Statement by the Palaung State Liberation Front, March 17, 2015

1. In the Ta’ang and Kokang Regions, the Myanmar Tatmadaw has been launching offensives by deploying massive military force, consisting of combat Divisions 11, 33, 55, 66, 77, 88 and 99, and North East Command’s MOC 16, Regional Operation Command (ROC) Loukai and ROC Kutkai. Almost daily, ferocious battles are taking place between troops from the combined ethnic forces of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Kokang Army (MNDAA) and the Arakan Army (AA), and Myanmar Tatmadaw.

2. The Myanmar Tatmadaw, in addition to using an overwhelming number of troops, has been using heavy weapons with high destructive power, tanks, armored cars and air strikes against the combined ethnic forces, as if it were fighting against an external aggression.

3. While violent battles are taking place in the Ta’ang and Kokang Regions, NCCT, the delegation of the ethnic armed organizations, including our own organization, is holding the 7th round of talks with the government’s Union Peace-making Work Committee (UPWC) in Yangon, negotiating for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). We have learnt that prior to the talks for NCA, top Myanmar government leaders namely, the President, Vice-President and Chief of Staff of Tatmadaw met with the KIO/KIA leaders in Naypyidaw and discussed their views on armed conflict.

4. We, the PSLF/TNLA, welcome and hope that such meetings are steps that can lead to halt the fire of the civil war. However, we would like to warn by pointing out that though cooperative effort is being made in Yangon for honorable peace, while ferocious battles are taking place in the regions of the ethnic nationalities, it could not result in a genuine peace and political solution.

5. Accordingly, with this statement, we affirm our PSLF/TNLA position that so long as Myanmar Tatmadaw does not halt its offensives and pull out its offensive units from the Ta’ang and Kokand Regions, we will continue our defensive struggle, in accordance with the strategy of resistance war.

Central Committee
Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF)
Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA)
Contacts: News and Information Department PSLF/TNLA
(95) 09 4931 4951; (86) 153 888 20328; (86) 183 1346 8730

Download statement as PDF in English | in Burmese

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