The announcement came following a Chinese-brokered preliminary meeting between both sides on Monday, February 4, at Jing Cheng Hotel in Ruili, southern China.

The Kachin representative said that ahead of Monday’s meeting, the KIO discussed relevant issues with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC).

“Today [February 4], we did not discuss much,” Swong Lut Gum told Mizzima. “We told the government delegation that we would need to confer again with the UNFC. We agreed to defuse military tensions. This is the first step in preparing for peace talks.”

He said he felt positive about the outcome of the preliminary meeting because both sides agreed to sit down at the peace table again.

“Although we are not happy about the situation, we feel more positive,” he said. “Also, it appeared that the government delegation led by Aung Min was also pleased. We are therefore very hopeful about the upcoming negotiations.”

A Chinese government delegation hosted and mediated Monday’s talks despite the KIO declaring on January 20 that it was unwilling to hold negotiations with the Myanmar government while intense fighting continued.

According to a KIO statement released on Monday, the talks included discussions about a proposal to invite monitors to ensure that any future ceasefire is maintained.

Monday’s preliminary meeting was attended by Swong Lut Gum and the Deputy Chief of Staff Brig-Gen Gum Maw for the KIO, while Naypyitaw’s representatives included the peace team’s deputy-chairman Aung Min, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Ohn Myint, and peace broker Hla Maung Shwe.

Sitting as witnesses at the meeting in Ruili for the meeting were: Ambassador Luo Zhaohui of China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry; Karen National Union (KNU) Chairman Gen. Mutu Say Poe; KNU General-Secretary Pado Kwe Htoo Win; Brig-Gen Sai Lu of the RCSS/SSA; Victor Biak Lian of the Chin National Front; and Harn Yawnghwe from the Euro-Burma office in Brussels.

Swong Lut Gum said that the KIO delegation had no knowledge beforehand that the non-Kachin ethnic leaders would attend the preliminary meeting as witnesses. He said he assumed their attendance was arranged in consultation with Minister Aung Min.

Myanmar military affairs observer Aung Kyaw Zaw said that the government may have invited non-Kachin ethnic leaders to attend the meeting because it saw this as an opportunity to profit from the political situation.

“In fact, General Mutu Say Poe did not need to attend the meeting,” Aung Kyaw Zaw told Mizzima. “Aung Min invited him along to show China that the KIO was being headstrong and obstinate. The RCSS, on the other hand, has connections with the Chinese and that’s why they were at the meeting, I think.”

 He said that the Chinese authorities had beefed up security in the Sino-Burmese border area.
 
The last time the KIO and the Myanmar government met was on October 30, 2012. Since then, fighting has intensified with Burmese armed forces seizing KIO’s military bases “Point 177” and “Hka Ya Bum”, which are near the KIO headquarters of Laiza.

There was no fighting on Monday around strategic hot spot Laja Yang, though skirmishes are continuing in other areas of Kachin State, according to Swong Lut Gum.