The Kachin Consultative Assembly has announced that it wants the substance of the 1947 Panglong Agreement brought into discussions when the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) sits at the negotiating table this week with a Myanmar government delegation.
The statement comes following a meeting between Kachin Christian religious leaders and representatives of all Kachin ethnic groups last week in state capital Myitkyina.
“The main point of the discussion was to allow the Kachin people to voice their concerns and tell us their needs,” said Gam Aung, secretary of the Kachin Consultative Assembly.
The Panglong Agreement was signed on February 12, 1947, by the Burman army led by Gen. Aung San and representatives of the Shan, Chin and Kachin peoples. It dictated terms in a post-independence Burma which included full autonomy for “frontier” peoples, and the creation of a Kachin State.
In its statement, the Kachin Consultative Assembly said that the continuance of armed conflict in Kachin State is because successive central governments had neglected the Panglong Agreement.
Gam Aung said that following the talks between the government delegation and the KIO on May 28, the Kachin Consultative Assembly will host another public meeting on May 29.
The Kachin Consultative Assembly was formed to negotiate Kachin political affairs, and its members include former Kachin armed groups, businessmen and religious leaders.
