SSPP/SSA clash with Burmese army in Mong Hsu
Burmese government forces have clashed with the Shan
State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) in Mong Hsu Township, central
Shan State, allegedly while Burmese soldiers were clearing a poppy field.
According to a report in state-run newspaper Myanma
Alin on January 23, the Burmese military accused the SSPP/SSA of attacking its
troops with artillery fire while they were in the process of destroying a field
of opium poppies in SSPP/SSA-controlled territory.
But a spokesperson for the
SSPP/SSA, sometimes referred to as the Shan State Army-North, rejected the
accusation, and responded by saying that the Burmese unit had opened fire on
them first.
“The civilians [in this region]
know very well who initiated the hostilities,” said Col. Sai Phong Han, the
Shan army spokesman. “Troops from the Tatmadaw [Burmese armed forces] Light Infantry Battalion 379 attacked us. They say our soldiers
ambushed them while they were destroying a poppy field in Mong Hsu Township.
But the way they are telling it is simply to make themselves look good, and
make us look bad.”
Clashes between the Tatmadaw and the SSPP/SSA have been
reported regularly in the central Shan townships of Lashio, Namkham, Hsipaw, Kehsi, Kyaukmae, Tang Yang and Mong Hsu.
Mong Hsu is famed for its
ruby mines.
On January 20, Shan Herald reported
that the SSPP/SSA was ordered by the Burmese military to withdraw from its base
in Mong Hsu, because the Tatmadaw planned to bring in reinforcements to
help on a road construction project.
The SSPP/SSA is a member of the United Nationalities
Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of 12 ethnic armed groups that declined to
sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with the Burmese government in October
2015. Around the same time, the Tatmadaw launched heavy offensives
against the SSPP/SSA, including an assault on the rebels’ Wan Hai headquarters
in Kehsi Township.
Khuensai Jaiyen, the managing
director of the Pyidaungsu Institute for Peace and Dialogue, said that the Burmese
military is creating conflict because it does not want the ethnic armed groups
to agree to a ceasefire.
“The Tatmadaw is now
initiating clashes because it does not want these ethnic armed groups to sign
the NCA,” he said.
Since the signing of the ceasefire
accord in October 2015, clashes have been reported in ethnic regions across the
country, between the Tatmadaw and both NCA signatories and
non-signatories.
The Burmese army has also been
involved in hostilities against the Restoration Council of Shan State/ Shan
State Army (RCSS/SSA), also known as the Shan State Army-South, despite the
latter being one of the eight groups to sign the NCA.
On January 19, the Burmese army Battalion 429 attacked RCSS/SSA
troops near Nongle village in southern
Shan State’s Mong Pawn Township.
And on November 20 last year, hostilities broke out
between Burma’s armed forces and the newly formed Northern Alliance, a
coalition of four ethnic armed groups: the Arakan Army (AA), the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)
and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). Fighting caused thousands of
civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter elsewhere, many of whom have
still not returned to their villages.
Tags: News, War
