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Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing accused ethnic political groups and former ceasefire members of “destroying national peace” in a speech Tuesday to commemorate the now largely meaningless Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.
The agreement, commonly known as the NCA, was implemented in 2015 by the administration of President Thein Sein and signed by ethnic political groups including the Arakan Liberation Party, Chin National Front, Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, Karen National Union/ Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council, Pa-O National Liberation Organization and Arakan Liberation Party, along with the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front.
After the junta overthrew a democratically elected government in a 2021 coup, at least five parties withdrew and entered into active conflict with the military.
The junta’s mass arrests, along with daily airstrikes and raids that killed and injured tens of thousands across the country, have brought condemnation from local and international rights groups and criticism from other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Despite ASEAN's calls for peace talks, Min Aung Hlaing maintained in a speech on the ninth anniversary of the NCA that the junta would not concede to demands made through armed conflict.
“Conflict can only be solved by coming to the political table peacefully, not by asking for your desires through armed violence,” he said. “We won’t compromise with violent terrorists.”
Ongoing armed conflicts have been used to justify acts of terrorism, he said, adding that some ethnic armed groups had destroyed and exploited the NCA and for their own political self-interest.
China's interest in trade, investment and a stable shared border has spurred its leaders to broker several short-lived ceasefires this year with the ethnic armies in the Three Brotherhood Alliance that has been taking territory off the junta since it launched its Operation 1027 almost a year ago.
Despite an offer by alliance member the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army to work with China to stop the fighting and end its advance on northern Shan state towns, near-daily junta bombings of the area have left it ill inclined to join peace talks.
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Junta’s efforts ‘ridiculous’
Min Aung Hlaing also accused several ethnic armed and political groups, including the Pa-O National Liberation Organization, Kachin Independence Army and Karen National Union, as well as People’s Defense Force militias under the civilian shadow National Unity Government, of destroying peace and stability.
Former NCA signatories have made significant gains in townships in their respective territories, which have often been followed by junta bombings and civilian deaths.
Khun Myint Tun, chairman of the Pa-O National Federal Council, which represents the second largest ethnic group in Shan state, told Radio Free Asia that the junta is not qualified to implement the NCA, calling Min Aung Hlaing’s claims impractical and unrealistic.
“The junta is not a legal body to implement the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The public’s elected, appointed government must discuss it in parliament,” he said. “Ceasefires, jailed political parties, elections – from the revolutionary groups’ point of view, it’s just ridiculous.”
In September, the junta invited rebel groups to contact it and "solve their political issues" ahead of a planned 2025 election, to which several ethnic political parties have already been denied entry leading them to dismiss it as a sham.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by Mike Firn.