First ethnic groups agree to join Myanmar guards

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Published: November 11, 2009

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Two ethnic militias in military-ruled Myanmar have become the first to transform their forces into border guards under a government plan aimed at ensuring stability ahead of elections next year, state media said Wednesday.

The militias, representing factions from the Kachin and Karenni ethic groups, agreed at a lavish ceremony Sunday to integrate themselves into the national border guards, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The government has told ethnic groups that they must transform their militias into a national border guard force. In August, it cracked down on one of the recalcitrant groups, the Kokang in northern Myanmar, forcing its leader and his followers to flee to China and installing a more pliant leadership.

Za Khun Ting Ring, chairman of the New Democratic Army-Kachin, said in a speech that the transformation of the militias was historic and would help preserve the country's national unity and promote regional development, according to the newspaper report.

Several other groups have yet to agree to the junta's terms ahead of the elections, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army, representing the ethnic Wa, and a larger ethnic Kachin group, the Kachin Independence Organization.

Over the past two decades the military junta has reached fragile peace pacts with 17 ethnic armed groups allowing a limited amount of autonomy in their areas, which are along the country's borders. But some of the groups question whether a constitution promulgated last year ensures their rights, and there is speculation they may take up arms again ahead of the voting.

The military is still battling rebel groups from the Karen and Shan minorities which have refused to sign cease-fires. Those long-running conflicts have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and the military has been accused of serious human rights violations.

The New Light of Myanmar said three people were killed and two injured Tuesday when fighters from the Karen National Union attacked a transport boat on the Thanlwin river in Kayin State.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta took power in 1988 after violently crushing a pro-democracy uprising. It refused to honor the results of the last elections in 1990 after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party received a landslide victory.