By Shawn W. Crispin
Armed conflict could jeopardize upcoming polls in the country.
Can Myanmar have true democracy without genuine peace? Widespread armed conflict, including intensified civil wars in the northern Kachin and eastern Shan States, will challenge the state appointed election commission to organize polls across vast areas of the country if and when constitutionally mandated elections are held in November. An incomplete and fraying peace process will jeopardize electoral security, maximum voter participation and the democratic legitimacy of the results.
Myanmar’s military, or tatmadaw, has quietly launched its largest war effort in the Shan State’s ethnic Kokang region since the country achieved independence from colonial rule in 1948, according to a recent Jane’s Defense Weekly report. The campaign against the rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army represents the first time the tatmadaw has used large-scale combined-arms operations involving mechanized infantry, artillery, armor and air power during six decades of civil war, the Jane’s report said. It claimed “hundreds” of government troops have been killed since hostilities erupted on February 9.
At the same time, increased fighting between Kachin Independence Army rebels and government forces in the country’s northern region continues to displace large civilian populations, with over 100,000 people believed to have fled their homes since armed hostilities resumed in June 2011 after a 17-year ceasefire, according to recent reports. The tatmadaw’s scorched earth tactics in Kachin State, including aerial bombardments of civilian areas, has provided a stark counter-narrative to the quasi-civilian government’s professed pursuit of peace.
Read the full story at The Diplomat