SUMMARY
The National Unity Government (NUG) was a political group founded on 16 April 2021, in the midst of large-scale anti-coup protests, which were met by brute force by the Myanmar’s military. The group’s objectives include to overthrow the military regime, the restoration of democracy, human rights, and the establishment of a federal state in Myanmar. NUG’s armed group, People Defense Forces (PDF) was established on 5 May 2021. Led by interim president Duwa Lashi la, NUG mainly consisted of elected members of National League for Democracy (NLD), lawmakers, and activists. NUG claimed to be the legitimate government of Myanmar and operated throughout Myanmar, with Sagaing region considered as their stronghold.
On 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, took over the power from democratically elected ruling party NLD and detained President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. Following the coup, elected representatives and parliamentarians of the November 2020 general election, who were unable to take their seats because of the coup, established Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH, Committee Representing the Lower House of Parliament) in order to oppose the military regime.
The coup triggered a nation-wide protest, where peaceful protesters were killed, beaten, unlawfully detained, and tortured. During the turmoil, tens of people left central Myanmar for the remote border regions, where some of the ethnic armed organizations had claimed their control. They sought to receive necessary military training and weapons, and organized village/town defense forces to fight against the military and protect themselves against the violence. The peaceful protesting turned into an armed resistance as a response to brutal crackdown by the military.
On 16 April 2021, CRPH announced the line-up of cabinet for the newly established National Unity Government (NUG), which was followed by the meetings between CRPH members and leaders of several ethnic armed organizations. The NUG was based on a parliamentary system and included a prime minister, president, state counsellor and a vice-president. On 5 May 2021, NUG announced their armed wing, People Defense Forces (PDF), to protect people, prevent killings and other violent acts by the military regime. The PDF was created to eventually be the Federal Union Army, which would unite the Bamar militia with Myanmar's ethnic armed organizations.
With the creation of NUG and PDF, the unorganized anti-coup resistance groups and local defense forces rebranded themselves as the local chapters of the PDF as they pledged allegiance to NUG. Even though initially there was no clear centralized command system between NUG and local PDFs, the local PDFs entered UCDP data with the creation of NUG.
The group has collaborated, received trainings from, and conducted joint attacks with some of the ethnic armed organizations and their armed wings, in particular the KNU (Karen National Union), KIO (Kachin Independence Organization) and KNPP (Karenni National Progressive Party).
On 7 September, the acting president of NUG, Duwa Lashi La, officially declared war on the military regime in order to end the military rule. NUG called on all citizens to join the armed resistance throughout the country and declared a state of emergency.
NUG has been involved in the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
