Myanmar army announces truce with guerrilla groups

BEIJING — Myanmar’s military has reached a cease-fire agreement with an alliance of ethnic minority guerrilla groups it has been battling in the country’s northeast, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday. Myanmar’s ruling junta confirmed the development.

The agreement was brokered Wednesday and Thursday at talks mediated by China in Kunming, a southwestern Chinese provincial capital about 250 miles from the border with Myanmar, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

“China hopes the relevant parties in Myanmar can conscientiously implement the agreement, exercise maximum restraint toward each other and solve the issues through dialogue and consultations,” she said at a daily briefing in Beijing.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson of Myanmar’s ruling military council, said in an audio note to journalists that the two sides had met and agreed on a temporary cease-fire.

“We will continue discussions. We will continue to work for the strengthening of the cease-fire,” Zaw Min Tun said.

A previous truce, reached in mid-December, was not honored by either side.

Mao said the military and the Three Brotherhood Alliance — which comprises the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army — agreed to an immediate cease-fire, the disengaging of military personnel and the settlement of their disputes through negotiations.

“The two sides promised not to undermine the safety of Chinese people living in the border area and Chinese projects and personnel in Myanmar,” she said.

Independent media in Myanmar and foreign media reported similar details, but there was no direct word from the alliance on the cease-fire deal.

The media reports said the military agreed to stop aerial bombing and artillery shelling in northern Shan state, which abuts China, and the Three Brotherhood Alliance agreed to halt its offensive and not seek to capture more towns and army encampments.

The reports said the cease-fire would not apply to fighting in other regions of Myanmar.

Myanmar has been racked by violence that began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The Three Brotherhood Alliance launched an offensive against the military in October and last week took control of Laukkaing, a key city on the border with China. The attacks have posed the greatest battlefield challenge to Myanmar’s military rulers since the army takeover.

Much of the fighting is along Myanmar’s border with China, blocking crossborder trade and threatening further political destabilization of Myanmar, a strategic ally of China that is entangled in civil war in many regions.

China is concerned about the rising violence and the safety of Chinese citizens in northern Myanmar. China has also been cracking down on cyberscam operations that have trafficked Chinese workers into Myanmar, including in Laukkaing.

The alliance has claimed victories, including the seizure of more than 250 military posts, about a dozen towns and five major border crossing points controlling crucial trade with China.

Zaw Min Tun said Myanmar and China would continue to negotiate reopening the border trading gates, which were closed after combat began and are mostly now in the hands of the Three Brotherhood Alliance.