SUMMARY
SSPP (Shan State Progress Party, sometimes referred to by the name of its armed wing Shan State Army- North, SSA-N) was a rebel group that fought an intrastate armed [conflict]](/#statebased/11972) over territory against the Government of Myanmar (Burma). SSPP was created on 16 August 1971 as the political wing of the Shan State Army (SSA), a nationalist group that demanded independence for Myanmar’s Shan state; it was one of several armed groups to be organized among the Shan ethnic minority group. The Shan rebellion had begun already in 1958, and the original SSA was created in 1964 when several smaller armed groups merged. Following a split within the SSA in 1976, the northern units of the SSA (“SSA-North”) and SSPP aligned themselves with the Communist CPB. Aside from the SSPP, the second major faction to emerge after the 1976 split was RCSS/SSA-South. By placing itself nominally under CPB’s leadership, the SSPP/SSA-North adopted a pro-Communist agenda; however, the SSPP still pursued its own Shan nationalist objectives to some extent. By the late 1980s, the primary goal of the Shan nationalist movement had shifted from independence to “self-determination” and increased “autonomy”. Following the disintegration of the CPB in 1989, SSPP was one of several armed groups to abandon it in favor of pursuing its own, independent cause; however, the group signed a ceasefire agreement with the Government of Myanmar (Burma) before it could launch an independent military campaign.
UCDP considers SSPP to have had intimate links to the original SSA movement, which means that SSPP was considered to have kept the original group’s territorial incompatibility over Shan state against the Government of Myanmar (Burma). While no formal SSPP statement regarding this could be found, the UCDP considers this incompatibility as formally stated from the moment the group abandoned the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and reestablished itself as an independent actor in 1989.
Like several other ethnic rebel groups that had been closely affiliated with the CPB, the SSPP had been given a swath of territory to rule over in return for laying down its arms in 1989. Since then, the SSPP has been located in the “Shan State Special Region 3” in the Loilen district; it was believed that it engaged in various illicit economic activities, such as taxation and logging, which had been implicitly mandated by the Myanma government. While the group never disarmed, its relationship to the Government of Myanmar (Burma) was largely non-violent prior to 2011. However, when this arrangement came under threat, the group decided to fight the government. The primary goal of the SSPP was thus to retain control over the territory it had been granted by the government in 1989, when the group agreed to a ceasefire following the disintegration of CPB.
Following the ceasefire agreement signed in 1989, many of the group’s members defected to the MTA. Furthermore, in 2009, several of the group’s military units broke away from the SSPP to accept the Myanma government’s offer to become part of the national Border Guards. Nevertheless, it was believed that the SSPP may have had as many as 3000-4000 fighters during the early 2010s. Prior to 1989, there were many different leaders of the SSPP; one notable example was Sai Zam Muang, who led the group when it subordinated itself to the CPB. There was relatively sparse information regarding the group’s leadership in more recent times. As of 2004, the military leader was said to be Loi Mao. In 2009, the group came under the leadership of Lieutenant General Pang Fa, who served as both chairman and commander-in-chief. Pang Fa was credited with reorganizing the group after several of its units joined the government-controlled Border Guard Force.
