(Staff article from the ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on September 7, 2021.)
Sharing his demands on Facebook, the NUG's acting
president Duwa Lashi La called for "a people's defensive war against the
military junta", and urged ethnic organisations to immediately attack coup
leader Min Aung Hlaing. He also called on soldiers, police and civil servants
to defect to the "public revolution".
"Following the coup, the [Myanmar] people have not passed a day with joy. It has been eight months since the military continuously and cruelly murdered, tortured, detained and imprisoned using many laws," he said in the subtitled video which lasted almost eight minutes.
"Today ...
we launched a people's defensive war against the military junta. As this is a
public revolution, all the citizens within [the] entire Myanmar, revolt against
the rule of the military terrorists led by Min Aung Hlaing in every corner of
the country."
The junta has
previously branded the NUG and People's Defence Forces as terrorist groups. It
said on Tuesday a call for revolt by the shadow government was a bid to gain
international attention and recognition from the United Nations General
Assembly that would not succeed.
The NUG is
seeking to destabilise the country, including disrupting a national coronavirus
vaccination programme, but is heading for failure, military spokesman Zaw Min
Tun said, according to the Telegram channel of the army-owned Myawaddy
television.
As part of the
revolution, Duwa Lashi La said that civil servants, including those recently
appointed by the military, should "immediately leave" their positions
and stop being "deceived". "From today onward, all the civil
servants under the military council, we warn and forbid you from going to the
office," he said.
"All the
Border Guard Forces (BGF) and all the militias being deceived by the junta ...
from now on, join with the people and attack the people's enemy. This
revolution is a just revolution. [It is] a necessary revolution for building a
peaceful country and an establishment of a federal union."
Spokesperson for
the NUG, Dr Sasa, told the ABC the NUG's declaration was about formally laying
out a strategy to topple the military regime and unite the people. "The only
way to make the junta weaker is for the people's revolution to coordinate
together," Dr Sasa said.
"This is a
very strong message to the military junta that the people of Myanmar say
'enough is enough'. This is the only option left, there is no other option like
diplomatic options or political options."
Dr Sasa, who
goes by one name, said it was also important to show the international
community that the people of Myanmar remain steadfastly opposed to living under
a military dictatorship. "It is very significant that we all now declare
ourselves in front of the world, in front of our neighbours, and in front of
the military generals that we are united," he said. "We will no
longer live in fear."
(Following is the public statement, offering negotiations to NUG, by Myanmar Military as a response to the NUG's declaration of the revolutionary war against Evil Myanmar Army.)
