Maung Aye Visits Troops in Shan State

Burma's No. 2 general, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, who is also commander in chief of the Burmese armed forces, visited government troops in northeastern and eastern Burma this week amid speculation of an outbreak of armed conflict in the northeastern frontier.
Military sources in Shan State said the purpose of Maung Aye’s tour in Shan State was to encourage government forces and their family members who are worried about the resumption of armed conflict in the region sparked from tensions over the junta's border guard force (BGF) plan, a government proposal to integrate ethnic armies into Burmese army command in border areas.

Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye.

The junta set April 22 as a new deadline for various ethnic armies to accept the BGF plan, including the strongest ethnic insurgent group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, as well as its ally, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), which is based in the eastern Shan State town of Mongla.
Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the junta's negotiator with ethnic armed groups, reportedly told the UWSA and NDAA officials at separate meetings in late March that if they do not respond positively to the junta’s call to accept the BGF plan by April 22, they will face legal action.
In preparation for conflict, family members of government troops in Shan State have been called up for basic military training since March.
“Even women here have to attend military training,” said a military source in Shan State. “Everyone is worried about war.”
The UWSA and the NDAA have put their troops on alert and have mobilized their war offices, according to sources close to the ethnic groups.

Despite the tension, businessmen in the area report that it is business as usual on the road from Riuli to Lashio, the main Sino-Burmese border trading route.
“Trade is running as normal at the moment. Nothing unusual has happened here,” a businessman in Muse, a border town, said. “However, we have learned that the Burmese government is restricting border trade through areas controlled by the UWSA and the KIO [Kachin Independence Organization].”
The Burmese state-run-newspaper The New Light of Myanmar also reported this week that Maung Aye was in northern and southern Shan State. He attended a graduation ceremony at the Defense Services (Army) Officers Training School in Bahtoo, southern Shan State, and toured a pagoda and hospital in northern Shan State.
Maung Aye was accompanied by other senior generals, including: Quartermaster-General Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo who also holds the position of junta secretary-1; Chief of Military Ordnance Lt-Gen Tin Aye; and Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and Lt-Gen Ohn Myint, who are chiefs of the Bureau of Special Operations 2 and 6 respectively.
Maung Aye also met key military commanders in Shan State and talked with the commander of Eastern Regional Military Command, Maj-Gen Yar Pyae, in southern Shan State, and Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut in northern Shan State.
During his speech at the graduation ceremony in Bahtoo, Maung Aye vowed that the Burmese army would repulse all forms of danger that could harm the independence and sovereignty of the nation.
State television and newspapers have shown pictures of Maung Aye alongside junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Thursday at Naypyidaw Airport. Burma’s top two generals saw off Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein who was going to face the international community at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hanoi over the electoral law issue.