BURMA: MORE INSURGENT GROUPS EMERGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000122 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/04/2017 TAGS: PGOV PINS PREL BM SUBJECT: BURMA: MORE INSURGENT GROUPS EMERGE REF: 06 RANGOON 820 RANGOON 00000122 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Post recently received information about two small insurgent groups, each with about 200 armed soldiers, that continue to resist the SPDC. The Hanthawady Restoration Army in Mon State engages in armed conflict against the Burmese Army, while the Chin ethnic Zomi Revolutionary Army, based in Manipur State, India, claims to be ready to defend Chin State from Burmanization. END SUMMARY. HANTHAWADY RESTORATION ARMY ¶2. (C) Naing Ngwe Thein, Vice Chairman of the Mon National Democratic Front recently told Poloff about an armed Mon group that continues to resist the SPDC. In December 2006, he reported that the Hanthawady Restoration Army (HRA) engaged the Burmese Army in three separate skirmishes. In retaliation for alleged local support to the HRA, he claimed that the Burmese Army recently burned down Duya village, located on a peninsula west of Ye town. ¶3. (C) The HRA split with the New Mon State Party (NMSP) in 1996 when the NMSP reached a cease-fire agreement with the SPDC. (Note: Hanthawady was the name of the ancient Mon capital. End Note.) The HRA has about 200 soldiers and, unlike most Burmese insurgent groups that operate along Burma's borders, is based near the coast in Ye Township. ZOMI REVOLUTIONARY ARMY ¶4. (C) Chin ethnic leader Pu Chin Sian Thang, President of the Zomi National Congress (ZNC) and member of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, briefed Poloff about the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA). He stressed that although the ZRA leader previously had ties with the ZNC, he broke with the ZNC and later formed an armed group. The ZNC has no armed wing. ¶5. (C) The leader of the ZRA, Thang Lian Pau, elected an MP in the 1990 elections, was the former General-Secretary of the ZNC. Following the annulled elections, according to our source, Thang Lian Pau revealed information to the SPDC about ZNC internal affairs, so was expelled from the party. He moved to India, where he founded the Zomi Revolutionary Organization, also called the Zomi Reunification Organization, in 1993. Three years later, he established its armed wing, the ZRA, with 200 soldiers believed to be mostly Paite ethnics from India. The ZRA is based in Churachandpur District, Manipur State, where our sources claimed it supported itself through extortion and occasional kidnapping. The ZRO/ZRA primarily champions Paite interests, but aspires to unite ethnically related Chin, Hmar, Kuki, Mizo, Paite, and Zomi communities who live in India, Burma, and Bangladesh in a separate Indian state to be named Zogum. The ZRA signed a six-month cease-fire agreement with the Indian Army in 2005 that expired on January 31, 2007. The ZRA has no cease-fire agreement with the SPDC. THE CHIN NATIONAL ARMY DEFUNCT ¶6. (C) According to our source, after the Chin National Army was established in 1964 (reftel),it steadily lost members until only five soldiers remained. These five recently joined the ZRA, bringing its membership up to 205. Villagers from Falam, Hakha, and Tiddim in Chin State reportedly invited the ZRA to come and defend them against Burmese Army demands for their forced labor. The ZNA responded that it would save its weapons to defend Chin State once the SPDC starts to "Burmanize" it. ¶7. (C) COMMENT: We doubt either group poses much of a RANGOON 00000122 002.2 OF 002 security threat to the Burmese Army. It does reveal the fractional nature of Burma's many insurgencies, which have never grasped the concept that unity would make them more effective against the Burmese Army. END COMMENT. ¶8. (U) This cable was coordinated with Consulate Kolkata. VILLAROSA