Junta’s foes woo ethnic allies with constitution
Opponents of Myanmar’s military government declared the country’s 2008 constitution void and put forward an interim replacement charter on Thursday in a major political challenge to the ruling junta.
The moves, while more symbolic than practical, could help woo the country’s armed ethnic militias to ally themselves with the mass protest movement against the military’s seizure of power in February.
The actions were taken by the CRPH, an underground, self-styled alternative government established by elected lawmakers who were not allowed to take their seats when the military staged the coup and ousted and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), the national Parliament, made the announcements on social media.
The 2008 constitution, implemented under Army rule, ensured the military maintained its dominance during the country’s decade of progress toward democracy, such as by reserving it a quarter of the seats in Parliament and retaining responsibility for state security.
The junta that seized power from the civilian government on February 1 cites emergency provisions in the charter as giving its takeover constitutional legitimacy.
The CRPH also presented a Federal Democracy Charter as an interim constitution. It aims to end Myanmar’s long history of military dictatorship as well as meeting the longstanding demands of its myriad ethnic minority groups for greater autonomy in their regions.
The proposals are politically significant because the protest movement against military rule has been seeking an alliance with the ethnic minority armed groups and would like them to form a federal Army as a counterweight to the government armed forces.
Largely peaceful demonstrators in cities and towns have been facing police and soldiers armed with war weapons that they have used freely. At least 536 protesters and bystanders have been killed since the coup.
The CRPH has sought to be recognised as Myanmar’s sole legitimate government body.
Foreign governments and international organisation have not yet granted it formal status, but some acknowledge it as a stakeholder that must at least be consulted. The junta has declared it treasonous.
Myanmar’s junta announced on Thursday it was implementing a unilateral one-month ceasefire, but made an exception for actions that disrupt the government’s security and administrative operations — a clear reference to the movement that has held protests against it daily.
The ceasefire announcement came after a flurry of combat with at least two armed ethnic minority organisations that operate on the country’s borders.
Several of the major groups — including the Kachin in the north, the Karen in the east and the Rakhines’ Arakan Army in western Myanmar — have publicly denounced the coup and have said they will defend protesters in the territory they control.
The Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation, attacked a police station in Kachin state’s Shwegu township on Thursday, according to local news outlets The 74 Media and Bhamo Platform. The attackers were reported to have seized weapons and supplies and wounded one police officer.
The Kachin have staged a series of attacks on government forces in their territory since the coup, saying the latest round of fighting was triggered by government assaults on four Kachin outposts. After one Kachin assault in mid-march, the military retaliated with a helicopter attack on a Kachin base.
Thursday’s Kachin attack came after fresh conflict in eastern Myanmar, where Karen guerrillas seized an army outpost last Sunday. Myanmar’s military followed with airstrikes through Thursday that killed at least 13 villagers and drove thousands more across the border into Thailand, according to the Free Burma Rangers, an established humanitarian group that provides medical assistance to the area’s villagers. AP