Kutkai,” said Daw Lum Nyoi, a Kutkai resident. Three others were injured, of whom two were taken to Lashio Hospital. “The sound of gunfire was heard since 7 a.m. in Kutkai Town, starting when we were about to take the children to school,” said Mai Mai, a Kutkai resident who is also a relief worker..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-01
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Description: "Representatives of Myanmar government's National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) and four ethnic armed groups issued a joint communique late on Saturday following their meeting in Kengtung, Shan state, earlier on the day. The four armed groups are Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF) or Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Truth and Justice Party (MNTJP) or Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the United League of Arakan(ULA) or Arakan Army (AA). Matters relating to stopping the ongoing armed engagements were discussed in order to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement and then a nationwide ceasefire agreement, the communique said, adding that matters related to deployment of forces and rules and procedures to prevent outbreak of fighting were also agreed to be discussed with the military representatives. Both sides pledged in the communique to make efforts with full political will towards stopping the ongoing armed engagements for national reconciliation and union peace..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua"
2019-09-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-01
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Description: "Five civilians, including two children, were killed in northeastern Myanmar Saturday when artillery hit a village amid talks between rebel groups and the government to end the conflict. Heavy fighting broke out for more than six hours between Myanmar’s military and the Northern Alliance rebel coalition near the town of Kutkai in the northern Shan state early on Saturday, according to local media reports and activists. The Radio Free Asia Burmese service reported artillery shells landed in the village of Mawhit, killing three women and two children. It added that three others were injured and taken to hospital in Lashio, the capital of northern Shan. Lwan Nyel, vice-chair of the Kachin Literature and Culture Association in Shan state, told Anadolu Agency that three shells hit Mawhit..."
Source/publisher: "ASIA - PACIFIC"
2019-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Border stability between China and Myanmar depends on progress toward a peace deal between the allied ethnic armed groups currently fighting the Myanmar (or Tatmadaw) in northern Shan State, according to a statement issued Thursday by the rebels. It is the third statement the alliance of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) has issued this week. Fighting between them and the Tatmadaw broke out 14 days ago. The EAOs—an alliance among the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) going my the moniker the Brotherhood Alliance—have been working with China, who is trying to help as a peace negotiator. The first statement was issued on Aug. 25 and the second on Aug. 28, both requesting that all drivers avoid conflict areas to avoid being trapped in fighting and for their general safety..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-08-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A series of recent clashes between the Myanmar Army and an alliance of ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State has raised concerns over the feasibility of Beijing’s push to implement the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of its region-wide Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). They have also raised questions about the wisdom of the strategy embraced by both the Chinese and Myanmar governments to move ahead with the scheme before Naypyitaw has reached peace deals with rebels in the region. In a three-day period last week, Northern Alliance members the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) blew up four major bridges along the main route to the two most important trade hubs on the Myanmar-China border. As a result, two major border gates in Shan State—in Muse (across the border from Ruili, in China’s Yunnan Province) and Chinshwehaw in Laukkai Township (part of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone)—have been shut down. The two locations play important roles in China’s infrastructure plan for Myanmar and in the BRI, Beijing’s grand plan to build an infrastructure network through Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia to foster trade. Since the CMEC was officially announced in 2017, China has prioritized cross-border economic cooperation zone projects in Muse and Chinshwehaw..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-08-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Myanmar military is threatening to take legal action against media organizations that report “unverified” stories about security issues and armed conflicts, The Myanmar Times reported on Tuesday. The newspaper quoted an announcement from Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s armed forces, as saying that news about the military “should be published only after being verified by the ministers for Security and Border Affairs and General Staff colonels of military commands.” The announcement cited what it claimed were “false reports” about clashes between Palaung rebels and the military in northern Shan State on December 24, days after the military announced a four-month pause in fighting in the north...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner.
Source/publisher: Asia Times
2019-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Introduction: "With 135 ethnic groups divided into eight major national ethnic races,1 Myanmar2 is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. The Panglong Agreement in 1947 tried to set the path for the integration of these nationals into one state. However, with the assassination of the architect of the Panglong Conference General Aung San and the subsequent military takeover of the country, the curtain of ethnic struggles was drawn. Among ethnic groups fighting for their self-adetermination is the Pa-O3. The research focused on the period from 1988 to 2012 because this is the period when most of the ceasefire agreements were signed, which allowed some forms of law and order to return to the local community. The research methodology is mainly qualitative, using. Yet, amid the chaos after the democracy movement in 1988, the military regime managed to sign over 20 ceasefire agreements with various armed groups, among them were with the Pa-O National Organization (PNO) and the Shan State Nationalit ies People?s Liberation Organization (SSNPLO). PNO agreed to ceasefire in 1991 and SSNPLO followed in 1994. Therefore, theoretically, the Pa-O area has been pacified since the 1990s. Indeed, the Pa-O populated region known as Area 6 was granted the status of Self Administrated Zone (SAZ) in 2011. This paper attempts to look into what ceasefire means to the Pa-O people from the perspective of the development of the political economy in the SAZ. Developing on the theory put forward by Mancur Olson (Olson, 2000) that a stationary bandit should provide better development prospects to the local people than a roving bandit, this paper argues that the benevolence of the stationary bandit is not given per se, it needs competition to bring it forward. Since signing the ceasefire agreement and receiving lucrative economic concessions from the central government, the PNO have effectively become a stationary bandit with an informal mandate to rule over the Pa-O area. In a way agreeing with Charles Tilly (Tilly, 1985) that the state is no different from the Mafia, in that they both tax their people in return for providing protection, Olson argued that a roving bandit will only concern about h is short-term gains whereas a stationary bandit will actually try to provide genuine development for the people in order to perpetuate the control over the area. Effectively, the PNO have become a stationary bandit after signing the ceasefire agreement, bu t whether they have performed their duties like Olson has predicted is the subject of this investigation...".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Creator/author: Ricky Yue
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-09-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 130.55 KB
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