ABSTRACT
Since shortly after independence, the Tatmadaw had been waging military
campaigns against both the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), and a shifting – and ideologically divided – alliance of ethnic nationalist insur-
gents. As China withdrew its support in the mid-1980s, many of the pre-
dominantly ethnic minority footsoldiers of the People’s Army, and their
local leaders, became alienated from the ageing, Burman communist lea-
dership. Following a decade of military setbacks, in early 1989, the CPB col-
lapsed and split into four ethnic militias, which quickly agreed ceasefires with
the government. Within a few years, a number of NDF ethnic insurgent
groups – most notably, the KIO and NMSP – had followed the ex-communists into the ‘‘legal fold’’ (see Chapter Five).
