Holdout Armed Ethnic Groups Ready to Join Myanmar Peace Conference

[armies] including our three-member alliance will have the opportunity to attend,” Ta Phone Kyaw said.

So far, the AA, MNDAA and TNLA have not received an invitation, but they are hopeful that one will arrive in time for the peace negotiations, he said.

At an Aug. 9 meeting between the AA, MNDAA, TNLA and the government’s Peace Commission in the Mongla area in Shan state, retired General Khin Zaw Oo, who is a commission member, told the three groups they had to release a statement pledging to lay down their arms in order to attend the Panglong Conference.

But all three armies, which have been involved in recent skirmishes with the Myanmar military, refused to disarm.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto national leader, has made peace and national reconciliation between Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups and the government military a priority of the country’s National League for Democracy (NLD) government.

Panglong Conference organizers are inviting about 700 delegates from the Myanmar government, national military, and armed ethnic groups to the negotiations.

UNFC to meet Peace Commission

In the meantime, the Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) will head to the commercial city Yangon on Friday for a meeting with Tin Myo Win, head of the government’s Peace Commission.

The UNFC, which represents both groups that have signed the NCA and those that have not, is advocating for the formation of a federal union in Myanmar.

“Our main mission is to meet with Tin Myo Win as a follow-up to recent meetings concerning the peace process,” said Major General Gwan Maw, the DPN’s deputy leader and a high-ranking officer in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

During their three-day meeting which begins Saturday, the DPN will discuss whether and how it should participate in the peace talks, he said.

UNFC leaders also held a two-day meeting in Chiang Mai to discuss whether they should attend the Panglong Conference.

In a related development, more than 3,000 people, including local politicians and national lawmakers, attended a rally on Thursday in Myitkyina, capital city of northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, to show their support for the Panglong Conference.

Ongoing clashes between armed ethnic soldiers and national army troops have occurred there as well as in northern Shan state.

“The civil war will end only if we can build a democratic federal union accepted by all,” Ko Ko, the emcee of the rally, told those who had gathered.

“We believe a democratic federal union can provide us real justice, the rule of law, and peaceful coexistence, so let’s give our full support to the conference,” he said.