Govt Troops Clash with SSA-South Despite Truce
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Friday, March 29, 2024
Burma

Govt Troops Clash with SSA-South Despite Truce


By LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY Tuesday, March 20, 2012


Shan State Army-South troops demonstrate their skills during the 65th anniversary of Shan State National Day on Feb. 7. (Photo: Reuters)
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Fierce clashes between government troops and the Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) broke out southeast of Mongyawng Township, Shan State, on Sunday despite a ceasefire agreement being in place.

“The fight started at 7 am and took one-and-a- half hours,” said SSA-South spokesman Maj Sai Lao Hseng. “Government troops from Light Infantry Battalion No. 573 launched the attack first from where they were based.”

One government soldier was killed and three others were wounded from the encounter, but no troops from the SSA-South were hurt, he claimed.

Clashes have occurred three times this month as the Burmese military puts pressure on the ethnic Shan militia to vacate their bases in Mongyawng Township, according to the SSA-South.

Burmese government troops seized a rebel base during a separate clash on March 11, which apparently was close to Monglar troops stationed near the Chinese border.

“We believed that they are worried that we would become friends with the Monglar troops,” said Sai Lao Hseng. “This is why they fought and took this base in order to make a divide between the Monglar and ourselves.”

The current ceasefire was agreed in Shan State capital Taunggyi in December by representatives of the SSA-South and Burma’s Railway Minister Aung Min, who is Naypyidaw’s chief peace negotiator dealing with ethnic armed groups.

Forces from either side must inform the other before traveling in enemy-controlled areas, according to the ceasefire agreement. However, government troops did not give any prior warning that they were entering rebel-held territory, claims the SSA-South.

Clashes between government troops and the SSA-South have reportedly occurred 14 times since the December ceasefire agreement.

Burma’s President Thein Sein has vowed to end ethnic armed conflicts and even ordered Burmese troops to stop fighting rebel militias. Despite this, government armed forces are still locked in battle with the Kachin Independence Army in northern Burma.

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Ohn Wrote:
22/03/2012
Current hysteria "Irrational Exuberance" with REAL lethal consequences of environmental and moral decay for money one day too soon is a litmus test for good desire and honesty of the " Democratic Forces".

Thus far with their own agenda of the type of the country they want to have ( every one seems to agree on Singapore) with lots of electricity and money, they actively find excuses for the consecutive failings of the military and willfully ignore the killings, torturings and ribbings which are happening the most in the last 12 months than in the entire history of Burma.

Don't call giving blankets as a "good" things. Only stopping before it happens is. No one denounces the killings. They just muse like sages.

Until everyone denounces the GREED, they have to connive with the killers for the killings.

So be honest and support the killings and robbings of the defenseless like in Tavoy and in the North.

That will give you your "Singapore".

Mohammad Wrote:
22/03/2012
i ask you every body mankaind in Burma. what king of democracy had ellected in Myanmar on 07 mov 2010. did ethnic shan and mong and Rohingya accepted..? but wer ROHINGYA very srry as democracy we are highly and strongly against to MR TAN SWE. but inside Arakan Yoma too stopped .. thanks... angd Go to faith aganst Myanmar Corrup Govermen..

Moe Aung Wrote:
21/03/2012
Looks like the president's dispatch rider is changing horses in Mandalay and catching up on some sleep. A long way from the front poor chap. Is he called Rip van Winkle? And if his name is Paul Revere then the president's cease fire message must have traveled back in time. Might it be in invisible ink? Don't they have the jungle wireless?

Mualcin Wrote:
21/03/2012
Who is in-charge of the government? Is Thein Sein puppet to someone? We are pissed off of hearing this kind of action from the Burmese soldiers. The President is supposed to be commander-in-chief. Who else are above the President in Burma? Is Than Shwe still haunting?

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