Surprise call comes with the generals, who seized power in 2021, under major pressure from their opponents.

Myanmar’s military coup leaders have urged their opponents to put down their weapons and start political dialogue, in a surprise move that was swiftly rejected.

The State Administration Council (SAC), as the military has styled itself since seizing power in February 2021, urged the ethnic armed groups and People’s Defence Forces (PDF) fighting against military rule to give up what it described as the “terrorist way” and start political dialogue.

The armed groups have taken control of swathes of the country since combining forces to launch a major offensive in October last year, putting the military under immense pressure.

“Ethnic armed organizations and PDF terrorists fighting against the State are invited to contact the State to resolve the political issues through party politics or electoral processes in order to be able to join hands with the people to emphasize durable peace and development by discarding the armed terrorist way,” the SAC said in a statement published in Friday’s edition of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.

The National Unity Government (NUG), which includes elected lawmakers removed in the coup, swiftly dismissed the offer.

NUG spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said it was not worth considering, according to the Reuters news agency.

The NUG established the PDFs after the military cracked down on mass protests with brutal force.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group, says the military has killed at least 5,706 people since the coup and detained nearly 21,000 people. United Nations investigators said last month that crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the military had escalated at an “alarming” rate.

The generals, who have claimed unsubstantiated fraud in the November 2020 election that returned Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to power, have promised to hold new elections.

It framed the offer for talks as part of its efforts to organise the polls, noting a census was due to start on October 1 to “ensure the accuracy of voter lists”.

It has not given a date for the polls, but in January 2023, it announced strict new election laws that led to the exclusion of the NLD and dozens of other political parties. Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 27 years following secret trials on charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Civil society groups warned that the SAC’s elections were a sham and would be no solution to the crisis caused by the coup.

“Let’s be clear: The junta is teetering on the brink of collapse,” Progressive Voice, a rights-based policy and advocacy group, said in a statement. “This sham election is nothing more than a desperate ploy for false legitimacy and hoax democracy – an exit ticket being sold to the international community.”

Myanmar was under military rule for decades after it secured independence from the United Kingdom in 1948. Those regimes also offered elections before continuing their crackdowns.

“The military was probably hoping that the current generation of diplomats didn’t know that this is from their decades-old playbook and doesn’t represent any kind of genuine change in approach,” Burma Campaign UK director, Mark Farmaner, wrote on X.