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Peace talks to end decades of bitter war in Myanmar begin

Talks begin a process to hopefully end conflicts that have sporadically raged in the country's seven ethnic states
Peace talks to end decades of bitter war in Myanmar begin

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon posing for a group picture with ethnic rebel leaders and top government officials during the opening of the peace conference in Naypyidaw on Aug. 31. (Photo by AFP) 

Published: December 28, 2016 05:40 PM GMT
Updated: December 26, 2016 04:46 AM GMT

(UCAN Series: Best of 2016)

The ethnic armed group in Myanmar's heavily Christian Kachin state, which has been racked by periodic civil war with the military over six decades, is one of 17 groups attending the country's latest Panlong Peace Conference.

It's the first foray for peace in the Myanmar's vast and bitter ethnic conflicts under the government of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — who has never appeared comfortable or even confident on the topic.

Yet ethnic regions voted overwhelmingly for her National League for Democracy in last year's election, giving her a strong mandate to press for a solution to the country's single biggest problem — and she has doubled the number of militias at the table, compared with the rushed effort of the previous military government.

The military, in a classic demonstration that its political heft remains daunting, despite being rejected by voters at the ballot box, has escalate its offensive against Kachin, Shan and Palaung groups in Kachin and northern Shan states.

The six-year-old resumption of a fight that had been dormant for 17 years in 2011 has resulted in more than 100,000 people forced into internal displaced persons camps and which witnessed many churches destroyed.

Still, long running conflicts in other Myanmar's smaller states with large Christian populations — Chin, Karen, and Kayah — have ended but similarly have left more than 100,000 people stranded, some for a generation in refugee camps across the Thai border.

The fighting in Kachin and northern Shan is the most deadly in many years in Myanmar and has spilled over into neighboring Chin, resulting at least four people recently being killed by stray rocket fire from pitched mountain battles.

"Everything is not ideal but we can overcome it by negotiating and dialoguing with one another," says Kwe Htoo Win who is from Karen National Union that which signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement last October.

Lama Naw Aung, a Catholic and lower house parliamentarian from the Kachin State Democracy Party in Kachin state, said that he was a little worried before the peace conference convened but he has high expectations when he sees all stakeholders come together and agree to work together for peace.

"It is a special occasion as many ethnic armed groups join but it would be a meaningful and inclusive one when all ethnic groups can attend the talks without attaching preconditions," Naw Aung told ucanews.com.

The six days of talks in the capital Naypitaw are aimed at beginning a process that will finally end the conflicts that have raged in Myanmar's seven ethnic states spasmodically, killing countless numbers of people and leaving hordes of homeless citizens and economic chaos in their wake.

Yet Suu Kyi, the country's de-facto leader fell short of her aim to bring all 20 militias to the table after the military vetoed the participation of three groups who they were fighting in the Kokand region that borders China inside the mountainous Shan state.

 

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi greets former vice president U Nyan Tun from the Union Solidarity and Development Party at the 21st Century Panglong after the event's opening ceremony Aug. 31. (ucanews.com photo)

Strides towards peace

Around 1,600 participants — government, military, parliament, political parties and civil society groups joined in the opening ceremony of 21st Century Panglong which is being held in Naypyidaw Aug. 31- Sept. 4.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is also attending in the event which Suu Kyi opened.

"It is a special privilege for us to grab the opportunity of peace as a new dawn of hope," Suu Kyi told the participants during her opening remarks.

"It needs to have courage to accept new ideas and face challenges with perseverance and determination. If all stakeholders work together, we may build up a democratic federal union," she said.

Suu Kyi's father, General Aung San, originally a communist, who lead the country into independence from Britain had reached an agreement regarding self-autonomy and federalism with the Kachin, Shan and Chin ethnic groups in 1947 — but not a number of other ethnic groups. However, that deal was never fulfilled in the aftermath of Aung San's assassination shortly afterwards and ethnic groups took up arms against the central government.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon has lauded the courage and confidence of all the gathering and urged attendees to try "finding solution to the problems through dialogue."

The cardinal described the peace conference as a great historical moment.

"The Catholic Church assures all men and women of goodwill that it will collaborate with all for making this nation a peaceful and prosperous nation," Cardinal Bo, who is not attending the conference, said in an Aug. 31 statement.

 

Young women in traditional dress at day one of the 21st Century Panglong which is being held in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw Aug. 31- Sept. 4. (ucanews.com photo)

New clashes

Dwe Bu, a Kachin politician from Unity and Democracy Party in Kachin state, said that he expects that non-signatory ethnic armed groups may sign the National Ceasefire Agreement after this conference as the first step in what are planed to be rolling six months worth of peace conferences.

"While all the leaders come and join together in the peace talks with smiling faces, fighting is still raging in ethnic areas and displaced people remain in the camps. So we must end fighting on the ground," Dwe Bu, former lower house parliamentarian, told ucanews.com.

Palaung (Ta'ange National Liberation Army), the Arakan Army and Kokang (Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army) rebels were struck from the guest list after refusing to agree to the wording in a military drafted agreement to disarm if they wanted to join in peace talks, a pre-requisite for attendance.

But observers noted though that the three groups inflicted an embarrassing number of casualties in the military during fighting in 2014.

Battles continue to erupt periodically in Kokang, northern Shan state, an enclave populated by ethnic Chinese who many claim are being funded and supported by Chinese government controlled organizations in the neighboring Yunnan province of China.

Published Aug. 31, 2016

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