Myanmar Rebels Reject Embattled Junta’s Peace Offer

Rebel groups have rejected a peace offer from Myanmar’s embattled junta, which is reeling from battlefield losses and defections in a civil war that has dragged on for more than three years.

This is a dictatorship’s first such outreach since it seized power in 2021. It also comes after a ceasefire brokered by China in the northern Shan state fell apart.

The junta called on ethnic armed groups and “terrorist insurgent groups” to “communicate with us to solve political problems politically,” also urging them to join elections planned for next year.

The exiled National Unity Government, NUG, said the offer was not worth considering, adding the junta had no authority to hold an election.

The junta extended an olive branch Thursday as it struggled to fight on multiple fronts and stem a widespread rebellion.

Some reports say the junta now has control of less than half of Myanmar’s territories.

In June, an alliance of three ethnic armies renewed an offensive against the military, seizing territory along a key highway to China’s Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar.

The fighting near the border in Shan state has blocked China’s ambitious plan to connect its landlocked south-west to the Indian Ocean via Myanmar.

Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, is thought to have delivered a warning to the country’s ruler, Min Aung Hlaing, during a visit to Myanmar last month.

Armed groups should follow “the path of party politics and elections in order to bring about lasting peace and development,” the junta said in its statement on Thursday.

“The country’s human resources, basic infrastructure, and many people’s lives have been lost, and the country’s stability and development have been blocked because of the conflict,” it said.

But the rebel groups are sceptical of the offer.

BBC/Shakirat Sadiq