A second major Myanmar ethnic rebel group has said it is ready for Beijing-mediated talks with the junta to end more than a year of renewed fighting that has ravaged areas along the Chinese border. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

A second major Myanmar ethnic rebel group has said it is ready for Beijing-mediated talks with the junta to end more than a year of renewed fighting that has ravaged areas along the Chinese border.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), with about 8,000 available fighters, has fought the Myanmar military for more than a decade for autonomy for the Kokang ethnic minority in northern Shan state.

Last year, it and two other allied rebel groups launched an offensive against the military and seized swathes of Shan state, including ruby mines and a lucrative trade highway to China.

Last week, MNDAA ally the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) said it was ready for talks with the military.

“From today onwards we will cease fire immediately, and will not actively attack the Myanmar army,” the MNDAA said in a statement released late Tuesday (December 3, 2024).

“Under the mediation of China, we are willing to engage in peace talks with the Myanmar army on issues such as Lashio,” it said, referring to the city it captured in August in a huge blow to the junta, which ousted the democratically elected government in 2021.

The MNDAA was “willing to send a high-level delegation to engage in dialogue and consult with the Myanmar military and resolve conflicts and differences through political means,” it said.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP the MNDAA and the TNLA “need to show their willingness to implement” any peace talks.

“MNDAA and TNLA have released many statements for many reasons. But in reality, we believe that they haven’t implemented them practically on the ground.”

He said junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had “thoroughly discussed peace procedures” in relation to the two groups with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in China last month.

China “appreciates the MNDAA’s recent positive statement,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told AFP.

Beijing would “continue to provide necessary support for the peace process in northern Myanmar,” he said.

The Arakan Army (AA), the third group in the rebel alliance, is still fighting the military in coastal Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west, home to China and India-backed port projects.

China pressure

China is a major ally and arms supplier of the junta but also maintains ties with ethnic rebel groups that hold territory near its border.

It has repeatedly called for fighting to stop in Shan state, a key link in its trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

Last month Beijing said the head of the MNDAA had come to China for “medical care” after news reports in Myanmar said he had been arrested on China’s orders.

The MNDAA’s call for talks “reflects China’s growing influence on Myanmar’s conflict,” said Jason Tower of the United States Institute of Peace.

“If not for Chinese pressure… it is unlikely that it (the MNDAA) would have made such a statement,” he said.

Since Lashio’s fall, China has cut electricity, water and internet services to the Kokang region, located on the border with Yunnan province, a source close to the MNDAA earlier told AFP.

Myanmar is home to about a dozen ethnic rebel groups that have battled the military for decades for autonomy and control of lucrative resources including jade, timber and opium.

Some have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defence Forces” that sprang up to battle the military after it seized power in 2021.

Gutted buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by the western Myanmar town of Pauktaw for victory against the junta in the country’s civil war.

Fighters from the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic minority armed group took control of the fishing port of 20,000 people in January, as the conflict sparked by the military’s coup entered its fourth year.

Pauktaw was one of a string of losses suffered by the junta across the country at the time, leading many to hope its decades-long stranglehold over Myanmar’s politics could be broken.

Four months later, the Arakan Army remains in control but Pauktaw is mostly empty of residents, who are living on the outskirts and fearful of a repeat of the junta’s heavy artillery attacks on the town.

“We are frightened of them (the military),” one man told AFP from his temporary home just outside Pauktaw, asking for anonymity for security reasons.

“We don’t know what will happen or what kind of weapon they will drop on us if we go and stay back at home in the town.

“We can’t detect their air strikes or bombs and we will be killed if they attack.”

Video taken by locals this month and obtained exclusively by AFP shows streets silent apart from birdsong and the sounds of AA soldiers sifting through piles of debris and sheets of corrugated iron.

Near a deserted market that once bustled with vendors buying and selling crabs and tiger shrimp, a ragged awning advertising a mobile phone carrier flutters above the doorway of a gutted shop.

Phone and internet services have been all but cut off.

No chance

The AA has fought an on-off war for years against the Myanmar military, seeking more autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population.

As the army has faced growing resistance to its rule, from multiple armed groups — some new, some long-established — the AA has stepped up its campaign.

As the junta has lost territory on the ground, it is increasingly calling on its air power to support its ground troops.

Rights groups accuse the junta of using the strikes to punish communities suspected of opposing its rule.

When a military helicopter hovered over Pauktaw and began shooting into the town last November, many fled in panic.

“There was no chance for us to take a single thing from our house,” one woman now living outside the town told AFP.

“We had cooked a pot of rice and we were not able to eat it,” she said, also asking for anonymity.

“We had no money when we fled. We only had some gold jewellery with us. We tried to pawn that but it wasn’t easy. The interest was too high.”

The fate of Pauktaw’s residents reflects a nationwide tragedy. Across Myanmar, around 2.7 million have been forced to flee by the civil war.

Looting

The AA has not allowed residents to live back in Pauktaw, citing the danger of more air or artillery strikes on the town, although it does allow them to come and go to pick up items.

The man who spoke to AFP said he had returned to check on his house and found it partly in ruins, with the family statue of the Buddha fallen onto the floor.

His savings box — containing money for a Buddhist ritual for his children and for timber to repair a roof damaged by a cyclone last year — was gone, he said.

“I have lost all of that money,” he said.

“Everything in our house got stolen… my father’s fishing nets were stolen,” another woman said, also requesting anonymity.

“I am a tailor, and luckily, I managed to save my sewing machines.”

During the fighting, both sides looted houses and damaged buildings, according to local reports.

In March, the AA said it would “investigate” any reports of looting by its members during the fighting.

‘Decisive battle’

The AA’s offensive has seized swathes of territory in Rakhine state and along the border with India and Bangladesh.

It has said it will capture the state capital Sittwe, 25 kilometres from Pauktaw and the last major town in northern Rakhine in the military’s hands.

In April, the AA warned residents of the town, which is home to an India-backed deep sea port, to leave ahead of a “decisive” battle.

Sittwe residents contacted by AFP said the military was restricting travel out of the town by road and river and the prices of basic foods such as rice and eggs had doubled.

Those already displaced from Pauktaw fear further fighting nearby.

“I am sad that we have fled our own house and we can’t live in it,” one resident told AFP.

“I have pawned my necklace for 18 lakhs ($850) so we have money to live. I still hope I can claim it back.”

Others said they wanted payback.

“I haven’t joined the Arakan Army because I am worried about who will look after my child,” one woman said.

“If I wasn’t… I would join them and fight back. I will be satisfied only if I can take revenge.”