'We Will Fight,' Says Mon Leader

Credit: By LAWI WENG, The Irrawaddy News Magazine, January 30, 2010.

Addressing a crowd of about 1,000 ethnic Mon villagers at 63rd anniversary celebrations of Mon National Day in Palanjapan village near Three Pagodas Pass on Saturday, a Mon leader asked the crowd to clap if they were in support of the Mon army returning to war with Burma's ruling military junta.

Nai Tang Rong, 82, the head of the Thai-Mon community in Bangkok, was making a speech from the stage when he announced: “If we don’t get the freedom we want from the junta, do you think we need to fight them again?

“If you think we need to fight, please clap your hands!” he called to the crowd. The festival crowd immediately broke out in loud applause.

About 100 members of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), including women, then staged a military parade and sang the Mon national song while saluting the Mon flag.

Nai Htaw Mon, the chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), said at a press conference afterward that the Burmese regime was forcing the NMSP's hand by pushing it to join a joint border guard force.

“We can’t accept only one unified military force in Mon State at this time,” he said. “Perhaps when there is a democratic government that can discuss the issue of ethnic rights then we can accept the proposal.”

The Burmese junta proposed in June that the NMSP join a border guard force under Burmese army command. There has been mounting tension between the NMSP and the Burmese military in recent months since the Mon rejected the plan.

“Our people have told us they don’t agree that our troops serve as border guard forces,” Nai Htaw Mon. “We have already told the junta what our people are saying.

He added: “If they continue to put pressure on us or use force or terrorize us, we have to fight. But, we will maintain the cease-fire agreement as long as they do not attack us first.”

He said that the election in 2010 will not be free and fair because there is no democracy under the current constitution nor are there true ethnic rights.

“They will hold this election because it will legitimize them. This election is only for the regime to consolidate its hold on political power,” he said.

Mon National Day commemorates the day when the first Mon kingdom, Hongsawadee, was established in 1116 of the Buddhist Era, or 573 CE.