Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) representatives met with their Burmese government counterparts for peace talks in Ruili, Yunnan Province, China on Tuesday. The talks came about after the Burmese government proffered an olive branch to the KIO following a meeting in Chiang Mai on November 19, said KIO officials.
The two sides discussed negotiations over peace proposals. Chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra led the six-member KIO delegation and Aung Min, Minister for Railways, led the Burmese one, according to sources.
The talks were between officials from the political wings of both sides.
The meeting was meant to focus on the possibility of a meaningful peace between the two sides, Jumhpawk James Lum Dau, the KIO’s Bangkok-based Deputy Foreign Affairs leader told the Kachin News Group, two days before the Ruili meeting took place.
An attempt at negotiating peace failed in August and there were no feelers for three months after the 17-year ceasefire ended and fighting broke out between the KIO and the Burmese Army on June 9 this year.
Those talks failed when the government offered peace negotiations with the KIO on the basis of the 2008 Constitution, which meant the KIO needed to disarm its military wing. However, the KIO’s position was that the 1947 Panglong Agreement, guaranteeing the rights of all minorities’ in the multi-ethnic nation, should serve as the basis for any agreement.
James Lum Dau made the KIOs position amply clear by stating that, “Now, we will not accept a new peace agreement with the Burmese government unless their troops withdraw from KIO areas in Kachin State and in Northern Shan State.”
Kachin people worldwide are concerned about this new peace initiative as there is a belief the five-decade imbroglio between the Kachin and the central government will not be solved through dialogue alone.
