SSA Ethical Stand against Burma Army Barbarian Acts

Written by Sai Wansai Sunday, 24 July 2011 18:00

By: Sai Wansai Friday, 24 July 2011 Maj Gen Pang Fa, general secretary of the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and Commander of the Shan State Army (SSA) North, issued a directive on 19 July prohibiting his troops from emulating the Burma Army which he said was ordered on 14 July to kill every man and rape every woman in the war zone. On the contrary, Shan troops were told: Not to kill people from any nationality Not to commit human rights abuse on people from any nationality Not to take any property belonging to the people without payment To avoid becoming a burden for the people

Brigade 1, led by Maj Gen Pang Fa, is the strongest of the SSA-North's three brigades, with an estimated 3,000 troops. The former cease-fire group's other two brigades, 3 and 7, have joined a Border Guard Force (BGF) under Burmese military command, but Brigade 1 refused to accede to the plan and have been fighting a defensive war since last four months.

By doling out such orders, Maj Gen Pang Fa is literally trying to show the people in general that the Shan resistance fighters are on a much higher moral or ethical ground than the intruding Burma Army.

While the Burma Army has been trying to portray the recent ethnic conflict as being horizontal or wider racial conflict of one ethnic group going all out to eliminate the other, similar to Rwanda, the real nature of conflict is a top-down, vertical one, which means that the Burmese

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SSA Ethical Stand against Burma Army Barbarian Acts

Written by Sai Wansai Sunday, 24 July 2011 18:00

government military apparatus is ruthlessly oppressing a chosen ethnic group, through genocide and using rape as a weapon of war.

In other words, the non-Burman ethnic groups are not against the Burman or Bama and there have been no racial hatred or conflict, but are only fighting a defensive war against the Burma Army onslaught, to restore their rights of self-determination, human rights, equality and democracy.

In contrast, the troopers of Burma Army have been indoctrinated to believe that the non-Burman ethnic groups are sworn enemies and they are allowed to lay waste in their areas of operation, which could be translated to kill, rape, loot and burn.

According to Myo Myint, in the documentary video titled Burma Soldiers, released early this year, commanders were said to have brainwashed the soldiers into committing gruesome attacks like torching homes to the ground and using unarmed villagers as human shields. On top of that the soldiers were told that the ethnic armies and the democracy protestors are enemies of the state [and] killing them is your duty,

In the same vein, as the recent SSA directive, one could read the civilized treatment of the Kachin Independence Army fighters on Burma Armys prisoners of war in Kachin State, where the Burma Army offensive is in full swing.

To sum up, the Burma Armys calculation of igniting a full fledge racial conflict like in Rwanda is not working for the ethnic resistance armies are not walking into the trap to fuel the tension. As the saying goes, One couldnt make noise by clapping with one hand. Instead they are revealing the real nature of Burma Armys top brass evil intention by making an ethically, correct moral stand for all to see.

But whether the Burma Army will become humane and refrain from using this ancient doctrine of incentive to benefit from the spoils of war is the question only the Burmese generals can answer.

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SSA Ethical Stand against Burma Army Barbarian Acts

Written by Sai Wansai Sunday, 24 July 2011 18:00

The author is General Secretary of the exiled Shan Democratic Union.

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