LABELING UNFC AND NA-B TERRORIST: Ethnic offensive blame game might lead to further conflict polarization
The Burma Army or Tatmadaw hard-line stance vis a
vis the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) has never been in doubt. But as the
Defense Minister proposed that all the organizations that made up the Northern
Alliance-Burma (NA-B) be determined as terrorist establishments and their
leaders be considered officially terrorist, the Tatmadaw has gone an extra mile
to heighten the conflict and buttress its all-out war of attrition, politically
and militarily.
On 2 December,
Defense Minister Lt‐Gen Sein Win proposed to the Lower House that the
Parliament should consider labeling the NA-B that launched offensives in Shan
State as a coalition of “terrorist organizations.”
He said: “Because
the offensives are causing senseless death and injuries to the innocent
civilians, destroying non-military targets like buildings, motor vehicles and
economy of the people, (I) proposed that the Kachin Independence Army (KIA),
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta'ang National Liberation
Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) should be considered as terrorist
organizations by the Parliament.”
The Defense
Minister further stressed and urged the Parliament that the help of NGOs and
INGOs under the heading of humanitarian aids should also be curtailed.
Buttressing the
Tatmadaw's hard-line stance, the military MP Col Than Aung said that tough
actions should be taken against the main perpetrators including United
Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) chairman N’Ban La, KIA leader Gam Shawng,
TNLA leader Tar Aik Bong, MNDAA leaders Peng Jiasheng and U Peng Daxun and the
AA’s commander Tun Myat Naing, in line with existing statutes, according to the anti‐terrorism law.
However, the
Tatmadaw's motion, including twelve lawmakers' debate were recorded without any
decision made. Thus the debate over an urgent proposal by Dr. Maung Thin of
Meiktila Constituency on NA-B's offensive issue, which was said to have caused
death, injuries and displacement of civilians and affected national
sovereignty, rule of law, stability and the country’s peace process, was
decided only to be recorded by 244 against 141 votes.
The NLD and
ethnic parliamentary representatives were said to have discussed the issue and
opted for speedy negotiation around the table.
UNFC response
Understandably,
the UNFC has responded by saying that the Tatmadaw MP's fervent insistence within the Parliament to
label head of the UNFC N'Ban La, whose organization has constantly been in
touch with the government regarding the ongoing peace negotiation, reflected
the Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing's opinion on the UNFC, said Tun Zaw one
of its spokesperson.
He further
elaborated that the KIA, through the UNFC's good office, has time and again
requested the Tatmadaw for talks to stop the offensives and deescalate the
armed conflict, but were only met with a deafening silence.
He stressed that
the UNFC is still for peaceful negotiation to end the conflict and it now
depends solely upon the attitude of the government and the Tatmadaw, whether
they would be ready to come around to the negotiation table.
Accordingly,
there has been a widespread believe that the government is not in a position to
say or discuss anything regarding the Tatmadaw's military undertakings.
Aung
San Suu Kyi
During the State Counselor
Aung San Suu Kyi's recent visit to Singapore, on 1 December, about 7,000 Burmese people attended the event at the
Big Box Event Hall in Singapore’s Jurong East neighborhood, where she touched
on selected questions posed by the community.
From
all the questions posed, two of them are quite relevant as it concerns the
issues of rape and the impact of the NA-B offensives on the 21st Century
Panglong Conference.
Regarding
the series of high‐profile child rape cases over the past few months, “It is
also a social issue,” she said. “We have to analyze why there are so many rape
cases against minors and what kind of weak points our society has.”
“We need to analyze these cases
from a social perspective, and then we will decide how we should resolve these
cases in every possible way,” she stressed.
But surprisingly enough she had
not made any mentioning on the Tatmadaw's long employment of “rape as a weapon
of war” against the ethnic population, which were so widespread and well
documented, in connection with the rape issue discussed. The high profile rape
case of the two Kachin teachers by the Burma Army troops, in northern Shan
State in January last year, is still a fresh reminder for many of the ethnic
women that still have to live with the constant fear and worry within the
conflict zones.
Concerning the recent clashes in
northern Shan State, which have pointed a spotlight on the importance of the
21st Century Panglong Peace Conference, she said: “Some don’t have the courage
to achieve peace, when the mistrust [between communities] is bigger than the
desire for peace.”
However, Suu Kyi is quite vague
in addressing the root cause of “mistrust” and what could be done to achieve
“trust” that has been depleted. She clearly failed to mention the month-long
Tatmadaw offensives in Kachin and Shan States that have contributed to the
depletion of the little trust that the ethnic might have ever accumulated on
the government.
Chinese mediation
Meanwhile, the Chinese planned
mediation between representatives of the Northern Alliance and officials from
Burma’s National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) on 1 December in
Kunming, China to discuss a possible end to the two-week-old conflict fell
apart, as the opposing sides could not agree on the
basic format of the meeting, according to ethnic armed group leaders.
According to Radio Free Aisa, one Northern
Alliance negotiator, Col Tar Phone Kyaw of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army
(TNLA) said: “We, members of the NA-B all four, wanted to meet as one group
together, but Dr. Tin Myo Win's group (NRPC) wants to meet separately; first
with TNLA, later Kokang and AA only. As we can't agree, we're going back.”
Remarkably, the NRPC made no mention of wanting
to meet the KIA.
Frustrated, Col Tar Phone Kyaw said “Now let’s go
back to our territory and launch this war again,” after the talks failed to materialize,
reported The Irrawaddy.
On
29 November, Mr. Wang Wei, Deputy Director of the Yunnan Foreign Affairs
Office, met the Myanmar media delegation in
Kunming World Trade Center was interviewed.
When asked what would be China's position on
accusation that the Chinese government had provided help to the ethnic armed groups
after some of their members entered China following the conflict that broke
out, replied: “If any injured people
come into China, the Chinese authorities will provide medical treatment to them
in the first place. At such a critical moment, we don't have any time to
investigate the identity of the injured. But
what I want to stress is the stance of the Chinese government, which is no
action by anyone is acceptable to undermine the peace and stability in the
border area, and no one is acceptable to rely on China to fight others.
The Chinese government hopes that Myanmar would restore peace via political
means. We think such information carried by foreign media is inaccurate. We
hope that the Myanmar media may obtain detailed and accurate information via
this field investigation.”
The point to be noted here is that China is not
going to take sides, but humanitarian aids would go on, where necessary.
Perspective
Looking at the recent development, the future
outlook of the peace process looks dim. Suu Kyi is unable to rein in on the
military to stop its offensives in Kachin and Shan States; the two-tier
administration seems to become the order of the day, with the military making
and implementing its own policy in ethnic areas, while the NLD rules over in
areas where wars are absent; the polarization of positions between the Tatmadaw
and the NA-B, which also indirectly involves the UNFC; and the Tatmadaw's
commitment to carry on the war of attrition rather than a negotiated
settlement.
Besides, the Tatmadaw's attitude on the ethnic
population within the conflict zone is worrying, which is unreasonable and outright inhumane, as curtailing
humanitarian aids would mean starvation and slow death for the people caught in
the war between two warring groups.
As such, pessimism has taken over the political
landscape and in particular, the much promoted 21 Century Panglong Conference
and peace process achievement are now really in doubt.
But there is still a glimmer of hope for not all
has gone down the drain yet, when Home Minister General Kyaw Swe said that even
though the four EAOs that formed the NA-B could now be announced as terrorist
organizations, in order not to affect
the government's peace process, they were abstaining from doing it.
This considerate stance, in contrast to the
Defense Minister urging to label the NA-B as terrorist groups, has at least
leave the door of negotiation open for now.
But the immediate task of the warring parties has
now being tested militarily in Mong Ko area, given the intense firefights with
the NA-B trying to route out the Tatmadaw's hill top garrison to take control
of the whole area and subsequent, while retaliation and bombarding of the
Tatmadaw, using combat aircraft from above are said to be also hitting civilian
targets, would be the defining moment, if the protracted war could be capped
and negotiation would resume.
It is now up to the warring parties, if they
wanted to be reasonable or whether to make or break the peace process. For
neither Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also in no position to influence the Tatmadaw,
nor the Chinese, who could only persuade the warring parties to be logical,
could stop the ongoing armed conflict, as only the people involved in it would
have to decide for themselves. One could only hope that rational sense would
prevail and the war could be stopped, at least, for the benefit of the
suffering people, if not for anybody.
Tags: Opinion
