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The PNLO has joined the war against Myanmar’s junta, prompting a minor leadership crisis, but while that was swiftly resolved, a rival Pa-O group has only grown more powerful.
By FRONTIER
While members of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization were sitting down for negotiations, their counterparts in the Myanmar military were planning airstrikes on their headquarters.
As the situation devolved, the PNLO launched an assault on junta-controlled Hsi Hseng town in southern Shan State.
“The military said that if you seize the town, we will destroy it,” claimed Khun Aung Man, general secretary of the PNLO. “And then they destroyed it intentionally.”
Dramatic events in January and February this year led the PNLO’s armed wing, the Pa-O National Liberation Army, to join the armed uprising against the military regime that seized power in a 2021 coup.
But the developments have also cast into relief deep divisions in Pa-O society. Some senior leaders quit the organisation in protest, while the PNLO finds itself increasingly at odds with the regime-aligned Pa-O National Organization, which enjoys broad support from Buddhist nationalists.
“We very much welcome the PNLO/PNLA joining the fight against the military regime,” said 24-year-old Pa-O student activist Khun Suwanna, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym. “But the sad thing is that Pa-O organisations are always divided. They were divided in the past and they are divided again now. It’s like Pa-O political groups suffer from a splitting disease.”
The history of this disease stretches back decades.
In 1991, the military successfully pressured the PNO – also known as the White Pa-O – into signing a ceasefire with the then-ruling junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council. PNO joint secretary and firebrand Khun Okkar instead broke from the group to form a new militia committed to armed revolution: the Pa-O People’s Liberation Organization.
“Colonel Khun Okkar’s legacy is very big,” said Khun Suwanna. “For years, he carried the flag of the Pa-O armed revolution.”
“Khun Okkar is the most famous person in the Pa-O community after Khun Aung Kham Hti, along with Khun Myint Htun and Khun Thurein,” he added, referring to the current leader of the PNO, the former leader of the PNLO and the current leader of the PNLO.
But these dynamic figures in the Pa-O national movement have rarely gotten along. When Khun Okkar was with the White Pa-O group, Khun Thurein was secretary of the rival Shan National People’s Liberation Organization – known as the Red Pa-O due to their relationship with the Communist Party of Burma.
In 1994, the Red Pa-O also signed a ceasefire with SLORC, but by 2005, the military was pressuring ceasefire groups to completely disarm, a demand the Red Pa-O couldn’t accept. The group’s leaders, including Khun Thurein, decided to resume the armed struggle in 2007, and negotiated a merger with Khun Okkar’s group.
“In fact, it was not easy to cooperate,” said Myint Htun, who was involved in the negotiations, and would go on to lead the PNLO from 2013-2018. He had won a seat in parliament in the 1990 election, the results of which the military refused to recognise, but which still afforded him a degree of respect and authority in the Pa-O community.
“It was difficult to build unity between the two groups. There was a lot of suspicion,” he said.
But after several rounds of discussions, they managed to find common ground, and the two groups were dissolved to form the PNLO.
A few years later, Myanmar appeared to finally be on a path to democracy. In 2011, the military had handed power over to the quasi-civilian Union Solidarity and Development Party, which unexpectedly enacted genuine reforms. The National League for Democracy entered parliament after 2012 by-elections and would go on to win a landslide election victory in November 2015. During this period of heady optimism, the PNLO signed a bilateral ceasefire in 2012 before joining the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015.
But the wheel of history has turned once again. The military abruptly ended Myanmar’s experiment with democracy by overthrowing the NLD, leading some NCA signatories to pull out of the peace process entirely. Khun Okkar, now in his mid 70s, finds himself again embroiled in controversy, but this time his fire appears to have burned out.
The splitting disease
The latest outbreak of the splitting disease began in January in Hopong Township, part of the PNO-controlled Pa-O Self-Administered Zone, which also includes Hsi Hseng and Pinlaung townships. On January 20, a joint PNO and military patrol seized vehicles allegedly transporting weapons for the PNLO near San Hpu village.
Even as negotiations were being held regarding the San Hpu incident, the military allegedly launched airstrikes on the PNLO headquarters on January 22. Days later, the group announced it was officially joining the armed movement against the military regime, launching an attack on Hsi Hseng town in cooperation with the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force and Pa-O Nationalities Defence Force, both formed after the coup.
The allied resistance forces seized the town on February 28, but the fighting didn’t end there. Hsi Hseng was subjected to a barrage of airstrikes that left it devastated, and by April the PNO and military were back in control, although fighting continues in nearby rural areas even today.
Even then, it was apparent there was a disagreement among senior PNLO leaders over whether to fight or honour the ceasefire. But on September 10, it became official, when former chairman and longtime patron Khun Okkar announced his resignation from the PNLO. He accused Khun Thurein of violating the group’s policy of collective leadership to violate the NCA.
The following day, a special meeting of the central executive committee was convened, with 84 percent of attendants voting to maintain Khun Thurein as chairman, effectively seen as an endorsement of the decision to join the fight.
In October, Khun Okkar announced the creation of a new faction called the PNLO (NCA-S), joined by PNLO joint secretaries Khun Min Thein and Nan Yin Yin Soe. In a case of “you can’t quit, you’re fired”, days later the PNLO expelled them.
Pa-O residents were disappointed and confused by the schism.
“It is upsetting to see. I’m sad that they split up. We’re watching it thinking, ‘how did this happen’?” said Nan Lway Lway, a 26-year-old social welfare worker in Hopong Township. “Our ethnic armed group is falling apart when we should be united… Who should we follow?”
But Aung Man, the general secretary, said it’s not a real split: “99pc of the armed forces continue to serve the revolution in the PNLO,” he said.
Another source close to the group also said no troops joined the faction created by Khun Okkar, whom Frontier was unable to reach for comment.
Like other ostensibly neutral groups that have joined the conflict, the PNLO had also been quietly helping the resistance for years. According to Khun Suwanna, the PNLO had been sheltering activists and supporting armed resistance groups, especially PNDF members, since the very beginning of the post-coup conflict.
Aung Man said they are now working on streamlining the Pa-O resistance. The PNLO is coordinating with the Pa-O National Federation Council, a pro-resistance political body led by former PNLO chairman Myint Htun, which oversees some battalions of the PNDF.
“We will fight for the liberation of all the oppressed ethnic people and make alliances with any other ethnic revolutionary forces,” Aung Man said. “We cannot achieve victory alone.”
The real rival
Khun Suwanna said the PNLO’s failure to hold Hsi Hseng led to a public backlash against the armed struggle in general.
“The impact is huge. The PNLO/PNLA didn’t get any political or military benefit from the fighting and it looks like they had no conviction in their military preparation. The public’s view of the war [against the junta] has become more negative,” he said.
Meanwhile, it was the PNO that restored stability, lending it more credibility.
“The PNO started recruiting more in the name of providing security,” Khun Suwanna said.
The PNO is bolstered by the popularity of its charismatic leader Aung Kham Hti.
“He’s like a living god to the locals,” said Suwanna Khun, who added that he relies on Buddhist and Pa-O nationalism to win support. “Many residents go to him to pay their respects. He is more influential than Khun Okkar or other leaders in the Pa-O community.”
Khun Maung, a 48-year-old farmer in Hopong who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, said he supports Aung Kham Hti for his “good morals” and commitment to Buddhism.
“After Khun Aung Kham Hti’s PNO began governing our region, Buddhism became more widespread. Religious buildings and monasteries are growing across our area, and huge religious ceremonies can be held annually,” he said. “This could happen because there was peace.”
The PNO won all parliamentary seats in the area in the last three elections. Lway Lway said it then bolstered its legitimacy by delivering on promises for public services, like roads and electricity, while the PNLO was marginalised.
“Both groups signed a ceasefire with the military but Aung Kham Hti was able to control the region after the ceasefire and did what he had to do,” Khun Maung said, accusing the PNLO of being “greedy”.
The PNO is also very hardline Buddhist and often relies on passionate monks to whip up support in the local community – and fear of the Karenni, many of whom are Roman Catholics. Khun Maung said Karenni anti-regime forces “don’t understand the Buddha or Dhamma” and accused them of bringing war to Pa-O areas.
But Aung Man, from the PNLO, said the current conflict is not about religion or ethnicity.
“It’s a fight between those who want to overthrow the military dictatorship and those who defend it,” he said.
The PNO continues to grow, both from genuine popularity and because of its use of widespread forced recruitment. The group announced that it had recruited more than 37,000 new troops between August 21 and October 3 alone.
Lway Lway conceded that the PNO has delivered a degree of autonomy, but said this hasn’t translated into greater freedom. “Now our region has autonomy, but we don’t have our rights,” she said.
“If we all work together, it’s possible,” she continued. “But the Pa-O revolutionaries need to be sure of the path they take. They can’t slip up halfway to our goal.”
“The revolutionaries say we are close to achieving our goals. But we are very tired. We are tired of running from the war. We are tired of running from military conscription. So, if our goals are close, please hurry.”