The Era of the State Law and Order Restoration Council and the State Peace and Development Council

after independence in 1948 the Burma Communist Party started an insurgency and various

national groups such as Kayin, Mon, Kachin, Shan also took up arms against the Government.

Most of these armed groups operated near the border areas and in the Shan, Kachin, and

Kayah States; their insurgencies survived through the taxes levied upon opium and the

profits they made from its refining and smuggling.

       From the outset of independence, successive

Myanmar Governments had endeavored to achieve peace and tranquility through political and

military means. Amnesties were declared, and peace talks conducted in 1953, 1963, 1974 and

1980. Although there were a few cases where some splintered insurgent factions returned to

the legal fold, no impact was made on the overall situation. Only after the advent of the

State Law and Order Restoration Council (Tatmadaw Government) was there a real

breakthrough, when almost all the armed groups, professing trust and confidence in the

sincere efforts of the Government, returned to the legal fold.

       Once the Tatmadaw had assumed the

responsibilities of State, it laid down the three national causes which are being realized

through four political, social, and economic objectives. In fulfillment of one of these

political objectives, the goal of “the rebirth of national unity”, those

national groups who had taken up arms against the Government were invited to meet it and

hold peace talks. At present 17 armed groups have now returned to the legal fold.

       The Burma Communist Party, formed by a group of

young Marxists in 1939 with the aim of achieving independence, held the view that a

Communist State could come about only through armed insurrection. Consequently, it took up

arms against the government on 28 March 1948. Various armed groups also followed suit and

insurrections raged across the country.

        In 1950 the BCP under foreign advice set up

base camps near the Northeastern border and dispatched some 150 troops there from Central

Myanmar. In January 1968 they launched their offensive operations in the Shan State,

Kokang and Mongkoe areas. They were able to extend these operations in the Kachin State,

the Kokang Area of the Shan State, Southern Shan State, the Kayah State, and by

establishing alliances with the Kachin Independence Organization and the Shan State Army.