The eight armed groups that signed last year’s nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) have pledged to find solutions for non-signatory groups to be included in the peace process. A statement calling for more inclusion was issued at the end of a three-day meeting attended by forty representatives from the eight ethnic armed groups in northern Thai city Chiang Mai.
The NCA, a culmination of former president Thein Sein’s extensive peace process, was criticized for being divisional after excluding six of the country’s twenty-one groups from taking part. In the end, thirteen refused to sign it.
The NCA signatory groups are Karen National Union, Chin National Front, Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army, the Pa-O National Liberation Organization, Arakan Liberation Party and All Burma Students’ Democratic Front.
Current peace talks among NCA signatory groups and the government have in effect left the majority of the country’s armed groups out of the peace process even though many have already signed individual ceasefires.
An organizer for the upcoming Union Peace Conference in August said only NCA groups will be able to vote on decisions.
Full support will be given to the conference, said NCA signatories, as it will help lead the country towards national reconciliation, internal peace and the establishment of a democratic federal union.
According the groups, the NCA is only a starting point for starting political dialogue on ending the conflicts in the country and resolving political issues.
Col. Khun Okkar, patron for Pa-oh National Liberation Organisation that signed the agreement, said building the union into a federalist system is already included in the NCA but what needs to be decided was “how to amend the political framework and submit the views and concept of Panglong”.
The NCA groups vowed to cooperate with allied ethnic armed groups, the Burma Army and government.
Lt. Gen. Mya Htun Oo, a high-ranking Burma Army officer, said at a recent press conference: “The 21st Century Panglong Conference is based on the NCA so I believe it is a genuine Union Peace Conference because the State Counsellor has said that the Panglong Conference and the Union Peace Conference is the same.”
“We only need to make it successful.”
Mya Htun Oo said the military has no objection to the ethnic armed group summit in Maijayang in Kachin State before the peace conference, adding that the leaders needn’t worry about their security.
When asked if peace can be obtained without a single gunshot, he explained that the military is part of the peace process because it doesn’t want to fire any gunshots.
Reporting by M.N.A.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by BNI staff
