Mon Prepare for Jungle Warfare
By LAWI WENG
Several leaders, officials and soldiers of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) held secret farewell parties over the weekend in state capital Moulmein, as they made preparations to travel to jungle bases in anticipation of an outbreak in hostilities between the Mon cease-fire group and the Burmese army, a source in Moulmein told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
The source said preparations to leave town follow the breakdown of negotiations between NMSP leaders and Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the chief negotiator for the Burmese military regime on the border guard force (BGF) issue.
“A friend of mind told me that he will go back to the jungle soon,” the source said. “He asked me to look after his children. I was very sad as we have been friends for a long time.”
According to some members of the NMSP in Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burmese border, representatives of the Mon party have been told by their leaders to prepare for the next round of talks on April 22. If negotiations with the junta break down and war looks inevitable, they have been advised to abandon their homes and head to jungle bases.
Officially, the NMSP has 3,500 members, though perhaps only 700 currently serve as soldiers.
Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the NMSP, said he expects many members to head for the jungle camps if war breaks out. He said that jungle conditions will only be hard at first.
However, some observers predicted that many NMSP members in Mon State will not abandon their property and livelihoods, although they expect Mon refugees and many of those living in Thailand will join up to support the ethnic army in the event of war.
Nai Tin Aung, a former member of the NMSP executive committee, said that he doesn’t believe that the Burmese government will attack the NMSP.
“If they attack the NMSP, the political process will be affected,” he said. “They are simply pressuring the Mon to act on the BGF issue.”
The junta has set a deadline of April 28 for the cease-fire groups to accept the BGF plan or be declared illegal organizations.
Ye Myint met the four executive members of the NMSP on April 7 at the Regional Southeast Command site in Moulmein to discuss the BGF proposal.
Nai Chay Mon, a spokesperson for the NMSP, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that, during the meeting, Ye Myint offered the Mon leaders an option to transform their troops into paramilitary units if they were opposed to the BGF plan.
“The party leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss Lt-Gen Ye Myint’s proposal,” said Nai Chay Mon.
The NMSP is one of several ethnic cease-fire groups that the Burmese regime is pressuring to join its BGF plan under Burmese army command.
Tension has increased between the NMSP and the Burmese military since the Mon rejected the regime’s order to transform its army into a BGF last year.
In March, the NMSP moved some of its administration and a stockpile of weapons to a new undisclosed base, a source close to the group said.
Party leaders have said that they will wage guerrilla warfare against the Burmese army if conflict breaks out.
The NMSP signed a cease-fire agreement with the regime in 1995. After 14 years of cease-fire, government forces have about 30 battalions in Mon State. Before the cease-fire, there were about 10 battalions.
