The Myanmar Times reported on Monday the next round of proposed peace talks between the Myanmar government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) will not go ahead due to a disagreement over who the KIO would be negotiating with. In the English newspaper, it stated the KIO rejected a suggested meeting with the military because they want to meet with the government directly.
“This isn’t a problem between armies. It’s because of the government’s policy; it does not want to solve the ethnic problems through political means and the government keeps neglecting the real meaning of ‘union’,” the KIO's senior Lah Nan (also spelled La Nan) told the Myanmar Times via an email sent last week.
It still remains to be seen when, or if, President Thein Sein's chief negotiator and former Railway Minister Aung Min, will respond to the KIO with a reasonable counteroffer. Aung Min - a senior figure in Than Shwe's military regime - appears to have lost the trust of his KIO counterparts after promises he made earlier this year that his government would reverse a policy outlawing the KIO as an illegal organization failed to materialize.
Meanwhile, Thein Sein claimed during his first ever press conference for domestic media on Sunday that his government wanted peace in Kachin state while at the same accusing the KIO of sabotage.
"To get a cease-fire agreement is our government's goal," AP news agency reported Thein Sein as saying in response to a question from a journalist. "It's the people's desire to get peace and we are doing our best for the people's desire."
The president used the press conference to criticize the KIO.
According to The Irrawaddy, Thein Sein accused the KIO of committing acts of sabotage against roads, bridges, railways and the national power group.
