Chin nationalism ‘blossoms’ on northwestern front against junta
A common desire for autonomy among Chin people has helped turn their state into one of Myanmar’s main sites of armed struggle, but resistance leaders say more needs to be done to strengthen unity.
Given* had once considered Myanmar national politics as separate from his ethnic identity. In the general election of November 2020, he had volunteered with his father’s campaign for a Chin State parliament seat with the National League for Democracy, believing the party could be “better for the whole country”.
At the time, this perspective was mainstream in the mountainous northwestern state. Although the incumbent NLD government had repeatedly arrested ethnic activists and had failed to advance federal autonomy for ethnic states, most ethnic parties that competed against it suffered crushing defeats in 2020. In Chin, the NLD won 35 of 39 available parliamentary seats, while the Chin National League for Democracy won only one.
The coup in February 2021, however, dramatically transformed the country’s political landscape. Within weeks, calls to restore the elected civilian government had evolved into demands for a complete overhaul of Myanmar’s centralised political system. By April, a body of elected parliamentarians ousted by the coup had abolished the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, announced an interim Federal Democracy Charter and appointed a National Unity Government to lead its implementation.
These changes were soon followed by a major shift in tactics within the pro-democracy movement, as the junta’s deadly crackdowns on nonviolent protests pushed the public to support an armed response. Resistance armies emerged by the hundreds, often joining forces with ethnic armed organisations against a common enemy.
With the exception of Paletwa Township in southern Chin, which saw intense fighting between the military and Arakan Army from 2014, the state had been peaceful over the previous decade. After the coup, however, it quickly became a key resistance front. Township-based Chinland Defense Forces and other Chin armed groups formed in April 2021 joined hands with the Chin National Front, an ethnic armed organisation which has aligned itself with the country’s wider pro-democracy movement. The groups have since been engaged in intense fighting with junta forces and have claimed significant territory outside the main cities and towns.