Saw Tun Aung Myint, chair of the Kayin People’s Party (KPP) urged ethnic armed group to “continue to negotiate in line with the NCA (nationwide ceasefire agreement) so that [the peace process] won’t make a U-turn.”

“We are worried that it will fall apart,” he said at a roundtable discussion on the peace process in Yangon on November 22.

A new ethnic negotiating bloc led by the United Wa State Army has served a formidable challenge to the government as the coalition rejects the NCA and wants to renegotiate a new ceasefire pact. The seven-member Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC) is composed of groups actively fighting the Tatmadaw in northern Kachin and Shan States.

Saw Tun Aung Myint said peace discussions have hit a wall after the second Union Peace Conference – also called the 21st Century Panglong – in May, failed to produce any political settlements.

According to the KPP, the political discussions at the conference were supposed to encompass four points: equality, self-determination, establishment of a democratic federal Union and non-separation from the Union. The government insisted the ethnic armed group leaders first agree on non-separation from the Union before they would address the remaining topics.

“I feel sad that we are stuck on these three points,” said Saw Say Wah, the KPP’s general secretary. “I wish for the establishment of a reconciliation path with mutual patience and understanding. I hope they can find a path that can be accepted by both sides. No matter what kind of difficulties they face, it’s important to overcome them in order to prevent the peace process from backsliding.”

The Yangon-based Kayin People’s Party was established in May 2010. The party won six seats in the 2010 election and one seat in the 2015 election. Its seats earned it the right to participates in the Union Peace Conferences.