Myanmar junta chief urges peace after troops suffer setbacks

Myanmar’s junta chief has reiterated a call for insurgents battling to end military rule to make peace, saying his government was strengthening democracy, his latest offer of talks as his forces suffer a string of setbacks.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew an elected civilian government in a 2021 coup and has tried to crush opposition to the takeover, made his latest plea at a Christmas dinner on Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the main city of Yangon.

“The government is implementing the roadmap, national and political visions to strengthen the multi-party democratic system that the people desire and to return to the correct democratic path,” the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Min Aung Hlaing as saying.

“The government is committed to resolving issues encountered within the society through peaceful co-existence, specifically through dialogue to achieve success,” he said, adding that issues had to be resolved “through political methods but not handled in armed struggle.”

Neighboring China is keen to see an end to Myanmar’s instability and has been pressing all sides to talk and has promised to support a general election expected next year.

Min Aung Hlaing did not refer to his military’s setbacks in his Sunday address.

Despite his calls for talks and Chinese pressure on the armed opposition, the military has been losing ground in several regions.

On Friday, a regional army headquarters fell to the Arakan Army, or AA, ethnic minority insurgent group in Rakhine state, after months of fighting.

The AA, which draws its support from the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist population, now controls about 80% of the state with the military boxed into small areas, including the Kyaukphyu economic zone on the coast where China has oil and gas pipelines and wants to build a port.

In Chin state to the northwest, insurgents said they had made more advances against the military in recent days and they now controlled 85% of the state, which is largely Christian.

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‘Respect Rohingya rights’

Min Aung Hlaing’s calls for talks have been rejected by insurgent groups and a parallel civilian government in exile, the National Unity Government, who say they have no faith in the words of a military that has for decades stifled all dissent and locked up or killed its enemies.

“The number one thing is that the revolutionary forces do not trust the military council,” said an official from one of the many pro-democracy guerrilla groups known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, that have sprung up since the 2021 coup.

“The other thing is that the junta is losing on the ground militarily so it’s impossible for us to hold talks with them now,‘’ said the official from a PDF in the central Monywa district.

With the AA making sustained advances in Rakhine state, members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, many of whom are based in northern parts of the state on the border with Bangladesh, issued a plea for the AA to respect their rights.

“We urge the Arakan Army and its political wing … to uphold and respect the rights of the Rohingya and all ethnic and religious minorities,” the Rohingya groups said in a joint statement.

“Undoubtedly, the Burmese military is our common enemy,” the groups said, while accusing the AA of human rights violations against Rohingya, including widespread arson and killings.

The AA denies rights abuses but rights investigators say the AA has committed serious violations, particularly since the junta launched a campaign this year to recruit Rohingya men into militias to fight the AA.

The Rohingya organizations, many based abroad, said they strongly rejected the groups that cooperated with the military and called on the AA to recognize the Rohingya as “an integral part of the (the state’s) diverse communities.”

The groups also called for an emergency aid corridor to be opened up from Bangladesh to prevent famine.

The United Nations says up to 2 million people face “the dire prospect of famine” in Rakhine state amid economic collapse and a worsening humanitarian crisis triggered by the 2021 coup.

Edited by RFA Staff.