The Shan State Army (; abbreviated SSA) was one of the largest insurgent groups that fought government forces in Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). The SSA was founded in 1964 after the merging of two existing insurgent groups.
The SSA recruited and trained thousands of local Shan people to join their ranks. Although their initial purpose was to fight for autonomy in Shan State, their battle had extended to fighting against the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), Kuomintang soldiers sponsored by the CIA in Myanmar, and opium smugglers in Shan State. The SSA however, could not fulfill its goals, and in 1976 it dissolved. It would later become the basis for the Shan State Army - North and the Shan State Army - South, but the SSA was not directly linked to either group.
History
Resistance by the Shan State can be traced back to the pre-colonial period, when the Shan kingdoms, once largely independent, fell under the power of a Burmese conqueror, Bayinnaung in 1555. Since then, Shan had tributary relations with Burman rulers; however, was never directly ruled by them.
Since the British rule in 1886, Shan rulers were placed under the direct rule of the Governor of India as separate sovereignty. As Shan rulers had full control of its internal matters, many recall the period of British rule as “Golden Age”. However, when the Government of Burma Act 1921 was passed, the question of to where Shan principalities and other peripheral areas would belong arose. The British decided to transfer these areas to the Governor of Burma and grouped the principalities together to form the Federated Shan States in 1922. Their status was largely degraded from an almost sovereignty to a tax-paying sub-province of Burma.
In 1941, Aung San left Burma for Japan with his colleagues, and received military training by the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the British. He returned in 1942 with the Japanese Army and successfully pushed the British away to India. In 1945, he went against the Japanese under the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL). After the war ended, the Burmese insisted on the amalgamation of the ethnic groups and independence, and engaged on strikes. Devastated by the war themselves, the British signed an agreement in 1947, promising its independence within a year. Shan State's political status was further degraded from a sub-province to a “tribal area under direct bureaucratic rule”.
Burma's independence was accepted by the London Agreement, which Aung San signed in 1947. In terms of the borderland states, clause 8 was provided for the “early unification of the Frontier Areas with Ministerial Burma” and a Frontier Areas Commission of Enquiry (FACE) was to be set up to hear the wishes of the non-Burmese ethnic groups. On 12 February, Aung San invited the ethnic groups and held a Panglong Conference to agree on their equal rights, which was only signed by Shan, Kachin, Chin and Karenni. The agreement was that the right of self-government and full autonomy was recognized for Shan and Karenni and autonomous status for Kachin and Chin area. Regarding this conference, Chao Tzang Yawnghwe, a former SSA soldier, writes in his memoir that “it was a rubber-stamp providing Britain with an opportunity to abdicate all responsibilities with respect to the Frontier Areas”. Although the ethnic groups that signed the agreement trusted in Aung San, they were not satisfied with it. The trust did not last long, as Aung San was assassinated on 19 July, the same year.
On 4 January 1948, Burma became independent and was ruled by a civilian government led by U Nu. After almost 60 years of British rule, however, it was not in peace, as uprisings by ethnic groups as well as communists erupted. Ethnic groups demanded for succession and independence, as well as autonomy, equal rights and federal democracy within the Union of Burma. Until the late 1950s, the signatories of the Panglong Agreement- Shan, Kachin, Karenni and Chin- cooperated with U Nu. However, uprisings among ethnic groups continued. Within Shan State, there was the Pa-O of southern Shan state who began as a group supporting the Karen, but later by early 1950s became a movement against the Shan princes. Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalists (KMT) forces encamped on eastern Shan after being retreated from China. They built up strong forces with the assistance of the United States, which alerted the Burma Army units to be sent into the Shan State.