Exploiting Ethnic Conflicts in Attempt to Consolidate Military Control
1.4 Exploitation by the Junta
By utilizing disputes among Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations, pro-military
Telegram channels attempted to disseminate the junta’s existing propaganda
and generate ethnic conflicts. Tensions between the SSPP and the TNLA
were exploited to portray the TNLA as an invader to Shan region and the
military as protector of the region. According to the narrative created by
the junta’s propagandists, Shan people are more inclined to support Burmans
due to existing ethnic tensions between Shan people and Ta’ang people.
Additionally, they stressed that the military plays an important role in
repelling Ta’ang’s invasion. Pro-military Telegram channels also disseminate
information which could intensify the hostility between ethnic groups, such
as “TNLA is oppressing and murdering Shan people”, “TNLA is deliberately
fueling a war to destroy Hsipaw which is the seat of Shan Sawbwas, while
Shan youth would retaliate by burning down Ta’ang regions such as Namhsan
and Manton”. Simultaneously, Shan Revolutionary Organizations were
portrayed as “incapable of defending their territories and kinsmen”,
deliberately instilling in Shan people to retaliate against Ta’ang people.
Similarly, the MNDAA’s military activities were also portrayed as the invasion
of the Chinese and their ethnic groups into Myanmar’s Shan region. In this
propaganda, Kokang were painted as China-backed outsiders while Shan
people were portrayed as natives to the region. The junta’s loss of territories
in northern Shan was exaggerated with the defeat being framed as if a
foreign power were conquering Myanmar’s territories and threatening the
country’s national security.
Pro-military Telegram channels argued that “Ethnic Armed Revolutionary
Forces prioritized ethno-nationalism over federalism and democracy, and
the war they triggered was merely to advance their own interest”, thereby
denigrating the actions of Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations. They also
ventured to inflame ethnic tensions by arguing that an ethnic armed
revolutionary group discouraged other ethnic people from settling in a city
they occupied by practicing a heavy-handed policy. Furthermore, the group
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