By DPA
Bangkok : Myanmar’s major insurgent and dissident groups are planning to meet Sunday to discuss supporting the monk-led rebellion in Yangon.
“We will meet on Sep 30 to discuss our common strategy,” Shan State Army leader Yaw Serk said Wednesday.
The meeting, at an undisclosed place, is to include various groups opposed to Myanmar’s regime, including former Myanmar student activists on the Thai-Myanmar border, the National League for Democracy politicians in exiles and other insurgencies.
“We’re not planning a military offensive now, because the regime would probably take advantage of it to crack down more on ethnic minorities,” Yaw Serk said in a telephone interview with DPA.
The SSA is one of a handful of Myanmar ethnic minority-based insurgent groups that have been waging sporadic guerrilla wars against Yangon’s military regime for the past four to five decades.
Karen National Union (KNU) Secretary General Mansha has confirmed that a meeting to discuss common strategy was in the works.
He denied news reports that the Myanmar Army Divisions 22 and 44 had been withdrawn from Karen territory to beef up the army’s strength in the former capital Yangon.
“It was just a troop rotation,” said Mansha of recent troop movements in the Karen State.
“But we have told the troops on the frontline to support the uprising in Yangon,” said Mansha. “There was no response,” he added.
Myanmar watchers have long contended that Myanmar’s military dictatorship, which has been in place since 1962, will only fall apart from within. To date, the armed forces have been remarkably unified.