Kachin State Democracy Party chairman Manam Tu Ja (right) shakes hands with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi during her visit to Kachin State in January. (Photo courtesy of Manam Tu Ja)
A veteran Kachin leader has called for a concerted effort to achieve peace in Myanmar after decades of conflict.
Manam Tu Ja, chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party, said all stakeholders need to keep pushing for peace despite facing a long road ahead toward a durable solution.
“We can say the peace process is moving forward and it’s not a step backward. But the move is slow,” the Catholic politician told ucanews.com.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has held three peace conferences since 2017 but faces difficulty in holding another this year as fighting still occurs in the ethnic regions of Rakhine and Shan states.
“The government need to prioritize and decide sharply to hold a peace conference,” said Tu Ja, a former vice-president of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
The KIO is the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which remains at war with Myanmar’s military.
The resumption of hostilities in 2011 after 17 years of peace has resulted in more than 100,000 people being forced into camps for internally displaced persons.
On March 21, government peace negotiators had a meeting with delegates from armed ethnic groups including the KIA who have not signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement, but no agreement was reached apart from a resolution to hold further discussions.
Despite the major hurdles ahead, Tu Ja is optimistic about peace. “We don’t need to give up but must persevere. We need to push ahead even after the 2020 election,” he said. “Some politicians could attract people’s votes by saying that they would try to get peace.”
Myanmar’s military has reaffirmed that it aims to achieve peace for the people by 2020.
The military declared a four-month ceasefire in northern and eastern Myanmar on Dec. 21, but Rakhine was excluded and operations against the Arakan Army have continued.
The armed forces ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for more than 50 years before Suu Kyi's elected government took office in April 2016. However, the military retains extensive political authority.
Suu Kyi's father, Gen. Aung San, led the country to independence from Britain after World War II and reached the Panglong Agreement with the Kachin, Shan and Chin ethnic groups.
Soon afterwards, Aung San was assassinated and the deal was never fulfilled. Ethnic groups again took up arms against the central government.