Nationwide ceasefire talks to resume in mid-March

 

The technical team of the UPWC and the leaders of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) met in Chiang Mai, Thailand on February 21 and agreed to resume the talks next month after the sixth peace talks failed to reach any agreement.

The meeting, which lasted for about three hours, was attended by Phado Saw Kwe Htoo Win, second leader-1 of the NCCT, Maj-Gen Guan Maw, second leader-2 of the NCCT and representatives of Myanmar Peace Centre (MPC) which is the technical team of UPWC. 

“The seventh official ceasefire talks are scheduled in the middle of March. Almost all the points have already been agreed with only a few left to be discussed. All the points will be likely agreed between the two parties,” Phado Saw Kwe Htoo Win said.

“The NCCT will hold its meeting in Chiang Mai on February 27, 28 and March 1. Then the seventh official meeting of the NCCT and the UPWC will be held in Yangon after March 12,” Hla Maung Shwe of the MPC said.

The government ministers led by Aung Min, the vice-chairman of the UPWC, held a meeting with the representatives of the NCCT in Chiang Mai in the first week of February. Both sides discussed the disagreements left in the draft of the national ceasefire.

The UPWC and the NCCT started holding talks in Myitkyina, Kachin State in the first week of November, 2013. At the initial stage, each group discussed each ceasefire draft. Both sides agreed to draft a nationwide ceasefire deal in March, 2014. 

Several attempts to sign the nationwide ceasefire deal have failed in the past but both sides expressed high optimism that this time a genuine peace agreement will be reached.

According to a report compiled by the Gender and Development Initiative (GDI), ethnic Chin, Kachin and Shan state residents hope for protection and their rights in the ceasefire watch. 

The report was based on a survey conducted in 2014 in Shan, Kachin and Chin states. A total of 430 women and 432 men responded to questions about the peace process and their experiences of conflict. 

According to the report, people analysed that the pending ceasefire agreement will not be easy to accomplish and implement. In fact, the report says, regional development and education should also be seen as factors affecting eventual peace. 

Therefore, peace will not be achieved through a ceasefire alone, according to the report. 

Respondents believed the better the quality of public cooperation in the ceasefire process, the greater success the process would have and the safer the residents would be. 

The director of GDI said: “They demand protection of the residents, especially women and children.”

Forty per cent of the interviewees in the survey said the agreement made by the government and the ethnic armed groups offers very few guarantees of freedom to the non-armed people in each state. 

Interviewees also said the complicated and costly judicial system are barriers to accessing the protection of the judiciary.

The negotiations for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement have been stalled since September 2014.