15-10-2023 (NAYPYIDAW) Myanmar’s military junta marked the anniversary of a 2015 rebel ceasefire in the capital city of Naypyidaw with roadblocks and a heavy security presence. This ceasefire, which critics argue is now void, had been signed by ten rebel groups as part of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
For years, over a dozen rebel groups have been in conflict with Myanmar’s military, primarily over issues of autonomy and control of valuable resources. However, the NCA was intended to bring about a ceasefire. Critics claim that the agreement has effectively disintegrated since the junta’s coup in 2021, which led to a violent suppression of dissent and renewed clashes with some of the signatory rebel groups.
Despite the junta’s activities, officials from seven of the ten NCA signatories were present at the event in Naypyidaw. The city was heavily fortified with barricades and undercover security personnel. Diplomats from Russia and China, who are key allies and suppliers of arms to the internationally isolated junta, were also in attendance. A representative from India, which has faced accusations from rights groups of supporting the military, was present as well. Timor-Leste, which had recently seen its top diplomat expelled by the junta for engaging with a shadow “National Unity Government” working to reverse the coup, sent a representative.
Several rebel groups have been training and arming anti-coup fighters striving to overthrow the military regime. The Chin National Front (CNF) and the Karen National Union (KNU) declared last week that the coup had rendered the NCA implementation “impossible.” Both the KNU and the CNF have been engaged in recurrent confrontations with the military in different regions of the country since the coup took place.
The Kachin Independence Army, which had not signed the 2015 accord, also accused the military last week of bombing a camp for displaced people within its territory in northern Myanmar, resulting in 29 casualties and numerous injuries.
Junto chief Min Aung Hlaing, however, stated that the military was “making necessary preparations for the holding of free and fair multi-party general elections” on Sunday. Nevertheless, the junta has repeatedly postponed the timeline for conducting fresh elections since the overthrow of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, based on unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.
