Junta Asks Thai Military to Mediate with Shan

The Burmese junta has asked Thai military officials to encourage the Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) to enter into cease-fire talks, according to the Shan Herald Agency for News.

Saeng Juen, an editor at the Thailand-based news agency, said that a leading Thai peace mediator told him that the Burmese government wants the SSA-South to get involved in building the Union of Burma.

However, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the SSA-South, said that they haven’t been contacted by Thai or Burmese officials.

“We always welcome them with an open door for peace talks. But, I don’t think the junta wants peace in Burma because if they did why don’t they talk with other ethnic ceasefire groups to solve the political conflicts in the country,” he said.

“Instead of solving political conflicts, I only see them mobilizing their troops in Shan State, and one day they will announce that they’re going to war.”

The Burmese junta rarely sought peace talks with the SSA-South in previous years because it accused the SSA-South of involvement with Khun Sa, a drug lord in Shan State who was known for his widespread involvement with opium and other illegal drugs.

Meanwhile, the SSA-South has reportedly invited several ethnic armed cease-fire groups including the United Wa State Army, the largest ethnic armed group with 25,000 soldiers, to form an alliance.

Saeng Juen said that the junta is worried that other armed ethnic cease-fire groups will join with the SSA-South, and the peace talks are a way to discredit the Shan group.

In the past, the Burmese junta successfully used the UWSA to fight the SSA in Shan State.

Burma analysts say that the junta doesn’t want to see ethnic armed groups form an alliance and it’s attempting to use a “divide-and-rule” tactic.

The junta offered to hold peace talks with the SSA-South in 2007, but the proposal fell apart when the two sides couldn’t agree on a location.

After many years of civil war in Shan State, thousands of ethnic Shan have fled to Thailand. In July, about 10,000 Shan were forced to relocate in Laika Township in central Shan State because of incursions by junta troops. Many villagers were arrested and tortured while junta troops launched military operations against the SSA-South, according to the Shan Women’s Action Network and the Shan Human Rights Foundation, both based in Chiang Mai.

Seventeen ethnic armed groups have signed cease-fire agreements with the junta. One cease-fire group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, has agreed to form a border guard force with its troops, while the other groups do not support the plan.

In August, junta troops occupied the Kokang area around Laogai Township in northern Shan State and more than 35,000 Kokang refugees fled to China. Many villagers in Shan State believe that war with the junta will break out again in the region.

The Kokang area was peaceful for more than a decade after the Kokang signed a cease-fire agreement.

The junta is moving reinforcements into Mong Yang Township in northeastern Shan State, where Infantry Battalions 279 and 281 are located. Analysts say the total number of troops will number about 10,000.

The region is known as the largest producer of opium in Southeast Asia. The junta has accused ethnic cease-fire groups of using opium and illegal drugs to fund their armies and businesses.

Irrawaddy