The ceasefire Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’, which recently transformed into a home guard unit controlled by the Burmese Army, is in a spot after failing to persuade its strongest brigade, which is refusing to accept the new status offered by the junta.  

Latest reports say there are many fighters, who are refusing to put on militia uniforms provided by the Burmese Army in late April even though their names were in the submitted lists to Naypyitaw by their top leaders.

The SSA ‘North’’s leader Maj-Gen Loi Mao with 12 other top leaders submitted lists of their men who agreed to become members of a home guard force to be formed under the Burmese Army’s supervision on 22 April, to Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, Commander of the Northeastern Region Command at Lashio headquarters.

The SSA-N has 3 brigades (1, 3 and 7), one border force and one HQ Security Force commanded by Maj-Gen Loimao. The Brigade No. 3 and 7 submitted lists of their men and weapons for the junta run home guard. The First however has remained silent to the programme up to this day.

“It is difficult for the group to say that it has totally transformed because its strongest unit the 1st brigade doesn’t accept the programme,” the source said.

On the other hand, it is also being pressured by Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, to keep persuading the First brigade and to also bring all their fighters whose names are already in the lists because he has yet to see them in person.

The commander was said to have ordered Loi Mao to bring all their fighters according to their submitted lists and to keep wooing the remaining group. “You can ask them to at least put on the militia uniforms for taking photographs,” he was quoted as saying. “They can return to their SSA uniforms afterwards.”

“Above all, please ask them not to start any hostilities until the elections are over.”

On 2 and 3 May, Brigade No.7 leader Maj-Gen Gaifa and commander Col Lao Gawn went to the First brigade for a meeting with its leader Pang Fa. They reportedly told Maj-Gen Pang Fa to follow in their steps because they did not want to have problems within the same group, a source from the First Brigade said.

Nevertheless, Maj-Gen Pang Fa was said to have given a definite response that he would never agree to become Burmese Army members and would honour the agreement which was reached on 16 April, with other ceasefire groups.  

Pang Fa had also compiled all the lists and names of its fighters who were tortured, killed and arrested by the Burmese Army, for Gaifa to submit to the Commander Aung Than Htut, the source said.

Khun Htun Oo, Chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), the party that won the most seats in 1990, who is serving a 95 year prison sentence in Kachin State and the paramount leader of the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘North’ Maj-Gen Hso Ten, who is also serving a 106-year prison term in Khamti, meanwhile had sent messages to the SSA ‘North’ that it need not concern itself with their imprisoned leaders. “Be concerned not for our safety but for the safety of our people and our cause,” said sources close to the group, “was what the two in effect asked them.”