Myanmar govt urged to change stance on peace

Myanmar's ethnic groups are calling on the authorities in Nay Pyi Taw to change their mindset in the peace negotiation process so that both sides can achieve genuine truce, democracy and development.

The peace pacts that the Myanmar government has made with nearly all, except the Kachin, ethnic groups since early this year have yet to deliver good results, according to Timothy Laklem, executive of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Peace Council.

"They [the authorities] are not honouring the peace agreements," he said in an interview.

The Karen peace council had agreed to an initial truce with the government in February, yet the powers that be were enforcing few of its seven-point agreements, he explained. One of the key points being ignored is: "The state will allow and render assistance for…quickly fulfilling basic needs, education, health, transport, water and electricity supply in the area for resettlement of the national race residing in another country, and [help it] to become self reliant."

Laklem has spent several months since the truce shuttling between the government's chief negotiator Aung Min and ethnic leaders in his efforts to achieve concrete results.

Sometimes government officials refuse to speak to him and sometimes they say something different, he said.

"They are busy meeting with world leaders, trying to build an image of peace, but they have no time to talk to us about real peace," Laklem said.

This attitude is the main reason why they are still unable to achieve peace with the Kachin, he said.

Yawdserk, leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), had once said that his patience was wearing thin because peace pacts reached a year ago had made no progress.

Since the Shan leader and the government's chief negotiator Aung Min met in Chiang Rai in November 2011, there have been at least 32 clashes, Yawdserk told the Shan news agency.

Laklem said the authorities were locked in the old mindset since the junta era and were still dealing with ethnic groups in a way that is beneficial to the government, instead of granting "rights and benefits" to ethnic groups. He said he had told the government that the peace process should begin with constitutional amendments that guarantee ethnic groups the right of self-determination within a federal union.

Once that is done, President Thein Sein could meet all ethnic leaders to discuss political platforms, he said, adding that the government would go nowhere if it continued handling the peace process the way it has been doing.