Meeting with retired general Khin Zaw Oo yesterday at Chiangmai’s Sheik Istana Hotel, Lt-Gen Yawd Serk, the leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), whose armed wing the Shan State Army (SSA) is fighting against the Palaung State Liberation Front/Ta-ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA) in northern Shan State, has agreed that his units would not in anyway pose as an inconvenience to the Burma Army’s operations up there.

On 16 February, the parliament had approved proposal by MP from Kyaukme township calling for an end to the fighting.

The general, under instructions from Naypyitaw, had reportedly requested the withdrawal of the SSA South, as it is known, to the South. The SSA South leader then negotiated for his troops to remain in the north until the issue with the TNLA is “peacefully resolved.”

In the meanwhile, they would not be in the way of  the Burma Army’s movements, he said. “We will then withdraw all our troops except for the 200 from the Task Force 701 (based along the Chinese border in Namkham township),” he added.

Some 2,000 strong SSA south troops have been in northern Shan State since the fighting broke out last November. “We just want to know two things from the TNLA:

• We used to be close allies. Why did they attack us?
• “How soon they would release the villagers they had detained?” he said.

“Then we hope to work out an agreement allowing both of our movements to live side by side together. Afterward we will have no reason to place the bulk of our troops up there.”

The RCSS/SSA’s main base is on the Thai-Burmese border in Mongpan township, opposite Thailand’s Maehongson province.

The two generals spoke for about 40 minutes, then parted. Both sides deny they had any agreement on joint operations against the TNLA.

A report from the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) that has offered to mediate between the two meanwhile says the TNLA would propose to meet the RCSS in Yunnan’s Ruili, known as Mong Mao in Shan, opposite Shan State’s Muse, or Mongla, the main base of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), opposite Yunnan’s Xixuangbanna. The RCSS/SSA, on the other hand, wants to hold the negotiations at its headquarters in Loi Taileng.

By SAI KHUENSAI / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)