Ceasefire factions keep up "uncivil" war

No.10 - 06/2006
15 June 2006

Politics

Ceasefire factions keep up "uncivil" war

The faction supporting the ageing Takley, 77, who was unseated in October and is currently under virtual house arrest in Taunggyi, is led by the group's Chief of staff Hso Pyan, who has moved his troops, 250-strong, to an unspecified base east of the Pawn, following bloody clashes between the two sides.

At Nawnghtao, Hsihseng township, west of the Pawn, where Takley was previously headquartered, Hkun Chit Maung, the new chief of the SNPLO that has been renamed PaO Regional Nationalities Unity Organization(PNUO) has taken over with less than 100 troops, reinforced by friendly forces from the PaO National Army(PNA), another ceasefire group headed by Aung Kham Hti. Apart from the PNA, Burma Army units are also patrolling the area ostensively to protect Nawnghtao from attacks by Hso Pyan.

So far no action has been taken against Hso Pyan by the Burma Army, which is regarded by some sources as being pro-Chit Maung.

Hkun Mankoban, MP (in exile), Faikhun(Pekhun) township, who comes from the area, however dismisses  the said supposition as shallow. " Rangoon is merely adopting the ya-le-kyay, kyet-le-maw (Until the soil is crushed and the chickens are worn out from fighting) stance," he says.

 One of the casualties was Maj Kyaw King, a veteran Kayan (Padaung) commander, who was charged by Hkun Chit Maung as attempting to return to the armed struggle against Rangoon and executed on 22 March. At present, no large scale battles are reported, but hit-and-run encounters continue between the two sides.

PaO, together with the Palaung, constitutes one of the two largest non-Shan ethnic groups in Shan State. They took up armed struggle on 11 December 1949, but "exchanged arms for democracy" in Taunggyi in 1958. They returned to the armed struggle again in 1 966. One of the two main groups, PaO National Army (PNA) made peace with Rangoon on 27 March 1991, and the other, Shan Nationalities People Liberation Organization (SNPLO) on 9 October 1994. The SNPLO is allied to the United Wa State Army.