The Karenni State Government, an interim government formed by the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) and its allies, yesterday issued a statement objecting to announcements concerning the formation of People’s Administrations by both the Home Affairs and Immigration Department of the National Unity Government (NUG) and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH).

The National Unity Government (NUG) announced on April 25 that more than 22,000 CDM staff from the General Administration Department have helped establish Interim Local People’s Administrations (PAFs) across 29 townships of Sagaing Region and seven townships in Magway. 

The announcement came shortly after the NUG’s ministry of defense claimed that the parallel government and its allies were in de facto control of 45 percent of Burma’s territory.

The CRPH announced on April 14 that the People’s Administration of Demoso will form administrative boards in villages under its jurisdiction. CPRH-backed administrations have, according to the body of politicians elected in Burma’s doomed 2020 elections, been created in more than 250 townships, with anti-military groups allegedly controlling territory significant swathes of territory in seven regions and three states since the revolution began.

Aside from providing basic administrative functions necessary due to the military’s destruction of civil society, PAFs, according to the NUG, are to provide oversight over People’s Defense Forces operating within townships in question.

The second secretary of the KNPP, Aung San Myint, said that his party objects to the formation of the People’s Administrations in Kayah as their establishment is in violation of the Federal Democracy Charter drafted by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), a deliberative body and parent to the NUG.

“The Federal Democracy Charter states that states can handle their own legislative and judicial affairs. The CPRH and NUG have formed their own administration boards for education, health, and many other issues. There must be negotiations with [Karenni] state if they want to form something. But there will be issues if they do not negotiate or have discussions with us,” he told DVB.

Aung San Myint suggested that the NUG’s formation of administrative, judicial, and legal bodies in Kayah State was in violation of Sec. 52 of the NUCC’s Federal Democracy Charte and urged all organizations party to the inclusive NUCC forum to follow the provisions of the charter.

Acting NUG president, Duwa Lashi La, has recently urged resistance forces to establish “ground dominance”, considered to be the next phase of the NUG’s war strategy. Since last year’s “D-Day”, firm territorial control has been typified by the establishment of civilian administrative and judicial bodies operated by resistance groups and CDM civil servants.

Since the coup, township-level PAFs across Burma have provided services with the schooling, health care, and justice sectors destroyed by the military coup; the NUG’s People’s Police Interim Administrative Committee claims almost 3,000 CDM defectors, whilst an All-Myanmar CDM Firefighters Representation Committee boasts 544 CDM fire departments under its control, helping local people both extinguish military arson attacks and report on their effects. The Immigration Department CDM Representative Committee is helping issue national ID cards to Burmese caught in conflict, as well as helping undocumented Burmese migrants obtain residency permits in Thailand.

The Karenni State Government’s Ministry of Home Affairs has stated it will not accept the jurisdiction of any parallel administrative bodies without consultation with the Karenni State Advisory Council and other regional revolutionary groups.

The NUG and CRPH have yet to respond for comment.