Myanmar junta acknowledges follow-up meeting on ceasefire with Brotherhood Alliance

A regime spokesperson admitted this week that Myanmar junta officials have met in China with Brotherhood Alliance representatives in the past month to review the terms of a truce currently in effect in northern Shan State. The junta and the Brotherhood Alliance—a tripartite grouping of three ethnic armed groups that initiated a sweeping offensive against the Myanmar military in October 2023—agreed to the current ceasefire at a previous meeting brokered by the Chinese government in China’s Yunnan Province on January 11. Regime-run media quoted Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, the Myanmar junta’s spokesperson, on Monday as saying the junta is again in talks with the Brotherhood Alliance to discuss the terms for the ongoing truce further. Zaw Min Tun also thanked the Chinese government for brokering the ceasefire and the subsequent negotiations, adding that the management of border crossings and trade remained in the hands of the Myanmar regime and the Chinese government. He said that he could not provide further details because the parties to the talks were abiding by non-disclosure conditions, but emphasised that the control of borders and territory had not changed hands. Zaw Min Tun’s acknowledgment of the ongoing meetings, and assertion that the junta’s control over borders and territory was unchanged, came amid unconfirmed reports that the negotiations have compelled the junta to cede jurisdiction over towns in northern Shan State—as well as the authority to collect taxes and duties on border trade—to the Brotherhood Alliance’s fighters. The Brotherhood Alliance is a grouping of three ethnic armed organisations: the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the predominantly Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). The junta declared martial law on Monday in the northern Shan State townships of Namtu, Namhsan, and Manton, all of which were seized and occupied by TNLA forces in December. The terms of martial law would place the administration and judiciary in the three townships under the control of the Myanmar army’s Northeastern Regional Military Command (RMC), which is headquartered in Lashio, northern Shan State’s largest city. It would also give the regime the authority to try civilians in military courts. Between the start of the Brotherhood Alliance’s offensive—dubbed Operation 1027—in late October 2023 and the ceasefire agreement on January 11, 2024, the Myanmar army withdrew from hundreds of outposts under assault by the Brotherhood Alliance’s forces in northern Shan State. The army incurred numerous casualties during the offensive, with captures, desertions, and surrenders to the Brotherhood Alliance also depleting its manpower. As a result of Operation 1027, the MNDAA regained control of historically claimed territory in northern Shan State including the town of Laukkai on the Chinese border, which serves as the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone (SAZ). The TNLA took over six northern Shan State townships, including the two that comprise the Palaung Self-Administered Zone (SAZ): Namhsan and Manton. The Chinese-mediated ceasefire concluded in January has brought a halt to hostilities in northern Shan State. However, it does not apply to Rakhine State and nearby areas of western Myanmar, where the AA has continued to fight fiercely against the Myanmar military, and has stated an intention to take control over more of the state. It is unclear whether the present talks in China have addressed the ongoing clashes between the military and the AA. Related https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/arakan-army-meets-with-indian-officials-to-discuss-resumption-of-kaladan-road/

Myanmar junta acknowledges follow-up meeting on ceasefire with Brotherhood Alliance

While denying that the military had ceded any authority over territory or border trade, a spokesperson said that military officials were again at the negotiating table with powerful ethnic armed organisations in China

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