In an exclusive interview with DVB, Chin National Front (CNF) executive committee member and veteran leader of the 1988 generation Salai Khua Uk Lian revealed that rival Chin resistance factions have agreed to draft a new joint constitution and transition toward a unified Chin State government under a single body called the Chin National Council.
The breakthrough follows high-level talks held in Aizawl, Mizoram, on Oct. 16, where representatives from the CNF and the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC) met with the facilitation of local leaders in northeastern India’s Mizoram State capital Aizawl to overcome a year of political stagnation and division.
Salai Khua Uk Lian explained that the CNF has agreed to set aside its existing Chinland Council constitution, choosing instead to co-author an entirely fresh charter that all Chin resistance groups can adopt.
While joint military operations remain temporarily paused in contested combat zones such as Kyindwe, Kanpetlet, and Mindat townships of southern Chin pending institutional unification, he emphasized that the two sides are actively reconciling and that the CNF stands ready to provide immediate operational support whenever requested.
Addressing broader national politics, the CNF leader firmly rejected Naypyidaw’s recent peace invitations to four ethnic armed organizations, declaring that the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) was completely voided by the 2021 military coup when the military ended Myanmar’s democratic transition.
He characterized the regime’s policy of inviting armed groups individually while excluding the National Unity Government (NUG) and People’s Defence Force (PDF) as a classic divide-and-rule since Burma’s independence in 1948 designed to fracture solidarity between the country’s diverse ethnic nationalities.
Reaffirming the CNF’s commitment to nationwide resistance structures, Salai Khua Uk Lian expressed strong support for the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF) formed on March 30.
Led by a seven-member political body representing ethnic organizations alongside emerging federal units from Sagaing, Magway, and Mandalay regions, the SCEF is establishing administrative frameworks and military coordination bodies while actively working to bring in the Arakan Army (AA) and other resistance forces to accelerate the fall of the military dictatorship.
