Six of Burma's armed ethnic groups have agreed at a meeting held in Thailand on May 21-23 to help each other if the Burmese junta launches a military attack on one of their members.
The ethnic armed groups represented at the meeting included the Karen Nation Union (KNU), the Kachin Independence Organization, the New Mon State Party, the Kareni National Progressive Party, the Kyan New Land Party and the Chin National Front.
Leaders of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has the largest ethnic army in Northern Shan State, could not join the meeting in Thailand as some of its leaders are blacklisted as drug dealers.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, the spokesperson of the New Mon State Party, Nai Chay Mon, said, “We mainly discussed how each group would start armed opposition simultaneously if they (Burmese regime) attack one group.
“We are not a military alliance. But, if we begin military opposition together at the same time, each group will be able to defend itself against a regime attack,” he said.
The junta usually forces Burmese ceasefire groups in Burma to hold meetings in neighboring countries, especially meetings with the KNU, which has been at war with the Burmese junta for six decades.
The Burmese military has fought with the ethnic armed groups since the country gained independence from the British in 1948. In 1976, nine groups formed an alliance called the National Democratic Front.
During the tension over the border guard forces deadline in April, the UWSA organized a meeting between the ethnic armed groups for the first time in China.
James Lun Dau, a central committee member of the KIO who is living in Chiang Mai in Thailand, said, “We fought the Burmese regime separately in the past and failed to topple them. Now we must unite as we live in the Union of Burma together.”
Since the April deadline for the ethnic armed groups to accept the junta's border guard forces plan passed with the majority of groups rejecting the plan, tension has been mounting.
Seventeen ethnic armed ceasefire groups in Burma have signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese junta since 1989, but many of these groups told the junta that they would transform their troops into border guard forces only when Burma has a democratic government.
During the meeting, the leaders of the ethnic groups agreed they faced a similar threat as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance army (MNDA), which was expelled from their base by junta forces when they overran the Kokang Special Region in August 2009.
Nai Chay Mon said, “I wonder how helpful the meeting really is, since if the junta attack, it will be difficult to coordinate our responses or have a unified command since we control different parts of the country.”
As the ethnic groups in Burma have prepared to defend themselves against military action by the Burmese regime, thousands of ethnic people live in fear of fighting between junta troops and the ethnic militias. During April, about 400 Mon refugees arrived at Halokhani Mon Refugee Camp near the Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burmese border in fear of such conflict.
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