Press Released on Fighting in Northern Shan State and Request for Local People

Statement by Northern Alliance, Arakan Army (AA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) | November 21, 2016

1. We, Arakan Army (AA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) have launched a joint military operation as an Alliance of the Northern Brotherhoods against the Burmese military posts in Muse’s 105th Mile, Mong-Koe, Pang-Sai, Namhkan and Kutkai in northern Shan State, beginning on the morning of November 20, 2016.

2. The Burmese armed forces have been launching offensive attacks in the ethnic territories of Kachin, Kokang, Ta’ang, Arakan and Shan and military pressures are increasingly mounted. The Burmese armed forces have also intensified not only shelling 105 – 120 mm heavy artilleries targeted at innocent civilians but also arresting, torturing and killing indigenous peoples.

3. Although there are holding discussions between Ethnic Armed Organizations and the Burmese government for a nationwide peace, the Burma army has continued launching more offensive attacks that can break Myanmar’s internal peace. The Burma armed forces have been assaulting to destroy all political and military struggles of the ethnic peoples because they have no will to solve the Myanmar’s political problem by politically peaceful negotiation methods.

4. Despite the fact that our alliance of the Northern Brotherhoods truly want a genuine peace and wish to solve political problem by political means, we have inevitably launched such a joint military operation when constantly receiving military pressures from the Burma army.

5. Therefore, our ethnic peoples are requested to haul traveling in the northern Shan State in order to avoid from the battles during these periods of the military activities. Local peoples in northern Shan State are also appealed to take a precaution from these fights and to support this inevitable joint military exercise for the protection of all ethnic peoples.

Northern Alliance (Burma)