An inaccurate news report caused uproar and questions amongst ethnic groups because it stated that Nai Hongsar had said that the ethnic armed forces would disarm after a peace agreement.
According to the 13th November report in some Burmese news media Nai Hongsar, the leader of the ethnic negotiating team the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), said President Thein Sein had agreed that the process of discussing disarmament would now happen after the political peace talks between the government and ethnic armed groups were complete.
Nai Hongsar said that the reporter had been confused. All that they had been told was that both sides put a different priority on discussing disarmament.
The peace talks are following a ‘road map’, which is a list of seven different issues that need to be discussed at the peace talks. At present both sides cannot agree on the order or contents of the road map.
Before peace can be properly discussed the ‘road map’ will have to be agreed on.
Originally the NCCT did not want to discuss disarmament, but on the insistence of the government’s negotiators, the Union-Level Peace Working Committee (UPWC), discussions on disarmament were added to the roadmap.
The UPWC wanted disarmament discussions to be issue four on the ‘road map’ but the NCCT wanted it to be the last thing to be discussed, so they wanted it to be issue seven on the ‘road map’.
Nai Hongsar said: “The Tatmadaw (government army) proposed that disarmament should be put in the ‘road map’ at level four but we did not accept this. Because of this difference U Aung Min negotiated with the president and they [the UPWC] said they will try to put it in as issue seven like previously.”
He added that once the dialogue between ethnic armed groups and the Burmese government is completed the ethnic armed forces will not be disarmed. They will just become part of a Union army and will take responsibility for security matters in their respective states.
The last meeting between the UPWC and the NCCT was in September, but there was no agreement on military affairs.
The UPWC has proposed another round of peace talks with the NCCT. It was hoped they would take place at the end of November or the beginning of December, but a date has yet to be finalised.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
