PALAUNG CELEBRATES FORTY YEARS OF ARMED RESISTANCE ( PSLF )

PALAUNG CELEBRATES FORTY YEARS OF ARMED RESISTANCE

(PSLF, January 13, 2003)

From a liberated area near the Thailand border, the Palaung State Liberation Front issued a statement in commemorating the 40th anniversary of armed struggle today, on January 12, 2003.

To gain their rights for self-determination, the Palaung, an ethnic group in Burma, fought against the military regime in Burma over the past four decades but its leading armed force, the Palaung State Liberation Party reached a cease-fire with the military regime in 1991. The PSLF claimed the cease-fire was reached because Palaung civilians were severely pressured and suppressed by the regime.

According to Mai Aik Phone, the General Secretary of the PSLF, the cease-fired Palaung group has also been active in the tripartite dialogue and has continued to oppose the junta by cooperating with other allied forces even though agreeing to a cease-fire with the regime inside Burma.

The PSLF was active along the Thailand Burma border and became a member of the ethnic armed umbrella organization; the National Democratic Front (NDF) after the PSLP reached a cease-fire agreement in 1991.

In recognition of their four decade long armed struggle, the PSLF urged the regime to enter into a tripartite dialogue, composed of the ethnic nationalities, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democratic forces, and the junta, and to release all political prisoners in conjunction to a nation-wide cease-fire peace process in Burma.