Peace cannot be superficial, ethnic leader says
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The National Ceasefire Coordination Team says it wants to strengthen the ceasefire by guaranteeing political dialogue to end more than 60 years of armed conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed ethnic groups.
Current conflicts cannot be solved superficially by the Union government and the commander-in-chief of Defence Services, Dr Salai Lian Hmung of the NCCT, which comprises 17 armed ethnic groups, told a July 29 press conference.
“We want peace talks and political dialogue in addition to the ceasefire,” he said.
“We are ready to end more than 60 years of civil wars, but we cannot settle them superficially. We need to think about these problems deeply. We need to be prepared to hear different points of views. We must have a multi-layered approach,” he said.
The NCCT member noted that more camps for internally displaced persons had appeared, apparently referring to those in Kachin State where more than 100,000 people have been displaced by fighting between Union troops and the Kachin Independence Army under the presidency of Thein Sein.
“We must consider sending the IDPs back to their homes after signing the agreement. We need to prepare houses for IDPs. We need to create employment for them. We must consider how we will provide basic needs for them. For these reasons, we should not sign the agreement superficially. The ceasefire deal may fail tomorrow despite signing it today. We don’t want this to happen. We want the deal strengthened,” he said.
President Thein Sein began offerring armed ethnic groups ceasefire deals with the government in August 2011. It has held ceasefire talks at the state and Union levels with 14 armed ethnic groups among 16 ethnic dialogue partners.
“We really want a nationwide ceasefire deal between the government and the ethnic armies to be signed. Now is the opportune time to achieve internal peace. We hope the peace for the government, ethnic groups and the people will be successful during this government. If not, we are ready to continue discussing peace with the next government,” he said.
“We want to make peace with the government during the current presidential term. If our dream does not come true during this presidential tenure, we hope the next government will be elected democratically,” Salai Lian Hmung said.
total of 155 ethnic leaders from eighteen ethnic armed joined the Laiza Conference.
