Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's embattled junta on Thursday invited armed groups opposed to its rule to stop fighting and start talks to bring peace, after three-and-a-half years of conflict.
The unexpected offer comes after the junta suffered a series of major battlefield reverses to ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces" that rose up to oppose the military's seizure of power in 2021.
As well as battling determined resistance to its rule, the junta is also struggling with the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, which triggered major flooding that has left more than 400 dead and hundreds of thousands in need of help.
"We invite ethnic armed groups, terrorist insurgent groups, and terrorist PDF groups which are fighting against the state to give up terrorist fighting and communicate with us to solve political problems politically," the junta said in a statement.
The military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected civilian government in February 2021, triggering mass protests that were met with a brutal crackdown.
Civilians set up PDFs to fight back and ethnic minority armed groups -- many of which have fought the military for decades -- were reinvigorated, plunging the country into civil war.
Armed groups should follow "the path of party politics and elections in order to bring about lasting peace and development", the statement said.
"The country's human resources, basic infrastructure and many people's lives have been lost, and the country's stability and development have been blocked" by the conflict, the junta said.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been battling the military for decades for more autonomy along the border with Thailand, said talks were only possible if the military agreed to "common political objectives."
"Number one: no military participation in future politics. Two they (the military) have to agree to a federal democratic constitution," he told AFP.
"Number three: they have to be accountable for everything they have committed... including war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said. "No impunity."
"If they don't agree with it, then nothing will happen," he added.
"We will keep putting pressure on them politically, militarily."
- Election pledge -
The junta, which justified its coup with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections won by Suu Kyi's party, has long pledged to hold fresh polls when conditions permit.
Census takers are due to start collecting data in early October in preparation for possible polls in 2025.
The military has lost swathes of territory in border areas in the past year after a major surprise offensive led by a trio of ethnic minority armed groups.
The groups have seized control of lucrative border crossings and last month took Lashio, a city of 150,000 people -- the biggest urban centre to fall to rebels since 1962.
Batches of conscripts have been training after the military enforced a draft law in February -- prompting tens of thousands of eligible young people to flee the country to avoid being called up, according to rights groups.
More than 5,700 civilians have been killed and over 20,000 arrested in the military crackdown since 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local monitoring group.
The United Nations warned last week that Myanmar was plunging into a human rights "abyss", detailing shocking torture meted out by the military on people in its custody.
Detainees reported being beaten with iron poles, bamboo sticks and motorcycle chains, and being terrorised with snakes and insects.
Pope Francis has offered refuge on Vatican territory to Suu Kyi, Italian media said on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old Nobel peace laureate is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges ranging from corruption to not respecting Covid pandemic restrictions.
Rights groups say her closed-door trial was a sham designed to remove her from the political scene.
