Amid continuous military defeats on multiple fronts across Myanmar, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has blamed the country’s ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) for the miseries of the civilian population in conflict zones.
“If armed groups persevere in their errors only local people will suffer the impacts [of the fighting],” Min Aung Hlaing told a meeting of his regime’s cabinet on Monday, as he sought to sow discord between the Myanmar people and revolutionary forces fighting his regime.
The junta boss accused ethnic Rakhine armed group the Arakan Army (AA) of undermining stability in “developing” Rakhine State, and blamed the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) for the destruction of many houses and buildings in the Karenni (Kayah) State capital, Loikaw, during the ongoing fighting there.
He urged the EAOs to seek political solutions to problems.
The same day, the regime made an announcement encouraging Myanmar military soldiers who have deserted or gone AWOL (absent without leave) to return to their barracks. The public call to deserters to return to duty was the first in the modern history of the Myanmar military, say active personnel.
Min Aung Hlaing however warned that the Myanmar military would not accept any action that threatened to result in the breakup of the Union or harm the “three main national causes”, referring to the military’s three-part political ideology: non-disintegration of the union; non-disintegration of national solidarity; and perpetuation of sovereignty—something the Myanmar military believes it has primary responsibility for upholding.
References to the “three main national causes” are widely dismissed in Myanmar as rhetoric designed by military leaders to indoctrinate rank-and-file soldiers and create the impression among the public that the country would break up without it. After many years of military rule, most Myanmar people also take “perpetuation of sovereignty” to mean simply “the indefinite wielding of power by the Myanmar military”.
It is only the ethnic regions and their residents that will suffer the consequences if the “three main national causes” are harmed, Min Aung Hlaing threatened.
Analysts say the fighting is certain to continue, as the revolutionary forces are now fully determined to root out the military dictatorship in Myanmar, while the military is standing by its position that the resistance forces are a direct threat to its “three main national causes.”
Min Aung Hlaing’s call for dialogue is at odds with his regime’s declaration that the National Unity Government (NUG) and its armed wing, the People’s Defense Force, are terrorist organizations, and therefore not fit partners for talks.
With the PDF groups fighting alongside the EAOs, however, the regime’s exclusion of the NUG from any potential political dialogue would be unrealistic, observers say.
Min Aung Hlaing last year invited EAOs to peace talks, but the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, AA, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Chin National Front and KNPP—all of which are involved in the ongoing Operation 1027 and subsequent offensives, which have seen the military suffer unprecedented losses—refused to take part.
The regime has lost control of nearly 20 towns and over 303 outposts to the expanding resistance offensives. Hundreds of junta soldiers including entire battalions have surrendered.
Despite the junta’s attempts to sow discord between revolutionary forces and civilian populations, many residents in the country’s biggest urban centers, Yangon and Mandalay, say they are looking forward to revolutionary groups launching attacks against the regime in their cities.
