The Shan State Army ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်တပ်မတော် - မြောက်ပိုင်း; abbreviated SSA or SSPP/SSA), also known as Shan State Army – North (SSA-N) or Shan State Army/Special Region 3 (SSA/SR-3) is a

Shan nationalist The Shan people ( shn, တႆး; , my, ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; ), also known as the Tai Long, or Tai Yai are a Tai ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The Shan are the biggest minority of Burma (Myanmar) and primarily live in th ...

insurgent group in

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 ...

(Burma). It is the armed wing of the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP).

History

The

Shan State Army The Shan State Army ( my, သျှမ်းပြည်တပ်မတော်; abbreviated SSA) was one of the largest insurgent groups that fought government forces in Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). The SSA was founded in 1964 after the ...

was founded on 24 April 1964 and the Shan State Progress Party was founded in 1971 as the political wing of the SSA. In 1989, the SSPP signed a ceasefire in 1989 after negotiations with the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

and was able to obtain a degree of autonomy for the areas under its control, establishing the ''Special Region 3'' of the Shan State. This area included Nam Kham, Langkho, Hsipaw, Kyauk Mae, Mong Hsu, Tang Yang, Mongyai, Kehsi and Lashio Township. The size of the armed group at that time was of about 4.000 fighters. Even after having signed a ceasefire, the

Burmese military 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 the ...

continued to attack the Shan State Army (SSPP) areas. Although the SSPP/SSA is more conciliatory towards the government than other armed Shan separatist groups, in 2005 it abandoned its base rather than disarm. At one point the Burmese government wished the Shan State Army (SSPP) to join its border guard force. Two of the three brigades reportedly agreed to join the border guard, while the other refused.

Renewed hostilities

In 2014 the group has clashed with the Burmese army in Kehsi Mansam Township, home to the SSPP/SSA Wanhai headquarters. Beginning on 6 October 2015 a large scale offensive by 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 ...

comprising 20 Burma Army battalions has been launched in central Shan State. The aim of the military is to seize Shan ceasefire territories in

Kehsi Kyethi( shn, ဝဵင်းၵေႇသီႇ; my, ကျေးသီးမြို့)(Kyethi or Kehsi) is the main town of Kyethi Township, Loilem District, in the Shan State of Burma. The main town is Kesi (Kyethi or Kehsi). Highway 442 passe ...

Mong Nawng Mong Nawng, Mong Naung or Mongnawng is a town in Shan State, Myanmar. It is located a few miles to the west of the Nam Pang river. History In British Burma Mong Nawng was the capital of Mongnawng State, one of the large Shan States. The town had ...

Mong Hsu Mong Hsu is the principal town of Mong Hsu Township of Shan State. History It was the main town of one of the Shan States, Monghsu Monghsu or Maingshu was a Shan state in what is today Burma. It belonged to the Eastern Division of the Southern ...

and Tangyan townships, using heavy artillery and with fighter jet and helicopter gunship air support to indiscriminately shell and bomb civilian areas. These attacks have displaced thousands of Shan, Palaung,

Lisu Lisu may refer to: *Lisu people, an ethnic group of Southeast Asia *Lisu language, spoken by the Lisu people * Old Lisu Alphabet or Fraser Alphabet *Lisu syllabary *Lisu (Unicode block), the block of Unicode characters for the Lisu language. *Lisu ...

and

Lahu people The Lahu people ( Lāhùzú; Lahu: ''Ladhulsi'' / ''Kawzhawd''; vi, La Hủ) are an ethnic group of China and Mainland Southeast Asia. Etymology The Chinese name "Lahu" literally means "to drag favour from heaven" (拉, lā, "to drag" ...

causing a new humanitarian crisis.

2021–2024 Myanmar Civil War

On 30 November 2023, SSPP/SSA declared a truce with

Shan State Army (RCSS) The Shan State Army ( shn, တပ်ႉသိုၵ်းၸိုင်ႈတႆး – ပွတ်းၸၢၼ်း; Abbreviation, abbreviated SSA or RCSS/SSA), also known as the Shan State Army - South (SSA-S), is the armed wing of the Res ...

, with the SSPP/SSA stating that they intended to unite in the future. On 3 May, the Vice-

Chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the

Shan State Progress Party Shan may refer to: People *Shan (surname), or 单 in Chinese, a Chinese surname *Shan, a variant of the Welsh given name usually spelled Siân *Occasionally used as a short form of Shannen/ Shannon Ethnic groups *Shan people, Southeast Asian e ...

announced that it and it's armed forces, the Shan State Army, would join revolutionary forces, and that a political solution to the conflict was "impossible". Later, on 5 May, the vice-chairperson retracted his statement, stating the decision to declare war on the junta was not made.

Organisation

The SSPP/SSA originally had three brigades: the 1st, 3rd, and 7th brigades,Shan Herald
but two brigades, the 3rd and 7th, surrendered in 2009.

Notes

References

External links

2011.05.21 Shan State Army North & South join forces against Burma Army

SSA – North loses Mongsu camp to Burma Army

Shanland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shan State Army - South Shan militia groups Politics of Myanmar 1971 establishments in Burma