Yangon Shan Youth Association

Tai Youth Yangon, a civil society youth organization, was formed with five basic principles² after the military coup of February 1, 2021¹. After the coup, it took part in protest and strike marches. Its first protest³ began with Shan people who support federal democracy marching with signs from 9 Mile in Mayangone Township to Hledan in Kamayut Township. It then protested together with the "General Strike Committee of Nationalities⁴ (GSCN)" and the "Shan Nationalities Strike Column⁵". Besides taking part in the movement, it also helped⁶ the families of protesters shot dead by the terrorist junta.

It took part in "The Freedom Charter"⁷, issued by the GSCN on March 22, 2021, and in the protests⁸ by "General Strike of Nationalities" columns led by the GSCN, not only in Yangon but in other major cities across the country. When the terrorist junta violently crushed the strikes, it urged people to join silent strikes such as the Silence Strike, and continued with guerrilla strikes⁹.

On March 28, 2021, the GSCN sent an open letter¹⁰ to 16 ethnic armed organizations asking them to protect defenceless people. The association also shared, through its social media page, news of strike actions by Shan youth in the region¹¹ and of protests by Shan people abroad calling for the complete end of military dictatorship¹².

Tai Youth Yangon has built close and firm partnerships with the AJMM and GSCN, and works together on Shan State affairs with the Shan CSOs Network, the Dai Youth Conference Working Committee and the Global Shan Network¹³.

On April 17, 2021, under the title "Shan Politics: What and Where?", it brought together Shan political leaders and Shan armed leaders and called¹⁴ attention to the fact that the time had come to declare a free federal Shan union. It also urged and called¹⁵ for the two ethnic armed organizations in the Shan region, the SSPP/SSA and the RCSS/SSA, to join together. Together with other organizations, Tai Youth Yangon has continuously helped displaced people in the Karenni region¹⁶ and, with the Tai Students' Union (TSU), displaced people in Shan State¹⁷.

On July 12, together with nine Shan organizations, it issued an open letter¹⁸ regarding the formation on June 11, 2021, of the Ta'ang (Palaung) Region Interim People's Administration under the guidance of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), and the plan to expand it to include seven townships in northern Shan State. The open letter said that, because those areas are not inhabited only by the Ta'ang (Palaung) people, such expansion would amount to engineering ethnic conflict in the region and exploiting political instability; that the CRPH does not include organizations representing the Shan nation or Shan armed groups; and that because the CRPH/NUG does not represent Shan State or the whole Shan nation, the CRPH must take responsibility and be held accountable if ethnic problems arise.

When Sai San Kham Aik, vice-chair of the Tai Youth Organization (TYO) in Namhkam Township, died while detained by the SSPP/SSA, which accused him of links with the RCSS/SSA, on June 28, 2021, it issued a statement¹⁹ with 18 organizations objecting to and condemning the act and calling on all armed organizations not to use violence against the public. As armed fighting²⁰ between EAOs in the region then continued, it focused more on relief for displaced people and health care work²¹ than on protests and strikes.

After video emerged on August 2, 2021, of the TNLA beating two Mong Ngaw residents and burning two homes in Chone Thit village, Kyaukme, and of threats to kill informants made by people in civilian clothes entering many places and displacement camps in Mong Ngaw Township, it issued a statement with nine organizations on August 6 rejecting and objecting to these violent acts, and also sent a copy to the Chinese Embassy in Yangon²². On March 16, 2022, it issued a further position statement²³ on unsolved killings in Shan State.

On June 22, together with 14 Shan organizations inside and outside the country, it also issued a position statement on the arrest²⁴ by a local defence force (PDF) of Sai Kyan Aung (a.k.a. Sai Hsay Laing), the person responsible for Shan Ni literature and cultural development in southern Banmauk Township, Sagaing Region. On September 9, together with 11 organizations, it issued a position statement in both Shan and Burmese²⁵ on the arrest and killing by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and PDFs of U Gandhama, abbot of the monastery in Naung Pat village, Banmauk Township, Katha District, Sagaing Region, and secretary of the fundraising team of the All Myanmar Shan Ni Sangha Union, and on the arrest and killing of Shan Ni literature and culture activists.

On April 25, 2023, together with 13 Shan organizations, it called for the relevant ethnic armed revolutionary organizations and political parties to help stop by any means²⁶ the terrorist junta's Upper Yeywa and Nam Tu hydropower projects on the Myitnge (Dokhtawady) River in Kyaukme and Hsipaw townships in northern Shan State, as well as the Middle Yeywa project still to be built, saying they bring no benefit to Shan people.

On October 29, 2023, it jointly issued "Latest Information on Displaced People in Northern Shan State and an Appeal by Shan Youth Organizations", strongly objecting to using civilians as human shields and denying them escape and medical treatment, and appealing²⁷ for help for displaced people in Lashio who urgently need to leave, for opening displacement camps, and for donations of needed food and supplies.

When Operation 10:27 by the three Northern Alliance members began in northern Shan, it issued on November 11 a position statement of monks inside and outside the country, the Shan public and civil society organizations, saying that armed forces on both sides were committing human rights violations against the public in the armed conflict; that they were seizing territorial control in a premeditated way to profit from the BRI (Silk Road) project; and that there was mobilization aimed at causing ethnic conflict; and asking the relevant parties to exercise restraint so that problems would not grow bigger²⁸.

On November 29, together with 28 groups, it issued a statement supporting²⁹ the ceasefire declaration between the region's armed forces, the SSPP/SSA and the RCSS/SSA.

The first "Tai" Youth Conference, lasting three days from May 13 to 15, 2024, was held on the Thai–Myanmar border, with young people from 20 Shan youth and student organizations and Shan community-based civil society organizations. The conference issued six policies and positions and three decisions: building understanding, trust and cooperation among Shan/Tai youth in different regions; arranging and creating a platform/body to connect work across sectors; and, for this, setting up a "Working Group/Team" with one representative delegated by each attending organization on behalf of its parent organization.

After armed conflict in Shan State intensified again from late June, on July 1 it issued, in the name of Shan youth civil society organizations, a paper titled "Latest Human Rights Situation in Northern Shan"³⁰. It has also published, on its own page, figures on displacement camps and displaced people in Kyaukme and Hsipaw townships, as well as the status of assistance coordinated with international partners.