If the Tatmadaw or Military is really entertaining the notion of “total annihilation” of the Kachin Independence Army and subsequently also all the other ethnic resistance armies, the county will never see peace and with it the development, poverty reduction, human security and so on won’t be able to be implemented, which are badly needed and in short supply.

Like Gun Maw said, the core question to be asked is: Why all the non-Bamar ethnic nationalities are at war with the Burmese center, or better, specifically the ethnocentric Military top brass and to a lesser extend the Bamar political elite or political class?

It should be clear to the powers that be that this has only to do with political grievances and unjustified colonial-like situation imposed by the Military on the non-Bamar ethnic nationalities. In short, the ethnic groups are waging a resistance war against the Bamar occupying forces and at the same time, making their political demand heard, which are the rights of self-determination, equality, democracy and universal human rights.

If the military solution has been the answer for the present Tatmadaw leadership, it should look back into the past, when successive Bamar-dominated and Military governments had also embarked on such rhetoric and had miserably failed.

In sum, whether we like it or not, political solution through political means would be the only answer to achieve the desired political settlement.

It is time for the Tatmadaw to wake up to the reality and gather enough “political will” to strive for genuine peaceful negotiation for the sake of the people, rather than entertaining the “win-lose”, zero-sum game of total annihilation, which is doomed to fail.

Link to the story :  General Gun Maw: ‘If the military changes its behaviour, we will change our policy right away’