At the time of this reporting (13:00), SHAN is still trying in vain to call the Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) to ask for the outcome of the meeting between it and Naypyitaw on 22 June, but a report from a reliable local source said fighting which began on 17 June had taken a break on the same day.
There has been no report of resumed attack on the SSA North, as the SSPP/SSA is commonly known, by the Burma Army since.
The 5 battalions: Infantry Battalion (IB) 296 and Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 149, 150,516 and 517 with a heavy weapons unit had been attacking the SSA stronghold near Mong Awd, Monghsu township, in an attempt to sever the link between the SSA and its ally the United Wa State Army (UWSA) across the Salween, according to the source.
The Burma Army suffered 3 dead and 8 wounded, while the SSA sustained 2 wounded, he said.
“The Burmese Army must have been planning to attack us,” commented Col Perng Fa, the SSPP/SSA coordinator on the border. “That must have been why they postponed the Union level peacemaking meeting (to be held after 20 June), giving us the pretext that the government is busy tackling sectarian violence in Arakan State.”
Several critics, both rebel and non-rebel, say the government is still employing the same ruse used during the 1989-2009 ceasefire years, when ceasefire armies were prohibited from engaging in military activities while it was going ahead with its own military expansion plans.
The SSA North’s sister organization, Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), better known as SSA South, meanwhile is demanding that both sides should resolve problems without using force and suspend all war activities and movements. It had also been attacked 23 times since the ceasefire agreement was signed on 2 December 2012.
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According to Kawli Media, Defense Services Chief, meaning Vice Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, ordered cessation of hostilities, after the meeting between U Thein Zaw and Col Khun Hseng, General Secretary, SSPP/SSA on 22 June. Hkun Tun Oo, leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) had also requested President Thein Sein by letter to preserve the ceasefire agreements.
