The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), one of Burma's largest ethnic armed organisations (EAO), has announced that it will not participate in the so-called peace talks with the regime-appointed State Administration Council (SAC) in Naypyitaw.
“Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing has invited us to attend the peace talks, but we will not come,” KIO spokesperson Col Naw Bu told NMG.
In late April, Min Aung Hlaing had invited EAOs to send two representatives to the capital in a speech broadcast over the junta's mouthpiece MRTV.
With the interim National Unity Government and all the People's Defence Forces excluded from the talks, Naw Bu said the meeting will be a failure. “People all over the country are involved in the revolution and some of them are also participating in the armed struggle...Without including all these important players, we cannot hope to solve Burma's political problems.”
The KIO spokesperson also pointed out the absence of observers who have always been part of the government's peace initiatives in the past. ''We do not expect good results from this meeting," he said.
A KIO statement on 5 May, responding to the invitation letter sent by SAC's Gen Min Naung, said the regime was not ready to "seek a political solution through dialogue".
Naw Bu said Min Aung Hlaing had said he wanted ''to end all armed conflicts" but that “the armed struggle is happening because we cannot solve the political problems...to find a political solution, everyone must participate in political dialogue and negotiations”.
At the end of April, the SAC's spokesperson, Maj Gen Zaw Min Tun, told the media that most of the EAOs would participate in the peace talks. However, it seems that not only the KIO is boycotting the talks, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Karen National Union and the Chin National Front have also stated that they will not send representatives. All these EAOs are fighting against the regime forces.
