United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) Joint Secretary (1) Twan Zaw said that a proposed meeting between their Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) and Union Peace Commission (UPC) of National Reconciliation and Peace Centre (NRPC) was not yet ready.
“We asked them yesterday if we can have an informal meeting between UPC and DPN before the official meeting. But they replied to us that they were preoccupied with preparatory meetings for upcoming second meeting of 21st century Panglong Conference and they could not meet us yet for an informal meeting,” he said.
In the last informal meeting between UPC and DPN, held on 13 January, they agreed to meet at the end of January.
UPC member Hla Maung Shwe said, “We are negotiating to fix the meeting date but DPN has not given their proposed date. In their letter sent on 26th, they told us to negotiate on date only. They did not give the exact proposed date. We told them to come to Yangon for a meeting and we will take responsibility for their security.”
Twan Zaw also said that the meeting between State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and UNFC which has not yet signed Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) was still under negotiation as they needed more clarification on the meeting.
“First they asked us if we can meet Aung San Suu Kyi on January 30 and 31 and we replied we were okay for that date. And then they informed us again that they were ready for meeting between UPC and DPN. So, we are unclear about first proposal and next invitation. And then we sent a letter to them for more clarifications in this regard,” he said.
TwanZaw said that after the informal meeting with UPC led by Aung Kyi on 13 January, DPN sent a letter requesting a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to settle the current difficulties and then they received a positive response from Aung San Suu Kyi after which the UPC proposed the meeting date on January 30 and 31.
“We don’t know yet about our proposed meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi. We sent a letter to ascertain the last situation but we have not yet received their official reply. But we had informal talks between the two offices yesterday. What Dr. Tin Myo Win from UPC said was UPC was ready for talks with us which meant only UPC would be available for meeting and Aung San Suu Kyi was not.” Twan Zaw added.
On the same day, 27 January, Dr. Tin Myo Win sent a separate invitation to Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) which says KIO can come to Yangon if they want to have political dialogue with the government. KIO sent their response the same day saying they want more clarification on ongoing military offensives against them and the government’s designation of KIO as terrorist organization.
