New Delhi (Mizzima) – The United Wa State Army, one of Burma’s strongest ethnic armed rebel groups, which had a ceasefire agreement with the ruling junta, has said they will not reform their army, as suggested by the junta, but would continue with their struggle.
An official of the UWSA, who is not authorized to speak to the press, on condition of anonymity told Mizzima, on Friday, that the decision to keep their Army under their control came after a meeting on May 19.
“We have decided that we cannot allow our army to be under the Junta’s control, because it is impossible for us. All the members rejected the idea,” the official said.
The decision came after Burma’s ruling junta in late April, proposed to the UWSA along with several other ceasefire armed groups to hand over the administration of their Army.
Junta’s head of Military Affairs Security (MAS) Lt-Gen Ye Myint on April 28 met a delegation of the UWSA in Tang Yan in eastern Shan State. He also met other groups, including Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), the Myanmar National Democratic Allied Army (MNDAA) and the National Democratic Allied Army (NDAA).
Similarly, Commander of the Northern Military Command, Maj-Gen Soe Win also met the Kachin Independent Organization/Army (KIO/A) and New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) on the same issue in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state in northern Burma.
During the meeting, the Junta’s officials proposed that the ceasefire groups should turn their army into a ‘Border Guard’ force and hand over the administration of their Army to them. The junta’s guidelines for the proposed Border Guard would reduce the number of soldiers in a battalion to 326, out of which 30, would be Burmese soldiers.
Even as the junta’s proposal seems to have softened from what was earlier rumoured as disarming the ceasefire groups, the UWSA said they could not accept the proposal and the group would continue managing their own army.
However, the official said they had not made any official reply to the junta and were planning to inform them soon.
“We are preparing to send an official letter to them [junta] about our decision,” he said.
The official added that they had no problems with changing their group’s name but reforming the army structure was impossible, as it would prove meaningless after their decades’ long struggle.
The UWSA had signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta in 1989 and in recent years has faced increasing pressure from the junta, which has pressurized them to give up armed struggle.
“We are expecting more pressure from the junta after our decision, nobody wants to fight, we hope we can solve our differences peacefully,” the official said.
Meanwhile, another major ceasefire group, the KIO said they had met among themselves and with the people in Laiza town, a Sino-Burmese border town, under KIO control, from May 11 to 14 and again met the military junta on May 20-21, but had not yet decided on the junta’s proposal.
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Sino-Burmese border based analyst said, most ceasefire groups are likely to reject the junta’s proposal of reforming their army.
“UWSA rejected it as it is unacceptable to them and it is so for many other groups. But there may be some groups, which might want to accept it,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw.
“The junta might have already known that most groups would reject their proposal, but they wanted to try their luck to see if there were any groups that would accept it,” he added.
He said a few armed groups like the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a splinter group of the Karen National Union (KNU), which have been closely following the junta’s orders, might accept the proposal.
Though there might be pressure from the junta on the armed groups, it is unlikely to turn into fresh hostility, as the junta wants to concentrate on their proposed elections of 2010.
