Border Guard Forces

In 2008 the new constitution made it mandatory for insurgent groups to transition into a BGF before the government would agree to engage in peace talks.{{cite web|title=Border guard plan could fuel ethnic conflict|url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/91221/myanmar-border-guard-plan-could-fuel-ethnic-conflict|website=IRIN|access-date=8 May 2016|date=29 November 2010|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223358/http://www.irinnews.org/report/91221/myanmar-border-guard-plan-could-fuel-ethnic-conflict|url-status=live}} Following the government announcement on BGFs, the government set a deadline for all insurgent groups to transition into BGFs, and that all ceasefire agreements prior to the deadline would become "null and void". The deadline was originally set to be June 2009, but was delayed five times until September 2010.{{cite web|title=Border Guard Force Scheme|url=http://www.mmpeacemonitor.org/background/border-guard-force|website=www.mmpeacemonitor.org|date=11 January 2013|publisher=Myanmar Peace Monitor|access-date=8 May 2016|archive-date=15 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515111344/http://mmpeacemonitor.org/background/border-guard-force|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LD30Ae01.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501225512/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LD30Ae01.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 May 2010|title=Myanmar ceasefires on a tripwire|last=McCartan|first=Brian|date=30 April 2010|work=Asia Times|access-date=21 March 2012}}

In April 2009, Lieutenant General Ye Myint led a government entourage to meet with Kokang, Shan and Wa insurgent groups, to discuss plans to create "collective security" formed by insurgent groups and under the command of the Tatmadaw, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Border Guard Forces.{{cite news|url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16691 |title=Border Guard Force Plan Leads to End of Ceasefire |last=Wai Moe |date=31 August 2009 |work=The Irrawaddy |access-date=21 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302212345/http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16691 |archive-date=2 March 2011 }} In 2009, four of the insurgent groups, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the Kachin Defence Army (4th Brigade of the KIA), the New Democratic Army – Kachin (NDA-K) and the Pa-O National Organisation/Army (PNO/A), accepted the transition plan's terms and transformed into BGF groups.{{cite web|url=http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/NDF-on-CFG-Eng-March-2010.pdf|title=NDF Report on Ceasefire Groups Resisting SPDC's Pressure and Instability|date=7 March 2010|work=National Democratic Front (Burma)|access-date=21 March 2012|location=Mae Sot, Thailand|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304043543/http://www.burmapartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/NDF-on-CFG-Eng-March-2010.pdf|url-status=usurped}}

On 20 August 2009, Tatmadaw soldiers and recently transitioned BGF groups gathered outside the town of Laukkai, Kokang, in preparation for an attempt to recapture the town from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), after they refused to transform into a BGF.{{cite web |title=Tension sparks people to flee into China |work=Shan Herald |date=24 August 2009 |access-date=29 August 2009 |url=http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2692:tension-sparks-people-to-flee-into-china&catid=86:war&Itemid=284 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902153738/http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2692%3Atension-sparks-people-to-flee-into-china&catid=86%3Awar&Itemid=284 |archive-date=2 September 2009 }}{{cite book|last=Dittmer|first=Lowell|title=Burma Or Myanmar? the Struggle for National Identity|publisher=World Scientific|date=30 September 2010|isbn=9789814313643}}

The government changed its aggressive stance towards BGFs and ceasefires on 18 August 2011, when then President of Myanmar Thein Sein pledged to "make the ethnic issue a national priority" by offering open dialogue between the government and all insurgent groups, without the BGF requirement.

In 2010, a powerful commander of DKBA Saw Chit Thu accepted the Burma government's demands to transform itself into the Border Guard Force, under the command of the Tatmadaw and serving as the leader.{{cite news |title=Kayin State BGF officers and others collectively resign |url=https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/kayin-state-bgf-officers-and-others-collectively-resign |work=Eleven Media Group |date=16 January 2021 |language=en |access-date=12 September 2023 |archive-date=29 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929143629/https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/kayin-state-bgf-officers-and-others-collectively-resign |url-status=live }}

In January 2021, the Tatmadaw pressured Saw Chit Thu and other high-ranking officers, including Major Saw Mout Thon and Major Saw Tin Win, to resign from the BGF. Major Saw Mout Thon of BGF Battalion 1022 resigned on January 8, along with 13 commanders, 77 officers, and 13 battalions from 4 regiments who collectively signed and submitted their resignations.{{cite news |title=BGF ထိပ်သီးခေါင်း‌ဆောင်များ နုတ်ထွက်ခြင်းမပြုရန် တပ်မတော်တိုက်တွန်း |url=https://www.myanmar-now.org/mm/news/5479 |work=Myanmar NOW |date=15 January 2021 |language=my|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929021507/https://www.myanmar-now.org/mm/news/5479|archive-date=September 29, 2022}} Amid controversy and under pressure, at least 7,000 BGF members resigned to protest the ouster of their top leaders. However, Saw refused to retire.{{cite news |date=12 January 2021 |title=ယူနီဖောင်းချွတ်ရန် အစီအစဉ် မရှိသေးဟု ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူပြော |language=my |work=Mizzima |url=https://www.mizzimaburmese.com/article/77374|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417144852/https://www.mizzimaburmese.com/article/77374|archive-date=April 17, 2021}}

On 23 January 2024, Saw Chit Thu told the media that he discussed with Vice-Senior General Soe Win, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, that the Border Guard Force (BGF), would no longer wish to accept money and supplies from the military. They aim to stand independently, and he also claimed that they don't want to fight against their fellow Karen people.{{cite news |title=ကရင်နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ် သီးခြားရပ်တည်ရေး ဒုတပ်ချုပ်နဲ့ ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူဆွေးနွေး |url=https://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/bgf-saw-chit-thu-01242024024421.html |work=Radio Free Asia |language=my|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240125034323/https://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/bgf-saw-chit-thu-01242024024421.html|archive-date=January 25, 2024}}{{cite news |title=ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီးစိုးဝင်း ကရင်ပြည်နယ်ကို နေ့ချင်းပြန်သွားရောက် |url=https://www.bbc.com/burmese/articles/cy953kl3q95o |work=BBC News မြန်မာ |date=23 January 2024 |language=my|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124221520/https://www.bbc.com/burmese/articles/cy953kl3q95o|archive-date=January 24, 2024}}

On 6 March, the Karen BGF announced it would rename itself to the "Karen National Army" later in the month.{{cite news |title=Karen BGF to rename itself 'Karen National Army' |url=https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/karen-bgf-to-rename-itself-karen-national-army/ |work=Myanmar Now |language=en |date=6 March 2024}}

There are no official government guidelines regarding BGFs, but there are lines in the Burmese constitution that reference them.[https://www.burmalibrary.org/docs5/Myanmar_Constitution-2008-en.pdf 2008 Constitution of Myanmar] p. 5, 79, and 155 The following are de facto rules set by the Tatmadaw upon creation of the Border Guard Forces:

• BGFs may only operate in the area they are assigned by the government
• All members of a BGF are to be paid the same salary as a regular soldier in the Tatmadaw
• Each battalion is to have exactly 326 personnel, 30 of whom are to be regular Tatmadaw soldiers
• Important administrative positions are to be held only by Tatmadaw soldiers

All according to Asia Foundation{{cite news |url=https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Militias-in-Myanmar.pdf |title=Militias in Myanmar |work=John Buchanan |date=July 2016}}

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Category:Military of Myanmar

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Category:2009 establishments in Myanmar

Category:Military units and formations established in 2009

Category:Defence agencies of Myanmar