Ethnic Kokang army invites workers with ‘clean political background’ to ‘rebuild’ region

The ethnic Kokang Myanmar Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) will permit employment agencies to recruit people for jobs in its territory in northern Shan State to create a larger workforce, the armed group announced on Sunday. The statement said that a “large number of workers and technicians” would be required to “rebuild the region after the war,” referring to the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, which centred around the city of Laukkai on the Chinese border. MNDAA spokesperson Li Kyar Win told Myanmar Now that people interested in relocating to the Kokang region for work could contact employers directly or work with agencies. “As it is mentioned in the statement, if the employees they hire have any political scandals in their past or were affiliated with the military council, we will take serious action against them,” he warned. While the Kokang region relies on Mandarin Chinese as its primary language and uses the Chinese yuan as its currency, Li Kyar Win noted that workers of all ethnic backgrounds were eligible to come to the area. “There are rumours that Bamar people won’t be allowed to work here, but that is not true,” he said, referring to Myanmar’s ethnic majority. “We are gradually starting operations and people of any ethnicity are welcome to work here, if they have a clean political background.” The MNDAA, along with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army, form the Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armed organisations. The groups seized control of the Shan State-China border, as well as several towns and hundreds of junta posts, as part of Operation 1027, an offensive launched in late October 2023 and lasting through the end of the year. The MNDAA took control of the Kokang region, as well as the towns of Chin Shwe Haw, Kunlon, and Kone Kyan, while the TNLA seized Namhsan, Namkham, Mong Long, Mongnawt, Manton, Namtu, and Kutkai. On January 11, the MNDAA and TNLA entered into a temporary ceasefire with the Myanmar military, brokered by China. The Kokang armed group also handed the towns of Hopang and Panlong over to the United Wa State Army in January. Members of the Wa group were appointed to judiciary and administrative departments in the towns on Sunday, according to the Shwe Phee Myay local news outlet. The health and education department still had vacancies at the time of reporting, with local “educated” youth invited to apply, even those working under the junta. Hundreds of staff from the junta’s administrative mechanism fled towns seized by the Brotherhood Alliance, and have reportedly sought work in Lashio in northern Shan State, Taunggyi in southern Shan State, and Naypyitaw, the military-controlled capital. “We had to leave our staff identification cards and uniforms so that people wouldn’t know we were government employees,” said one such individual, who spoke to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity. The staff member said that neither the police nor the military helped them flee, and that they were staying temporarily in the residences of friends or relatives or in respective departmental training centres.

Ethnic Kokang army invites workers with ‘clean political background’ to ‘rebuild’ region

Job seekers from across Myanmar are invited to northern Shan State’s Kokang region as long as they do not have any demonstrated connection to the military junta

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