The Burmese government has demanded that the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) provide an inventory list of its weapons, as well as disclosure of its total number of troops, an anonymous KIO official told KNG.
The deadline for providing the information is reportedly July 15, and was presented by the government’s Peace Commission in a meeting in Mongla on June 30, according to the KIO.
The KIO is holding a meeting with three other members of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups—the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army—to prepare for the meeting.
“The government’s negotiation style has changed these days. Their negotiation style is like the ’63 Program,” the KIO official told KNG, referring to peace talks held in 1963, the early years of the Ne Win-led military regime.
Gen Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party refused to hold political negotiations with the KIO in 1963, but put pressure on the group to surrender.
According to the KIO official, the Peace Commission has proposed that the KIO sign Burma’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement before any political dialogue takes place.
Bilateral ceasefire talks between the military and members of the Northern Alliance have been on pause since May. The military has extended its unilateral ceasefire in Kachin and northern Shan states by two months for a second time as of June 30.
