AA, TNLA vow to work together to return Kokang region to hands of MNDAA

By Admin 11 Mar 2023

DMG Newsroom
11 March 2023, Sittwe

The Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army, two members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, have said they will work together until the Kokang region is completely returned to the hands of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the alliance’s third member.

In a message to commemorate the third anniversary of MNDAA Day, which falls on March 11, the two Brotherhood Alliance members said they would continue to fight in the spirit of brotherly alliance and toward the implementation of common military and political goals.

The MNDAA was founded on March 11, 1989, by Kokang national leader Pheung Kya-shin. The Kokang region has since become the semi-autonomous Special Region 1 in Myanmar. But when the MNDAA did not accept the Myanmar military’s pressure to transform into a border guard force in 2009, they were attacked by the military and forced to leave Special Region 1.

“It has been almost 14 years since the Kokang Special Region 1 organisation temporarily left the region because it did not want to fight against its own people,” said the two Brotherhood Alliance members.

The Myanmar National Truth and Justice Party/Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNTJP/MNDAA) chairman Phon Tar Shwin said the AA and TNLA are fighting together with like-minded allies to return the Kokang area, which was temporarily abandoned, to the hands of the MNDAA.

The message states that the MNDAA is fighting against the military dictatorship born out of the spring revolution, with organisations that have the same common goal and can work together, and with organisations that have earned the public trust.

The message further states that the MNDAA is a group fighting for the political goals of peace, national equality, the right to self-determination, the liberation of all oppressed ethnic groups from military dictatorship, and the construction of a true democratic, federal union.

The Burmese People’s Liberation Army (BPLA), which emerged after the military coup, also thanked the revolutionary organisations born out of the Spring Revolution for their morale and revolutionary assistance.

The MNDAA is not a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and is a member of the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), which is made up of seven northern ethnic armed groups.