The United Wa State Army (UWSA) says it deployed troops to Tangyan town in northern Shan State on Thursday to prevent fighting from reaching the town.
The group’s spokesman Nyi Rang said the UWSA negotiated with Myanmar’s regime to allow it to deploy troops in Tangyan after residents called for protection from fighting between the junta and Brotherhood Alliance.
He said: “It is a preventive measure to stop the conflict in northern Shan State from spreading to Tangyan. We maintain our neutrality and reject conflict. We want peace and stability in Tangyan and believe our deployment will be constructive in every aspect.”
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) are attacking Lashio, where the regime’s Northeastern Command is based.
Tangyan is 135km south of Lashio.
The TNLA said it attacked two regime outposts near the junta’s Military Training Center 8 in Tangyan Township on Wednesday. The TNLA said the regime had occasionally bombarded mountains and villages near the two outposts since July 4.
The TNLA and MNDAA joined the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee led by the UWSA. Formed in 2017, the committee rejected the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and sought an alternative path.
The UWSA has joined so-called peace talks hosted by junta boss Min Aung Hlaing since the 2021 coup and has never breached a 1989 ceasefire agreed with the military.
The Brotherhood Alliance, which consists of the TNLA, MNDAA and the Arakan Army, seized Hopang and Panlong towns in northern Shan State in early January and handed them to the UWSA.
The alliance resumed its Operation 1027 against the junta last month and is advancing in northern Shan State and Mandalay Region.
The regime later officially recognized the UWSA’s administrative control of the two towns.
The Wa have largely enjoyed self-rule.
In the early 1970s, the Communist Party of Burma took over the mountainous area which is now known as the Wa Self-Administered Division. In 1989, the communist army’s lower ranks, which included thousands of ethnically Wa troops, mutinied against the leadership.
They agreed a ceasefire with the then-military regime, which established Shan State Special Region 2 as a Wa homeland.
The UWSA was granted autonomy over the area.
Hopang and Panlong were part of the region but were administered by the Burmese military.
Special Region 2 was renamed the Wa Self-Administered Division in the military-drafted 2008 Constitution but Hopang remained under Naypyitaw’s control.
The transfer of the two towns expands the Wa state east of the Salween River on the border with China.
