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YANGON, Myanmar: Opponents of Myanmar’s military government late Wednesday posed a major political challenge to the ruling junta, declaring the country’s 2008 constitution void and putting forward an interim charter to replace it.
The moves, while more symbolic than practical, could help woo the armed militias maintained by the country's ethnic minorities to ally themselves with the mass protest movement against the military's seizure of power in February.
The actions was taken by the CRPH, an underground, self-styled alternative government established by elected lawmakers who were not allowed to take their seats in when the army staged its Feb. 1 coup ousting the government of Aung San Suu Kyi. CRPH stand for Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the national Parliament.
The committee announced Wednesday night on social media that it has revoked the 2008 constitution, which was implemented under army rule and ensures the military retains major influence in government, including veto power over constitutional change by automatically being granted a quarter of the seats in Parliament. The army claimed its Feb. 1 seizure of power was carried out according to constitutional rules.
The CRPH also presented a “Federal Democracy Charter” to serve as an interim constitution. In addition to seeking to put an end to the country’s long history of military dictatorship, it is also meant to work towards meeting the longstanding demands of the country's many and myriad ethnic minority groups for greater autonomy in the areas of their populations.
The issue has great current political significance because the protest movement against military rule has been seeking an alliance with the ethnic minority armed groups to boost pressure on the junta. It would like them to form a federal army as a counterweight to the government armed forces.
Largely peaceful demonstrators in the cities and towns of Myanmar have been facing police and soldiers armed with war weapons that they have used freely. At least 536 protesters and bystanders have been killed since the coup, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which counts those it can document and says the actual toll is likely much higher.
The CRPH has sought to be recognized as Myanmar’s sole legitimate government body. Foreign governments and international organization have not yet granted it formal status, but some acknowledge it as a stakeholder that must at least be consulted.
The junta has declared it an illegal body guilty of treason.
Myanmar’s junta announced earlier Wednesday it is implementing a unilateral one-month ceasefire, but made an exception for actions that disrupt the government’s security and administrative operations -- a clear reference to the movement that has held daily nationwide protests against its seizure of power in February.
The movement against military rule focuses on civil disobedience, calling on employees in the public and private sectors to stop work that supports the machinery of governing.
The announcement came after a flurry of combat with at least two of the armed ethnic minority organizations that maintain a strong presence in their respective areas along the borders. Even in times of peace, relations have been strained and ceasefires fragile.
There was no immediate reaction to the ceasefire announcement from the ethnic minority forces. Several of the major groups -- including the Kachin in the north, the Karen in the east and the Rakhines’ Arakan Army in western Myanmar -- have publicly denounced the coup and have said they will defend protesters in the territory they control.
The Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization, attacked a police station in Kachin state’s Shwegu township before dawn Wednesday, according to local news outlets The 74 Media and Bhamo Platform. The attackers were reported to have seized weapons and supplies and wounded one police officer.
The Kachin have staged a series of attacks on government forces in their territory since the coup, saying the latest round of fighting was triggered by government assaults on four Kachin outposts. After one Kachin assault in mid-March, the military retaliated with a helicopter attack on a Kachin base.
Wednesday’s Kachin attack came after fresh conflict in eastern Myanmar, where Karen guerrillas seized an army outpost Saturday. Myanmar’s military followed with airstrikes through Wednesday that killed at least 13 villagers and drove thousands more across the border into Thailand, according to the Free Burma Rangers, an established humanitarian group that provides medical assistance to the area’s villagers.
The conflict in eastern Myanmar spread the crisis to neighboring Thailand, where an estimated 3,000 Karen took temporary shelter. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said they quickly went back across the border voluntarily and were not forced by Thailand. Thai authorities said Wednesday that only about 200 remained in the country and were preparing to go back.
Protests continued in Myanmar’s cities against the military takeover.
Demonstrators marched through at least one area of Yangon despite reduced numbers in the face of the ever-climbing death toll. The mainly young protesters in the city’s Hlaing suburb stopped to honor a protester killed in an earlier confrontation with security forces.
In another development, an outside visitor was able to see Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time since she was detained during the coup. She spoke by video link with one of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, according to the online news site The Irrawaddy.
Suu Kyi, who is thought to be held somewhere in the capital Naypyitaw, has been detained on several minor criminal charges, and the army said it is investigating more serious allegations of corruption against her. Her supporters dismiss the legal actions as politically motivated, aimed at discrediting her and preventing her from returning to the political arena, where she is the country’s most popular figure.
“She is in good health,” said Suu Kyi’s lawyer, according to the report. “she even urged us to stay healthy. She was smiling and looked relaxed,”
An unconfirmed report late Wednesday by the online news service Khit Thit Media said the government has filed six serious new charges against her, including treason and corruption, but as of Wednesday night there was no official announcement to that effect.