Six major armed ethnic opposition groups have reached a landmark deal to join forces against the Burmese Army at a meeting yesterday in Mae Hong Son near Thailand’s border with Burma, a source present at the meeting said.

The members of alliance that started meeting in May came from both ceasefire and non-ceasefire and mostly from non-election areas. They are: the Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Chin National Front (CNF), Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Shan State Army North (SSA-N).

The participant, who requested anonymity, said: “The aim of the alliance is to assist each other if attacked by the Burmese Army. We believe the Burmese Army will attack one of the groups after the November 7 election.”

According David Tharckabaw, the vice-president of the KNU, “the Burmese Army could wage wars against the ethnic armed groups after the election. Therefore, it is essential for the ethnic groups to co-operate and help each other.”

He said however that the alliance would still have to continue its use guerrilla warfare against the Burmese Army, in apparent admission that despite the combined strength of the bloc, it could still far from match the firepower of junta forces.

The relationship between the ceasefire groups and the Burmese regime has become increasingly strained after the groups, such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), the KIO, SSA-N, NMSP, refused to transform into the junta’s Border Guard Force, under Burmese Army command.

In September, the Burmese Army launched three small attacks on the 1st Brigade of the SSA-N. At the same time, junta mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar daily newspaper branded the KIO “insurgents”, possibly the first time in 16 years since after the ceasefire agreement was reached that the KIO had been labelled in this way.

Regarding the involvement of the SSA-N in the formation of the alliance, Sao Pung Fa, the SSA-N representative said: “As far as I know, the ceasefire agreement between the SSA-N and the MA [Myanmese Army] had ended since September 1.”

However, James Lun Dau, a central committee member of the KIO gave an ambiguous answer on KIO participation, saying “the KIO might send someone to participate with them [the alliance members] but I personally did not participate in the meeting and was not aware of the meeting.”

In a separate meeting, the CNF, KNU, KNPP, KIO, NMSP and SSA-N formed a committee to draft guidelines and principles for Burmese federalism, which had been agreed to principle during previous meetings. It was the third meeting of the group since the alliance formed in May.

Sao Lao Hseng, the spokesman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), the political wing of the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S), said: “The RCSS is not involved and we are not ready to participate because there are still many parties inside Shan State. The RCSS stands on the state-base representational policy but not organisational representation. Therefore, we will participate only after we can solve our internal differences.”