On Thursday, the CRPH formally announced the formation of a new government, the National Unity Government, vowing to end the military junta’s dictatorship. On the same day, Burmese opponents of the military coup began to protest against the junta by publicly burning the 2008 constitution drafted by the military.
March 31 marked the expiration of the former NLD government led by Win Myint. On that day, the CRPH issued a circular announcing the abrogation of the 2008 military-drafted constitution and unveiled the Federal Democracy Charter of CRPH, which it said was drafted to meet the long-term demands of Burma’s local ethnic groups for greater autonomy.
The CRPH is composed of members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which Aung San Suu Kyi previously led. After the Burmese military staged a military coup on Feb. 1 this year, a number of NLD party lawmakers, who won the 2020 general election in Burma, spontaneously announced the formation of the CRPH committee on Feb. 5 and appointed an interim vice president and a number of interim ministers. Since then, members of the democratically elected government, which was forcibly dissolved by the military government, have been reaching out to various ethnic armed groups in Burma to build a military alliance against the junta-held National Defense Force.
On March 27, the 76th anniversary of Burma’s military establishment, CRPH’s elected acting vice president, Mahn Win Khaing Than, issued a statement publicly calling for the formation of a new federal army to end the military dictatorship. On the same day, the military government’s bloody crackdown on protesters escalated again, with hundreds of protesters shot dead by military police.
Subsequently, the Shan political organization Reconstruction Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Three Brothers Alliance, representing the Rakhine, Kokang and Daw Aung ethnic groups, as well as Karen and Kachin political organizations, issued statements condemning the military government’s wanton killing of protesters. The statement warned that if the military did not stop the protesters, the government would not be able to stop them. The statement warned that if the military did not stop killing civilians, the political organizations would not stand idly by and would “respond.
On March 27, the base of the 66th Infantry Battalion of the Burma Army’s 66th Mobile Infantry Division was attacked by an anti-government militant group, resulting in more than 60 killed and 14 captured; the next day, another Tatmadaw post in the eastern region was attacked and at least eight soldiers were captured. In the aftermath, the Karen armed group involved in the attack released pictures showing its captured loot and Tatmadaw captives.
The Burmese army then retaliated by conducting airstrikes on Karen National Armed Forces-controlled areas from the evening of March 28 to the early morning of March 29 local time, causing large areas of houses to be burned down and forcing thousands of local residents to flee their homes and go to Thailand to escape the fighting.
In the early hours of March 30, the Burmese army was again attacked by militants at the location of post 44, and although the Burmese army held its position, 22 people were killed or injured in the gun battle.
On March 31, UN Special Envoy for Burma Christine Schraner Burgener warned the Security Council that a “massacre is imminent” in Burma and that a civil war is increasingly likely if the situation is not reversed soon.
Since the 1950s, several anti-government armed groups have emerged in Burma, most of which are made up of ethnic minorities, and have long been fighting for greater ethnic autonomy. In recent years, some of these groups have reached ceasefire agreements with the military government. After Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was dissolved by the military junta, some members of the former government have fled to the base of these armed groups to seek refuge.
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