Irrawaddy-June 6
At last week’s press conference, Myanmar’s junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun said the regime agrees in principle to United Wa State Party (UWSP) demands that the Wa region be upgraded to a “self-administered state”. It was unclear if this meant the junta agreed to allow the Wa to create an “autonomous state”. The Wa hills in northern Shan State were never ruled by any central authority. Even during the British colonial era, the government’s presence in the Wa hills was very limited. On April 17, 1989, ethnic Wa soldiers split from the Communist Party of Burma and established the United Wa State Army and UWSP and signed a ceasefire with the then military regime. The UWSA has since become the most powerful ethnic armed group in Myanmar. It signed a ceasefire with the then regime but it refused to sign the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The UWSA is headquartered in Panghsan, also known as Pangkham, and is made up of Mongmao, Monglin and Mongpauk districts and Pangkham special township — areas which the UWSA refers to as northern Wa State covering around 1,500 square kilometers. The UWSA wants its northern and southern states to be combined and recognized officially as Wa State. In its statement, it calls itself the Wa State Government. Human rights lawyer U Aung Htoo, the founder of the Legal Aid Network, said: “The UWSA is demanding statehood to gain legitimacy. Statehood would contribute to its external relations, including with China.” It is, however, unlikely that the Wa will achieve statehood with ease. “There is still no democratically elected government in place yet. But observers think statehood will not be easy to achieve because the military will follow the 2008 Constitution,” he added. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/myanmar-regime-unlikely-to-grant-wa-statehood-analysts.html
