Eight armed ethnic groups met informally with the Myanmar government’s new peace envoy on Wednesday in Yangon to discuss how to advance peace and reform the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) before upcoming peace talks, the leader of a rebel group who attended the meeting said.
Representatives of the groups, who signed a nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) last October, discussed their position on the peace process and the refashioning of the UPDJC, a 48-member body formed last November to implement political dialogue between the government and ethnic armed groups, said Khun Okkar, chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), one of the rebel organizations in attendance.
“We held the meeting informally and Dr. Tin Myo Win came unofficially as well,” he told RFA's Myanmar Service.
The groups expressed their concern about the role of the cease-fire Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), which has assumed control of political decision-making since the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government came into power in April, the online journal The Irrawaddy reported.
They proposed to Tin Myo Win that the UPDJC be given equal footing in peace negotiations, it said.
They also gave Tin Myo Win a letter addressed to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi prior to an official NLD meeting to discuss the peace process on May 10 in the capital Naypyidaw.
From physician to mediator
State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi last week nominated Tin Myo Win, her personal physician, as Myanmar’s peace mediator, replacing Aung Min who led the peace process under the previous military-backed administration.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, has made peace and national reconciliation between the national army and various armed rebel groups, and among the rebel groups themselves, a priority of the NLD government.
She has suggested renaming the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center, which organizes peace talks, the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC).
“We wrote a letter with our suggestions for Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi and passed it to her via Tin Myo Win,” Khun Okkar said, but did not comment on the contents of the letter.
Last week, Aung San Suu Kyi met with the JMC, which includes the eight armed ethnic groups that signed the NCA and government and civilian representatives, and called for a peace conference by June.
Support for the AA
In the meantime, another rebel force, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) led by a prominent colonel arrived in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Thursday to fight alongside the Arakan Army against the Myanmar military.
Colonel Saw San Aung told RFA he had led his troops from Karen state across the Pegu Mountains of south-central Myanmar and the Arakan Mountains in Western Myanmar, but did not say how long they planned to remain in Rakhine state.
“We will be in Rakhine state for a while,” he said.
The DKBA soldiers’ arrival in Rakhine to back the AA comes as Myanmar’s upper house of parliament continued discussions regarding an urgent motion calling for an end to fighting there and including the AA in political talks, state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
The latest round of hostilities that broke out in April between the AA and Myanmar army in Rakhine has displaced 1,500 residents, according to a report in the The Irrawaddy.
Hundreds of AA troops had fought alongside the DKBA in a previous battle against the Myanmar military, but later returned to Karen state to fight in skirmishes against other rebel groups, he said.
“We are helping each other as ethnic brothers and to show we are together,” he said.
“They [AA troops] have now gone back to their state and settled there,” he said. “What I saw from them is that they will not give up the fight for power to control their state.”
The AA is one of the armed ethnic groups that did not sign the NCA.
Reported by Tin Aung Khine for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.