Myanmar insurgents urge more sanctions if army offensive continues
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An alliance of Myanmar's ethnic insurgencies has called on the international community to keep sanctions on the country if the military does not halt its offensive in the Kachin State within a month, sources said Sunday.
The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a coalition of 11 ethnic minority groups set up a year ago, made the appeal after a meeting on the Thai-Myanmar border last week to discuss the fighting,spokesman David Tharckabaw said.
The government of President Thein Sein has signed ceasefire agreements with at least 10 insurgencies since coming to power in March 2011, but it has failed to halt fighting with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
Western democracies have tasked the new government with achieving peace with all its insurgencies, most of whom have been fighting the state for the past six decades, before they will fully lift sanctions on the once-pariah state.
The European Union suspended its sanctions last month but the US has kept many sanctions in place.
"We would like to request the international community not to suspend or lift the remaining political, military, financial and economic sanctions but to wait and see, if the Bamah Tatmadaw(Burmese Army) does not stop its transgression and military offensives in Kachin State by June 10, 2012," the UNFC said.//DPA
