The Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) in southern Shan State has urged other signatories of the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) to fight against Myanmar’s military dictatorship.
The PNLO formally left junta peace talks and joined the fight against the regime in January.
General Khun Thurein, the PNLO’s president, said the armed group initially tried to talk to the junta but it became clear discussions would fail.
“The military dictators are champions in lying. They are destroying homes and killing people. We should not support them,” he told a Pa-O National Day event on Sunday.
He said groups that continued to talk to the junta were daydreaming.
“Armed resistance is the only way to root out the dictatorship,” he added.
Seven of the 10 NCA signatories formed an alliance to continue peace talks with the regime in Chiang Mai in mid-March.
Of the original signatories, the Restoration Council of Shan State, Karen Peace Council, Arakan Liberation Party, Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and New Mon State Party (NMSP) say they will continue to talk to the regime.
But the NMSP Anti-Dictatorship splinter group has been attacking the junta since February.
The Karen National Union disowned the NCA in August last year.
The Chin National Front and All Burma Students’ Democratic Front said they will not hold talks with the regime until violence against civilians ends.
The three NCA signatories said the February 2021 coup destroyed the basic principles and objectives of the NCA and nullified the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.
The Lahu Democratic Union, another signatory, has refused to accept military rule and threatened to join anti-regime forces.
The PNLO first clashed with the regime at Sam Hpu village in Hopong Township, Shan State, in January when junta troops and the allied Pa-O National Army confiscated arms and ammunition from a PNLO convoy.
Fighting has since broken out across the Pa-O autonomous region in Hsihseng, Hopong and Pinlaung townships.
Gen Khun Thurein said: “Since late January, the regime has been killing people in the Pa-O region. Hsihseng has been burned down. Hopong villages are burned to ashes. The regime used firebombs, artillery and airstrikes to destroy the Pa-O region, even in areas with no fighting.”
The PNLO cooperated in secret with Karenni and Karen anti-regime forces since the 2021 coup but all secrecy has now ended, he said.
The junta used chemical bombs on Hsihseng town on March 7 causing oxygen depletion, fatigue, dizziness, rapid breathing and itching among PNLO troops.
More than 100,000 Pa-O civilians have been displaced and more than 400 homes, 18 religious buildings, four schools, two medical buildings and one market have been destroyed, Gen Khun Thurein said.
