Ceasefires in Myanmar have been heavily utilized by the Burmese government as a policy to contain ethnic rebel groups and create tentative
truce
A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...
s. The first ceasefire was arranged by the
State Law and Order Restoration Council
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
in 1989, specifically spearheaded by
Khin Nyunt
General Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a Burmese military officer and politician. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004.
Early life and education
Kh ...
, then the Chief of Military Intelligence, with the
Kokang
Kokang ( my, ကိုးကန့်; ) is a region in Myanmar (Burma). It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area i ...
-led
National Democratic Alliance Army
The National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) is an insurgent group in eastern Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It is the armed wing of the Peace and Solidarity Committee (PSC).
History
The Mong La area had been under the control of several war ...
, which had recently split from the
Communist Party of Burma
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country.
Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought aga ...
due to internal conflicts.
Background
![They go back](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/They_go_back.jpg)
The internal conflict in Myanmar began after the country's
independence in 1948, as successive central governments of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
(or Burma) fought myriad ethnic and political rebellions. Some of the earliest insurgencies were by
Burmese-dominated "multi-colored" leftists, and by the
Karen National Union
The Karen National Union ( my, ကရင် အမျိုးသား အစည်းအရုံး; abbreviated KNU) is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), that claims to represent the Ka ...
(KNU). The KNU fought to carve out an independent Karen state from large swaths of Lower Myanmar. Other ethnic rebellions broke out in the early 1960s after the central government refused to consider a federal style government. By the early 1980s, politically oriented armed insurgencies had largely withered away, but ethnic-based insurgencies remained active during the conflict.
In the 1980s, rebel groups controlled most of the country's periphery. The two major organisations fighting against the
Burma Socialist Programme Party
The Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), ; abbreviated , was Burma's ruling party from 1962 to 1988 and sole legal party from 1964 to 1988. Party chairman Ne Win overthrew the country's democratically elected government in a coup d'éta ...
-led government, were two umbrella groups, the pro-Chinese
Communist Party of Burma
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country.
Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought aga ...
(allied to local
Kokang Chinese
The Kokang Chinese ( or 果敢族 (''Guǒgǎn zú''); my, ကိုးကန့်လူမျိုး) are Mandarin-speaking Han Chinese living in Kokang, Myanmar, administered as the Kokang Self-Administered Zone.
Etymology
The name Kokang ...
,
Wa and
Shan groups), based along the Chinese-Burmese border; and the pro-West National Democratic Force (made up of ethnic
Mon
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* An ...
,
Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
,
Karenni
Karenni may refer to:
* Karenni people
* Karenni language
* Karenni State, former name of Kayah State, Myanmar
* Karenni States
The Karenni States, also known as Red Karen States, was the name formerly given to the states inhabited mainly by ...
and Shan opposition groups), based along the Thai-Burmese border.
By the late 1980s, the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) had weakened considerably, because of waning Chinese financial support and internal strife. During the
1988 Uprising
The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...
, the CPB failed to seize the opportunity to invoke political change. A month later, the
State Law and Order Restoration Council
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
(SLORC), a council of military men, staged a
coup d'etat. Consequently, ethnic Wa and Kokang armed forces led a mutiny against CPB, forming the
United Wa State Party
The United Wa State Party (UWSP) is the ruling party of Wa State, an autonomous region in northern Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It was founded on 3 November 1989 as a merger between the Burma National United Party (BNUP) and several smaller, non ...
(UWSP) and the
National Democratic Alliance Army
The National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) is an insurgent group in eastern Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). It is the armed wing of the Peace and Solidarity Committee (PSC).
History
The Mong La area had been under the control of several war ...
(NDAA) respectively.
SLORC used this opportunity to arrange ceasefires with the armed rebel groups that had just mutinied, under a policy designed by
Khin Nyunt
General Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a Burmese military officer and politician. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004.
Early life and education
Kh ...
, who was then the Chief of Military Intelligence.
The deal fell short of its nationwide billing, with seven of the fifteen armed groups invited declining to sign because of disagreements over who the process should include, and ongoing distrust of Myanmar's semi-civilian government and its still-powerful military.
National Reconciliation after 1988
Government troops heavily used four cuts
counter-insurgency
Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...
tactics in ethnic areas in the 1990s.
Most ethnic groups became armed after the first military coup in 1962 and successive military governments used four cuts counter insurgency policy in ethnic areas. This policy involved: the cut off communications among rebel armed groups as well as local people; the cut off of information among people; the cut off of trade route in designated territories; searches and the destruction of any possible supplies to cut off these areas. On the other hand, the military government forced ethnic groups to sign ceasefire agreements with ethnic rebels groups, while government troops were trying to root out their main bases in 1990s. In meanwhile, ethnic minorities’ political parties which won seats in 1990 elections, and formed the second largest pro-democracy block after NLD, were severely oppressed in cities. By the end of the century, there were twenty armed opposition groups had cease fire agreements with governments. However, the government did not hold political discussions with these groups or winning political parties. Therefore, some ethnic groups continued their armed struggle against the government. The ethnic populations suffered the most the result of long-standing hostilities with the central government. They have been treated as enemies of the state and second class citizens
Agreements
The signed ceasefire agreements have been nothing more than temporary military truces to suspend fighting and preserve the status quo, allowing the rebel groups to retain administrative control of their territories. Weaker or splinter rebel groups typically forfeit their territories to the government.
Most agreements simply stipulated that the groups would be allowed to retain their arms and territories until the promulgation of a new constitution.
As part of the ceasefires, the government began the Border Area Development Programme in 1989, which became a ministry-level body in 1992, as the Ministry for the Progress of Border Areas and National Races and has built road infrastructure, schools, and hospitals in rebel-occupied territories.
On 31 March 2015, Burmese President Thein Sein signed a nationwide ceasefire draft along with many ethnic leaders and government officials.
Border Guard Forces
In April 2009, Lieutenant General
Ye Myint
Ye Myint ( my, ရဲမြင့်) was the chief minister of Mandalay Region, Myanmar, from 2011 to 2016. He is a former lieutenant general in the Myanmar Army and former chief of Military Affairs Security.
A member of the Union Solidarity an ...
led a government entourage to meet with
Kokang
Kokang ( my, ကိုးကန့်; ) is a region in Myanmar (Burma). It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area i ...
,
Shan and
Wa insurgent groups, to discuss plans to create "collective security" formed by them and under the command of the
Tatmadaw
Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...
, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Border Guard Forces. In 2009, four of the insurgent groups, the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA; my, တိုးတက်သော ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ ကရင်အမျိုးသား တပ်ဖွဲ့) was originally an insurgent group of Buddhist soldiers and officers in Mya ...
, the
Kachin Defence Army (4th Brigade of the KIA), the
New Democratic Army - Kachin
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
(NDA-K), and the
Pa-O National Organisation
The Pa-O National Organisation ( my, ပအိုဝ်း အမျိုးသား အဖွဲ့ချုပ်) is a Pa-O political party in Myanmar (Burma). Its armed wing, the Pa-O National Army, has between 400 and 700 active personn ...
/
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
(PNO/A), accepted the transition plan's terms and transformed into BGF groups.
List of ceasefires
Since 1989, the
Burmese government
Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
Po ...
has signed the following ceasefire agreements
See also
*
Union Peace Conference - 21st Century Panglong
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
References
{{Myanmar topics
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
History of Myanmar (1948–present)
Internal conflict in Myanmar
Politics of Myanmar
Wars involving Myanmar