Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing invited the Karen National Union (KNU), the Chin National Front (CNF), and the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) to participate in “peace talks” during a video message at a ceremony to mark the 11th anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in Naypyidaw on Thursday.
The ABSDF responded on Oct. 15 that the NCA, initiated under then President Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) pro-military administration (2011-16), was a political ploy to “deceive the international community” into believing the regime in Naypyidaw was pursuing peace.
Salai Htet Ni, the CNF spokesperson, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that he finds it “difficult” to believe the regime in Naypyidaw is serious about peace when it orders the Myanmar Air Force to bomb civilians in Chin State on a daily basis.
Led by the regime’s National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiation Committee (NSPNC), the two-day ceremony and accompanying workshop Oct. 15-16 was attended by the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), the New Mon State Party (NMSP), the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), and the KNU/KNLA-PC, a KNU splinter group.
China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Deng Xijun urged the Myanmar regime to explore forms of “greater autonomy” for the country’s ethnic minorities in a video message on Oct. 15.
A political analyst on Myanmar affairs told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the message amounted to Beijing’s interference in Myanmar’s domestic affairs, as the Chinese government always states that it does not interfere.
NCA signatories include the KNU, the CNF, the ABSDF, the DKBA, the KNU/KNLA-PC, the ALP, along with the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), which signed on Oct. 15, 2015, with then President Thein Sein
The NMSP and the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) signed the NCA during the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration’s Union Peace Conference on Feb. 13, 2018.
The KNU, the CNF, the ABSDF, the LDU, and the PNLO all stated that the NCA became null and void following the 2021 military coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the NLD government and jailed President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021.
The NMSP has continued to abide by the NCA since 2021, which caused a split in 2024 with the creation of the NMSP AD (Anti-Dictatorship). It rejected the NCA and joined up with resistance forces opposed to the coup, stating that its objective was to end military dictatorship in Myanmar.
The LDU dismissed its General Secretary Kyar Solomon, Second Secretary Kyar Ya Kok, and Central Committee member Kyar Phu, on July 8, 2022 for “violating its rules.” Pro-regime media reported Kyar Solomon, who attended the 11th anniversary of the NCA on Oct. 15, as an “LDU representative.”
Yar Pyae, the NSPNC chairperson and the regime’s minister for defence, called for efforts towards a democratic federal union, lawful resource extraction and a unified peace process at the end of the workshop on Oct. 16.
The KNU and the CNF are founding members of the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF)—Myanmar’s premier resistance coalition—established on March 30 by the National Unity Government (NUG) and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and two other major ethnic resistance organizations, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) to coordinate military, political and efforts toward a federal democratic union.
To learn more about the SCEF and its work since inception, watch our report on DVB English News YouTube or Spotify.
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