Military officials, Kachin Army members to attend peace talks

Senior military officials and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) will be attending the peace talks between the Myanmar government and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), an organising member of the peace negotiations said. 

Peace panel member Lamine Guamja said the government on October 10 offered to hold the peace talks with the KIO, the political wing of the KIA, and the group agreed to it. 

“The KIO refused the government’s invitation to hold peaces talk in Muse or Nay Pyi Taw in September as the skirmishes were mounting at the time. The upcoming meeting is scheduled to be held in Muse or Ruili,” Guamja said. 

He said that Aung Min, vice chairman of Union Peacemaking Work Committee, was the one who requested senior military officials to participate in the union level peace talks.

But Dwe Bu, an ethnic Kachin lawmaker from Lower House Parliament, said, “While peace talks are being made on the table, fighting is still occurring in border areas. It is totally impractical to believe that the government forces are not launching offensives as both sides would try to anticipate each other. Key persons who can stop the conflict should participate in the peace talks.”

The ongoing armed conflict between the army and KIA started in June last year, when fighting broke out after a 17-year ceasefire agreement fell apart. 

When the KIO and the government reached a ceasefire in 1994, and KIO was removed from the list of “Burma’s unlawful organizations”. But in October 2010, following the KIO’s refusal to transform its armed wing into a border guard force, Myanmar state media again started calling them “KIO insurgents”, signaling an official shift in government policy towards the KIO.

Speaking about the Kachin conflict, Noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said: “Some people are criticizing me as I remain silent on this case. They can do so as they are not satisfied with me. In fact, I do not want to fan the flames of skirmishes to any side.”

 

OIC presence

In another development, President Thein Sein has given instructions to reconsider the opening of a liaison office for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) amid protests from various groups, said presidential office director Zaw Htay.

The Ministry of Border Affairs earlier signed a MoU to establish a temporary liaison office for assistance. But the office was not going to be an actual OIC office.

“The plan to open OIC office in Myanmar has been met with protests by the public including Buddhist monks. The instruction of the president in connection with the bilateral and multilateral relations of Myanmar with other countries includes the observation not to tarnish the dignity of the nation, not to hurt the national economy, not to encroach upon the sovereignty, and not to damage the environment,” Zaw Htay wrote on his Facebook.

Nyo Aye, leader of a women’s group from Sittwe in Rakhine, said they are opposed to having an OIC office – whether temporary or permanent – in Myanmar. “If the OIC wants to aid and assist, they can do so from abroad. We will demonstrate continuously until we are convinced that there will be no plan to establish OIC offices in Myanmar,” she said.

“Because the conflict in Rakhine is still fresh, mistrust is high. The establishment of a temporary office at a normal time is no problem, but opening of such an office at this time would be tantamount to siding with the other group,” said MP Ohn Lwin.