Five-day long Union Peace Conference-21st Century Panglong begins
NAYPYITAW, August 31 (AP): Myanmar has a unique opportunity to end decades of ethnic rebellions in various parts of the country, leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Wednesday as she promised that her government will guarantee rebel groups equal rights and respect in historic peace talks that her government organized.
Suu Kyi was speaking at the start of the five-day negotiations aimed at ending decades of separatist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives. The talks are being attended by representatives of 17 of the 20 major ethnic groups, including the Karen, Kachin, Shan and Wa, who make up 40 percent of the country’s population.
“This is a unique opportunity for us to accomplish a great task that will stand as a landmark throughout our history,” said Suu Kyi, whose official title is state counsellor although she is the real power in the government, above the president. “Let us grasp this magnificent opportunity with wisdom, courage and perseverance and create a future infused with light.”
Also speaking at the conference, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that “every transition takes a risk.” “But refusing to embark on transition may carry the greater risk of all. We see tragic evidence of this around the world. I urge you all to continue to face up to your responsibilities, particularly to the youth and children of Myanmar, the future of this wonderful country,” he said.
The peace talks are called Union Peace Conference -- 21st Century Panglong, a reference to the Panglong Agreement brokered in 1947 by Suu Kyi’s late father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, in the town of Panglong, when Myanmar was still ruled by Britain.
The deal granted ethnic minorities autonomy and the right to secede if they worked with the federal government to break away from Britain together. But Aung San was assassinated the following year and the deal fell apart. Since then, ethnic groups have accused successive, mostly military, governments of failing to honor the 1947 pact.
The first uprising — launched by ethnic Karen insurgents — began shortly after independence. Since then other ethnic groups have also taken up arms with roughly the same aim -- to fight for autonomy while resisting “Burmanization,” a push by the Burman ethnic majority to propagate its language, religion and culture in ethnic minority regions.
The rebel armies control a patchwork of remote territories rich in jade and timber that are located mostly in the north and east along the borders with China and Thailand.
Suu Kyi said her National League for Democracy party’s aim has always been to hold political negotiations “based on the Panglong spirit and the principle of finding solutions through the guarantee of equal rights, mutual respect and mutual confidence between all ethnic nationalities.”
“The government that emerged after the 2015 elections is determined to uphold the same principles,” she said, referring to the landmark elections that brought the NLD to power after decades of military rule.
The previous military-backed government brokered individual truces with various insurgent groups and oversaw a cease-fire covering eight minor insurgencies last year that fell short of a nationwide deal.
Skirmishes, particularly in northern zones where Kachin insurgents are fighting the army, have displaced more than 100,000 civilians since 2011 alone. At least 100,000 more have sought refuge in squalid camps in neighboring Thailand, and are unlikely to return home until true peace takes hold.
Suu Kyi appeals for unity, reconciliation
NAYPYITAW, August 31 (Reuters): Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi launched a major push to end decades of fighting between the military and myriad rebel groups with an appeal on Wednesday to the country’s ethnic minorities to overcome their differences to achieve peace.
Suu Kyi has made the peace process a priority for her administration, which faces sky-high expectations at home and abroad after sweeping to power in an election last November to end more than half a century of military-backed rule.
Delegates in elaborate ethnic costumes, sporting silver necklaces and hats adorned with peacock feathers, mingled and took photographs with military officers, mainstream majority Bamar politicians and diplomats at the start of the conference.
“If all those who play a part ... in the peace process cultivate the wisdom to reconcile differing views for the good of the people ... we will surely be able to build the democratic federal union of our dreams,” said Suu Kyi in her opening remarks. “Only if we are all united, our country will be at peace. Only if our country is at peace, will we be able to stand on equal footing with other countries in our region and across the world.”
Myanmar has been torn by fighting between the military, which seized power in a 1962 coup, and ethnic armed groups almost without a break since the end of the Second World War.
The focus on Wednesday was on the symbolic, with few concrete proposals likely to emerge from this week’s talks. Delegates expect to meet every six months to discuss issues ranging from security, political representation, language and culture to control of Myanmar’s rich mineral resources.
“It’s the Tatmadaw [military] members and our brethren members of ethnic armed groups, who have been directly suffering from ... the lack of peace in the country, sacrificing their limbs and lives,” said army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. “I firmly believe that we will be able to accomplish this great process with our unity and efforts.”
