People's Liberation Army (Myanmar)
| People's Liberation Army | |
|---|---|
| ပြည်သူ့လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် | |
.png) | |
| Other name | PLA |
Leader | Ni Ni Kyaw (General Secretary) |
| Founded | 15 March 2021[1] |
| Country | Myanmar (Burma) |
| Allegiance | Communist Party of Burma |
| Active regions | |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Size | 1,000 troops (2023) 3,000 troops (2025)[1] |
The People's Liberation Army (abbr. PLA; Burmese: ပြည်သူ့လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော်) is a Marxist-Leninist and Maoist[2] rebel group in Myanmar. It is the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of Burma, whose cadres rearmed themselves after the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) overthrew the civilian government in 2021.
"People's Liberation Army" was also the name of the Communist Party of Burma's first militant arm, which was named after the People's Liberation Army of China.
History
Predecessors
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB) waged an insurgency, primarily in Shan State, from 1948 to 1989. At the beginning, the party's armed wing was named the People's Liberation Army (PLA), homonymous with the People's Liberation Army of China founded around the same time.[3] In September 1950, the PLA merged with regiments of the Revolutionary Burma Army commanded by the communist Bo Zeya, and formed the People's Army.[3] The People's Army was disbanded after a 1989 mutiny which forced the CPB's leaders into exile in China.[4][5] The MNDAA and United Wa State Army formed from these splits.[6][7]
2021 refoundation
The roots of the PLA's refoundation came from before the civil war. In 2017, youth leaders of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions from Shwebo District, Sagaing Region, declared their commitment to Communism and began aiming to rebuild Marxist armed resistance in Myanmar.[1] They contacted the Kachin Independence Army in 2018 and received training in Laiza.[1] Underground members of the CPB also continued militant activity, with most of the underground members being from before the 1989 party split.[1]
The Tatmadaw deposed the democratically elected members of Myanmar's civilian government in a coup d'état on 1 February 2021, and established a junta named the State Administration Council (SAC). The CPB subsequently released a statement on the same day, condemning the coup and calling for a united front against the Tatmadaw.[8]
CPB cadres reentered Myanmar through the country's border with China in March 2021. Five months later, in August 2021, the CPB announced that it had rearmed itself and established a new armed wing to wage a people's war against the SAC. The party chose the PLA name as a call back to their previous armed resistance.[9][10] The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) provided the PLA troops with their initial supply of weapons and equipment.[9]
The PLA claimed in 2023 to have an active force of 1,000 troops. At that time, it was fighting alongside the People's Defence Force in Tanintharyi Region.[11] On 27 October 2023, the PLA participated in the Three Brotherhood Alliance's 'Operation 1027' in northern Shan State and with the MNDAA and TNLA in the capture of Lashio and Mongmit.[1]
From July to September 2024, the PLA allowed 138 elephants and their human handlers to take refuge in its camp near Mandalay. The handlers had fled from junta-run timber camps, where the elephants were used to transport logs through dense jungle. The PLA stated that it intended to protect the elephants from traffickers and the handlers from the Tatmadaw until the junta is overthrown.[12][13]
In a 2025 interview with the Democratic Voice of Burma, PLA general secretary Ni Ni Kyaw stated that the PLA was reconstituted to "eliminate fascists [and the] military dictatorship, and to liberate all groups of Myanmar people from oppression".[14] She noted that the PLA was fighting in numerous areas, including northern Shan State and the Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway and Tanintharyi regions.[14]
On 10 June 2025, the PLA shot down a junta fighter jet during the battle for Kan Dauk police station in Pale Township, Sagaing Region, the tenth such shoot down since 2021.[15] Kan Duak was heavily bombed during the PLA's campaign in the area, with 200 air strikes and 500 bombs dropped, alongside the use of Jet fighter, Y12 bombers, MI35 attack helicopters and paratroopers. By 19 June, the PLA had taken the village and pushed out junta forces.[16] The station is located on the central ASEAN highway and is the second largest police station in the Pale Township, acting as a highly militarised and fortified compound with minefields and trenches before its capture. The PLA was assisted in the takeover of Kan Dauk by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front, People's United Front, Burma Liberation Democratic Front, Thapyataw People's Defense Force, the People's Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Anyar Strategic Battalion.
By August 2025, the PLA announced that it was capable of actively fighting throughout all parts of the country.
On 22 June 2026, PLA camps were raided by People's Defence Force units under the NUG's Myingyan District Command. The raids happened after the family of Than Htay Aung reported his capture by the PLA to NUG's Public Security Bureau on 26 May. According to the PLA, Than Htay Aung served as an informant to the Tatmadaw. Although 3 PDF fighters were reportedly hit by mines, no shots were fired. Than Htay Aung was subsequently released. NUG officials claimed that the PLA threatened harm against him if a 2000 lakh kyat ransom was not paid. The CPB condemned NUG for starting infighting among anti-Tatmadaw groups.[17][18][19]
Ideology
Like its mother party, the PLA adheres to Marxism–Leninism and Maoism. The PLA opposes ethnonationalism and separatism, arguing that Myanmar should be united as a federal state with autonomous regions reserved for the country's ethnic minorities.[20]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "People's Liberation Army (PLA)". ISPMyanmar. Archived from the original on 11 October 2025. Retrieved 20 November 2025.
- ↑ "PLA Soldiers' Pocket Handbook" (PDF). bannedthought.net.
- 1 2 Smith, Martin (1991). Burma: Insurgency and the politics of ethnicity (1st ed.). London and New Jersey: Zed Books. ISBN 0862328683 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Tha, Kyaw Pho (3 October 2013). "The Demise of a Once Powerful Communist Party—Now in Burmese". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
- ↑ Lintner, Bertil (1990). The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University. p. 1. ISBN 0877271232.
- ↑ Xiao Min Liang: The Architect of UWSA Politics. Aik Long. 17 November 2023. Transnational Institute.
- ↑ South, Ashley (2008). Ethnic politics in Burma: states of conflict. Taylor & Francis. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-203-89519-1.
- ↑ "လတ်တလောအခြေအနေနဲ့ပတ်သက်လို့ ဗမာပြည်ကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီရဲ့ သဘောထား ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်" [Statement of the Communist Party of Burma regarding the current situation] (in Burmese). Communist Party of Burma. 31 January 2021. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
- 1 2 "Communist Party of Burma declares People's War against the junta government". Workers Today. 7 November 2021. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021.
- ↑ Bociaga, Robert (24 November 2021). "Myanmar's Army Is Fighting a Multi-Front War". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
- ↑ Thar, Hein (11 December 2023). "Red dawn: Myanmar's reborn communist army". Frontier Myanmar. Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ↑ Reh, Saw (4 September 2024). "Armed wing of Myanmar's Communist Party seizes 138 elephants from junta". Myanmar Now. Archived from the original on 20 July 2025. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
- ↑ "Communist rebels take in more than 130 of Myanmar's treasured elephants as fighting rages on". Agence France-Presse. 6 September 2024. Archived from the original on 30 December 2025. Retrieved 29 October 2024 – via ABC News (Australia).
- 1 2 Ni Ni Kyaw (20 March 2025). "A Q&A with People's Liberation Army General Secretary Ni Ni Kyaw". Democratic Voice of Burma (Interview). Interviewed by DVB English Team. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - ↑ "Myanmar Junta Fighter Jet Shot Down in Sagaing Battle: PLA". The Irrawaddy. 10 June 2025. Archived from the original on 18 July 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ Pyae, Nora; Win, Kyaw Zin (19 June 2025). "Myanmar resistance forces capture key junta position in Sagaing's Pale Township". Myanmar Now. Archived from the original on 4 December 2025. Retrieved 12 October 2025.
- ↑ "မြင်းခြံခရိုင်တွင် NUG တပ်များ စခန်းဝင်စီးသဖြင့် ဆုတ်ခွာပေးခဲ့ရပြီး ရဲဘော်မိသားစုဝင်များ ဖမ်းဆီးခြိမ်းခြောက်ခံနေရဟု PLA ပြော" [PLA says NUG troops raided camp in Myingyan district, forced to retreat, family members of soldiers arrested and threatened] (in Burmese). Mizzima. 22 June 2026.
- ↑ "တောင်သာတွင် PLA ထောင်ထားသောမိုင်းထိပြီး PDF ရဲဘော် ၃ ဦး ကျဆုံး၊ ဒေသခံပြည်သူတစ်ဦးကို PLA ဖမ်းဆီးကာ ကားနှင့်ဆိုင်ကယ်များ သိမ်းဆည်းခဲ့ခြင်းကြောင့် ပြဿနာဖြစ်ပွားဟုဆို" [Three PDF comrades were killed in a landmine planted by the PLA in Taungtha, and the PLA reportedly arrested a local citizen and confiscated his car and motorbikes, causing trouble.] (in Burmese). Myanmar Pressphoto Agency. 22 June 2026.
- ↑ "Tensions Escalate Between Resistance Groups in Mandalay Region". The Irrawaddy. 23 June 2026.
- ↑ Christopher, Michael (12 May 2023). "'We don't want to be slaves': Meet the People's Liberation Army of Burma". People's World. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023.