The letter to Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Naypyitaw’s front man for the Border Guard Force (BGF) programme, on 11 May by the Shan State Army (SSA) North’s Chief of Staff Pang Fa contains a detailed account of the Burmese Army’s truce violations, according to informed sources from the Sino-Burma border.
Although details of the list were not disclosed to SHAN, the agency’s old files uncovered two incidents reported after they took place:
* 21 December 1997
Six fighters from the SSA North’s 16th Brigade taken into custody and shot to death
* 23 June 2000
A unit of the SSA North’s First Brigade attacked without provocation. The unit retired leaving two stragglers who were tortured and killed
“We had exercised infinite patience with the full knowledge that without it fire at a small litter can burn a palace,” Pang Fa who also serves as the group’s strongest unit, the First Brigade, wrote.
The letter also mentioned the group’s past clashes with the anti-Rangoon Mong Tai Army (MTA) on the side of the Burmese Army.
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“We stand by the 1989 agreement,” he added, “and would like to continue working for common interests with the support and guidance from you.”
According to the SSA North and its allies, the two sides had agreed in 1989 to discuss political issues with “the next government.”
The SSA North, United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been resisting the BGF programme until the issues of self rule are resolved.
So far only four groups (three and a quarter according to critics): Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDAK), Karenni Nationalities Peoples Liberation Front (KNPLF) and Kachin Defense Army (KDA) have agreed to the programme. The MNDAA, better known as Kokang, was attacked in August 2009 after a faction led by Bai Xuoqian agreed to accept it.
