Losing ground to rebels, Myanmar junta tries an olive branch

Bangkok: For the first time in the three years since it staged a coup, the military junta in Myanmar has offered a major concession to the country’s opposition forces, calling on them to heal the nation’s rifts through “party politics” and prepare for the coming elections.

During an evening news broadcast, the junta proposed that armed resistance groups lay down their weapons, form political parties and participate in elections overseen by the military. Until now, the junta has consistently rebuffed calls from the international community to start talks with the resistance forces.

Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has vowed to “annihilate” the military’s opponents in Myanmar.Credit: AP

The proposal echoed a similar one made by the former military leader Than Shwe, just before the 2010 elections, the first time in two decades that people in Myanmar were allowed to vote. That signalled the military’s first effort to transition toward a semi-civilian government, though it failed to fully meet democratic standards.

Several commanders of the rebel forces, ethnic armies and the shadow civilian government quickly rejected the offer, which came as resistance forces appeared close to capturing Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city. That would be a major victory for them.

The opposition forces now control large areas along Myanmar’s borders and in the mountainous regions, while the military retains control over the major cities and lowlands in the central Irrawaddy Valley.

Saw Win Myint, a commander under the Karen National Union, the leading political body for the Karen ethnic minority that is part of the resistance, in a captured government army base in Myawaddy township, Myanmar.Credit: AP

The military is widely detested in Myanmar and has struggled to keep a determined opposition at bay. It is fighting both well-trained ethnic armies on the borderlands, which have battled the army for decades, and also the People’s Defence Forces, made of up civilians who took up arms after the coup.

“The state lost a large number of human resources, infrastructures, lives and property of the people due to the fact some individuals and organisations chose to resort to armed terrorism and armed struggle line without solving political problems through political ways,” the State Administration Council, as the junta is officially known, said in a statement.

Myanmar’s turmoil has been a challenge for China, which is the biggest investor in the country and shares a border with it. Beijing has expressed support for the junta, but it has also engaged in talks with ethnic armed groups in northern Myanmar.

In August, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, travelled to Myanmar to urge the country’s army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, to pursue political reconciliation and hold elections. The junta has said it will stage elections in 2025, but international observers and many Burmese people do not believe that the vote would be free and fair.

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defence Force collect weapons after they captured an army outpost in Myanmar.Credit: AP

During a meeting with Myanmar’s former president, Thein Sein, in China in June, Wang said that merely holding elections was not enough, according to a senior Burmese official who accompanied Thein Sein to China. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to disclose details of the meeting to the news media.

According to the official, Wang also called on the military to hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was ousted from power. Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison term on charges that the international community have said are trumped up.

“The reason they made this announcement is to appease China,” Ye Myo Hein, a visiting senior expert for the Myanmar program at the United States Institute of Peace, said in a Facebook post.

Opposition leaders shared that scepticism. “The question that needs to be asked is, who exactly failed to resolve the political issues through political means?” said Nay Phone Lat, the spokesperson for the National Unity Government, the pro-democracy government that operates in exile.

“Stop repeatedly showing us the same old worn-out record,” said Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the spokesperson for the Karen National Union, one of the dominant rebel groups, said by telephone. “It’s a waste of time.”

He called on the military to step away from politics, to accept the drafting of a new Constitution to establish a federal union and to be accountable for all war crimes committed.

Soe Thu Ya Zaw, commander of the Mandalay People’s Defence Forces, wrote in a Facebook post that he thought the offer was deceptive. “It’s like hanging a goat’s head but selling dog meat.”

Many reserved their vitriol for Min Aung Hlaing. “There’s no point in talking about peace with someone like Hitler,” said Ko Saung Kha, commander of the Bamar People’s Liberation Army.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.