Myanmar junta urges armed opposition to join political fold in elections

(Reuters) -Myanmar's ruling military on Thursday urged its armed opponents to abandon what it called "terrorism" and join the political fold in a general election next year, in an unexpected outreach to its enemies that was quickly rebuffed.

Myanmar is locked in a civil war, with the junta fighting on multiple fronts against an armed resistance movement, the People's Defence Forces, which are loosely allied with several ethnic minority rebel groups with a bitter history with the military.

"To work for eternal peace and development hand-in-hand with the people, the ethnic armed groups, terrorists and PDF terrorists who have been opposing the state should leave the armed terrorism route and we invite them to join the party politics and election route," the military government said in a statement.

The offer was the military's first olive branch to its rivals since its 2021 coup, having resisted international calls to enter into dialogue with what it insists are terrorists determined to destroy the country.

But Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government swiftly rejected the plea from military for its armed affiliates, the PDFs, to abandon their rebellion and form a party.

NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said the offer was not worth considering, and the junta had no authority to hold an election.

Maung Saungkha, the leader of the Bamar People's Liberation Army, a militia formed in the wake of the coup, told Reuters: "we are not interested in this offer."

DISCREDITED ELECTION

The proposed election has already been widely derided as a sham and the outcome is unlikely to be recognised by western countries, with dozens of parties disbanded for not registering to run, including the dominant National League for Democracy, whose government the generals toppled in a 2021 coup.

The military in July said 27 of the parties that have registered for the election have denounced the rebellion.

The country of 55 million people has been in turmoil since the military ousted the popular NLD administration of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, citing fraud in an election it won two months earlier by a landslide.

Many politicians including Suu Kyi were arrested, while those who fled said the junta's allegations of fraud were baseless and trumped-up to justify the coup. Suu Kyi has been jailed for 27 years for a multitude of offences, which she denies committing.

Ye Myo Hein, senior advisor to the United States Institute of Peace think-tank, said the move was likely a gesture by the junta to show it had attempted to make peace, while underlining its intent to forge ahead with its election.

"As I see it, they released the statement to position themselves as having extended an invitation for everyone to participate in the election, while also signalling their intent to conduct the election," he said, adding it was likely that giant neighbour China had encouraged the generals to make the offer.