Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has recommended the Proportional Representation electoral system for the country, referring to provisions in the controversial peace treaty, the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
He delivered the message in a speech at the ceremony to mark the 8th anniversary of the NCA on 15 October, in the presence of representatives from some political parties, ethnic armed organisations, envoys from neighbouring countries, foreign diplomats, and representatives from international organisations.
Min Aung Hlaing insisted that the PR system could ensure all-inclusive participation of ethnic groups in building a federal Union, quoting from Chapter 1 of the NCA, to “establish a union base on the principles of democracy and federalism in accordance with the outcomes of political dialogue and guarantees”.
He also said that the NCA was ratified by the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (parliament) as a Union Accord, and it will remain in force eternally.
Although he repeatedly said that the military sticks to implementating of the NCA agreement, their attacks on civilians are increasing across the country.
According to a report from the Institute for Strategy and Policy—Myanmar issued in June this year, at least 8,640 civilians have been killed since the 2021 military coup.
A report just released by the Peace Research Institute Oslo finds that at least 6,000 civilians were killed in the first 20 months following Myanmar’s military coup.
The military chief added that the Tatmadaw has declared a unilateral ceasefire with effect from 21 December 2018 to 31 December 2023.
The annual report from the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (Mechanism) in August 2023 said that the Myanmar military and its affiliate militias are committing increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.
The Myanmar military’s war crimes include indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on civilians from aerial bombings, such as the military airstrike in Sagaing in April 2023, mass executions of civilians and detained combatants, and the large-scale and intentional burning of civilian homes and buildings, resulting in the destruction of entire villages in some cases.
The Mechanism report was collated from information collected from more than 700 sources, including more than 200 eyewitness accounts, and additional evidence such as photographs, videos, audio material, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence.
Its investigation covered the violence that led to the large-scale displacement of the Rohingya from Myanmar in 2016 and 2017, and the prevalence of sexual and gender-based crimes committed against the Rohingya at this time.
The Myanmar junta chief also said that his regime held a total of 121 peace talks from February 2021 to September 2023, of which 73 were dialogues with NCA signatories, 25 with NCA non signatories, 16 with political parties and seven were with peace facilitator groups.
In an open letter from the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, the China National Front and the Karen National Union on 13 October, the writers said that the Military Council violated the basic principles and objectives of the NCA because it is stopping the path to an inclusive peace process negotiation and trying to destroy the country’s democratic structures by imprisoning the elected leadership in the aftermath of military coup in February 2021.
The letter said that the military has committed more than 100 massacres in the past two years in EAO’s territories and across the country, including recent massacres at Mung Li Hkyet IDP Village, which killed 29 civilians, including women and children, and injured 50 displaced persons.
At the anniversary event, Min Aung Hlaing also invited the non-signatories of NCA to join in political negotiation.
However, in the open letter from the three resistance forces, they said the Tatmadaw insisted on excluding several EAOs from signing NCA which then led to other major EAOs such as KIO, SSPP and AA not signing, but the military eventually invited them as observers.
“We believe that the fake implementations of NCA such as fake talks and putting pressure on us based on the NCA, the sham acts of amending the constitution under the guise of the 2008 Constitution, and the sham elections that the SAC is preparing to hold are all deepening the country's crisis and pushing the country into a protracted conflict.”
