Ethnic Armed Groups to Negotiate Jointly

KIA recruits march to their barracks after battle drills at a training camp near Laiza in April 2010. (Photo: AP)

More than a dozen of Burma's ethnic armed groups decided at a recent meeting in northern Thailand to adopt the new strategy of negotiating in concert with the military regime rather than individually.




They also set up the United Nationalities Federal Council (Union of Burma), vowed to strive for a genuine federal union in Burma and agreed to support one another should Burmese government forces launch a military campaign against any member of the alliance.


In 1989, under an initiative by former junta spy chief Gen Khin Nyunt, the regime held sepearate talks with many ethnic armed groups and signed individual ceasefire agreements with 17 groups.


Those signing ceasefire agreements included strong ethnic armed groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the New Mon State Party (NMSP).


Brig-Gen Saw Lah Pwe, the commander of breakaway Brigade 5 of the DKBA which broke its 15 year ceasefire by battling junta troops beginning on Nov. 8, 2010, said the junta has become dishonest about the ceasefire agreements and is not serious about maintaining them.


He said the junta generals are now more interested in forcing ethnic ceasefire groups to become members of the regime's border guard force (BGF), which is under the command of government forces. And three months after his brigade began fighting the regime on the Thailand-Burma border, he did not see the junta making any move towards new ceasefire talks. To the contrary, he saw them sending military reinforcements to the area around his bases.


The other ceasefire groups, including the UWSA, KIO and NMSP, are also under junta pressure to transform their armed fighters into BGF troops. But all have thus far rejected the BGF.


As a result, the regime has begun calling the KIO, NMSP and DKBA “insurgent groups” rather than “ceasefire groups,” which observers said signals the end of the ceasefire.


In fact, since the junta called it an “insurgent group” last year, the NMSP has assumed that their ceasefire deal had already broken down.


Some observers said the junta is unlikely to offer new ceasefire talks with the ethnic armed groups because they are busy forming the new government and participating in the new parliament.


“It seems this regime does not want to have political talks. They want to use their weapons to eliminate us. We are also ready to destroy them with our guns,” said Nai Hang Thar, the secretary of the NMSP.


Some observers, however, think ceasefire talks with ethnic armed groups is likely during the administration of the new military-dominated government. They also have seen more cooperation among ethnic ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups after the junta's announcement of the BGF plan.


Zipporah Sein, the general-secretary of the Karen National Union, said the junta may offer ceasefire talks with the ethnic armed groups, but perhaps separately rather than in concert.


The KNU has held ceasefire talks with the regime a couple of times in the past, but has never signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta.


“We always keep the door open for talks. We want to solve political problems by dialogue in which all ethnic alliance groups need to get involved,” said Zipporah Sein. “We agreed to meet together at the same time if the regime offers ceasefire talks.”


However, one observer said that while the armed ethnic groups agreed to the new strategic initiative of negotiating as a group with the junta, it is very important that members of the alliance effectively play their role.


Source:http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20811