The delegation, which also included Nai Hong Sar from the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and long-time Pa’o leader Khun Okkar, expressed their desire for Aung San Suu Kyi to serve as a witness to the peace process, according to a report published on the Irrawaddy website.

The meeting appears to be the first time Aung San Suu Kyi has at least publicly met with any official from the KIO since the 1990's. By contrast, after being released from house arrest in November 2010 Suu Kyi has met a long line of leaders from other armed ethnic groups, including Karen National Union (KNU) leaders and the leader of Shan State Army-South, Yawd Serk.

Neither Aung San Suu Kyi nor any of her colleagues from the National League for Democracy (NLD) have played a significant role in the ongoing peace process between Burma's quasi-civilian government and the country's various armed ethnic groups. Moreover, Burma's acclaimed opposition leader has rarely made any public statements about the Kachin conflict since it resumed in June 2011.

Indeed, Suu Kyi insisted there wasn’t any need for her to make public statements about the Kachin conflict during an interview with Australia’s ABC last November. At the time, ABC presenter Leigh Sales asked Suu Kyi about the criticism she had received for failing to publicly support Burma’s ethnic minorities.

In response, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of Burma’s democracy movement said: “The Kachin Independence Organization, the KIO, are having official peace talks with the Government and I'm a bit puzzled when I'm told, ‘Why am I not criticizing the Army? Why am I not speaking up for the Kachins?’ Isn't this what the KIO is doing directly with the Government? When they are engaged in direct peace talks with the Government, why are we then supposed to stand up and condemn one side or the other? That might in fact derail the peace process and then we'd be blamed for it.”