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Listening to Voices Perspectives from the Tatmadaw’S Rank and File

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Listening to Voices Perspectives from the Tatmadaw’S Rank and File Listening to Voices Perspectives From the Tatmadaw’s Rank and File Listening to Voices – Perspectives From the Tatmadaw’s Rank and File 1 Methodology and training: Soth Plai Ngarm Project coordinaton and writng: Amie Kirkham Writng and editng support: Raymond Hyma, Amelia Breeze, Sarah Clarke Layout by: Boonruang Song-ngam Published by: The Centre for Peace and Confict Studies (CPCS), 2015 Funding Support: The Royal Norwegian Embassy, Myanmar, Dan Church Aid ISBN: 9 789996 381768 2 Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................. 4 Preface ................................................................................. 5 A Brief History of the Tatmadaw ........................................... 9 Implementaton and Method ............................................. 14 Findings in Brief .................................................................. 20 Expanding Main Themes .................................................... 23 Peace and the peace process .............................................. 23 Development needs included in negotatons .................... 32 Life in the rank and fle ........................................................ 34 The future: challenges and needs ....................................... 36 Overcoming Prejudice – insights from the listeners ............. 40 Conclusions and Opportunites ........................................... 43 Bibliography ....................................................................... 45 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The young men and women who volunteered to work as listeners in this project hail from a range of community based civil society and actvist organisatons. Their personal stories make their startng point on a research project about the Myanmar Tatmadaw, nothing less than antagonistc. Nevertheless, they embraced this project with a commitment to give people in Myanmar, including those of the dreaded Tatmadaw, a voice. This willingness to engage with people who might be considered their arch enemies took courage and a heartelt belief in humanity and social change. The result of their interactons challenged even them, was at tmes painful and surprising, and in their words they ‘felt transformed’ by the dialogues they had. Without their commitment to this project, the research would not be possible, and the voices of soldiers from the Tatmadaw rank and fle might not be heard. 4 PREFACE The Myanmar peace process has focused on dialogue between multple non-state armed groups and government actors in an atempt to increase the engagement of non-state armed groups in the politcal sphere, address their immediate needs and create ceasefre agreements. Progress has been made with the signing of numerous peace-related agreements since 2011, which has reduced fghtng in some areas across the country and successfully created space for a more diverse range of voices to be heard in top-level discussions. The Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, backing the peace process is imperatve to its success. The Tatmadaw has been a central fgure in Myanmar’s politcal and economic spheres for over six decades. The insttuton has shown support for the democratsaton processes that have accompanied the peace process and more recently, they have engaged in formal negotatons between the Myanmar government and various armed groups. However, a commitment by Tatmadaw leadership to holistc and lastng engagement has not yet been made. Broadly, three main challenges for the Tatmadaw remain within the scope of the peace process. Firstly, leadership needs to contnue to commit to the peace process. Next, the insttuton as a whole needs to reform in areas relatng to decrease of troop numbers and some form of assimilaton or legitmaton of non-state armed group forces in a union army. This is an area that is yet to be addressed. Lastly, the Tatmadaw will need to reform its image domestcally and internatonally. This will require more professional training focusing on relatons with the public and the media. Myanmar civilians of all ethnicites across the country’s diverse regions need to view the natonal 5 army as an insttuton whose primary concern is to protect the interests of the people of Myanmar. People in Myanmar and the internatonal community ofen see the Tatmadaw as a monolithic insttuton whose reputaton overshadows the fact that it comprises a diversity of individuals with varying opinions, experiences and desires. The Centre for Peace and Confict Studies (CPCS) takes a confict transformaton approach to peacebuilding. CPCS focuses on supportng the transformaton of relatonships between groups involved in violent confict and building inclusive engagement of all actors in peacebuildng and peace processes. The idea to listen to soldiers from the Tatmadaw’s rank and fle grew out of observatons and learning from the ‘Listening to Voices – Myanmar’s Foot Soldiers Speak’1 project, which spoke to 100 non-ranked soldiers from six non-state armed groups. On-going analysis and refectons that surfaced afer this research and through working with various groups involved in the peace process identfed that engaging the Tatmadaw is a key component for its lastng success. This project aims to challenge the stgma that ofen surrounds discussions of the Tatmadaw, and listen to soldiers from their rank and fle; to ask soldiers what they think about the peace process, and to listen to their perspectves, desires and challenges. Through listening to Tatmadaw soldiers, the project seeks to beter understand how their experiences within the insttuton and being directly involved on the frontlines of confict have shaped their opinions of peace and the peace process, and to beter understand their concerns and desires for the future. 1 Publicaton downloadable from: htp://www.centrepeaceconfictstudies.org/wp-content/ uploads/Listening-to-voices_Myanmar_Foot-Soldiers-Speak.pdf 6 In carrying out the work, the team faced a number of challenges. Finding a way to speak to soldiers without creatng unnecessary risks for researchers, or receiving opinions censored by the military leadership was the frst challenge. To begin, it was unclear if it would actually be possible to speak to soldiers from the Tatmadaw’s rank and fle. The research team decided to use listening methodology as the research method for this project. Conversatons conducted by teams of ‘listeners’ who approached soldiers informally and asked if they were willing to share their opinions was the best way to try to gain access. This approach was used rather than atemptng to gain permissions through formal channels. Listening teams went to six diferent regions across Myanmar, where military bases were located and found that soldiers could, and wanted to, share their opinions, experiences and stories. In total, the project listened to 67 soldiers over one month in June, 2014. Soldiers were surprised and happy to be asked their opinions; a new concept to many who were part of a hierarchical structure where there was litle space for individual voices. Soldiers shared a range of opinions and afrmed the project’s underlying premise that the voices of the Tatmadaw rank and fle should be heard, understood, and included in the peace process. Through this project the attudes and perspectves of the listeners themselves also began to transform. The listeners comprised individuals of various ethnicites including ethnic minorites and ethnic Bamar. Many had strong negatve preconceptons about the Tatmadaw and were apprehensive about approaching soldiers. Afer meetng and listening to soldiers they began to see them as ordinary people who struggled to make a living and provide for their families. Listeners started to understand that the actons they had witnessed the Tatmadaw commit had been 7 based on orders from the insttuton and these orders were made in the context of warfare. This was perhaps the most important fnding of the project: even on a small scale, Tatmadaw soldiers could be ‘humanised’ and viewed as ordinary people. Listeners showed courage in their willingness to support this project by speaking to soldiers and being open to challenging their personal perceptons. It was not an easy task. This project is an atempt to look at the Tatmadaw as an insttuton comprised of individuals, to build awareness, share personal perspectves and highlight the diversity of the insttuton. It was carried out with the hope to engage the Tatmadaw more holistcally in the peace process in the future. 8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TATMADAW The Myanmar Armed Forces, also known as the Tatmadaw, have shaped contemporary Myanmar more than any other insttuton in the country. They have signifcantly infuenced the state through their prolonged military rule and campaigns, and have played an extensive politcal role during various phases of civilian or semi-civilian rule. Given their role and impact, one cannot claim to know the situaton in contemporary Myanmar, without a comprehensive understanding of the past and present roles of the Tatmadaw. The origins of the Tatmadaw can be traced to the creaton of the Patriotc Burmese Forces in 1945, a combinaton of two separate militaries established in the late 1930s and early 1940s. One had been fghtng for an independent Myanmar, and the other was formed by the Britsh and comprised mostly of ethnic minorites. From Myanmar’s incepton as a post-colonial state in 1948, the Tatmadaw were engaged in batles against a number of armed insurgencies.2 The situaton worsened soon afer independence, following a mutny of eight out of ffeen batalions
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