Myanmar President met with representatives of the Restoration Council of Shan State/ Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) including its chairman, Lt-Gen Ywet Sit, on Monday in Naypyitaw where they discussed the resettlement of Shan refugees from third countries, said Sai Hla, an RCSS/SSA central committee member.
“The president said he will enact rehabilitations gradually,” said Sai Hla. “He also said that he would hold further dialogue on the issue, including the issue of creating identity cards for those migrants who return.”
He said no fixed date has been made for the next round of talks.
As a consequence of years of war in southern Shan state, some 500,000 Shan have sought work abroad, the vast majority in neighboring Thailand, while more than 10,000 people from Shan State are internally displaced persons or IDPs.
The spokesman of the RCSS/ SSA, previously known as the Shan Sate Army- South, said that Monday’s negotiations were aimed at building mutual trust, allowing the RCSS/SSA to conduct business, and cooperation in antidrug efforts. They also spoke about forming monitoring groups as part of the process of bringing peace back to the eastern state, he said.
Sai Hla said the Shan group urged the president to revoke the outlaw status that has been imposed on the RCSS/ SSA, to which Thein Sein responded that it would be discussed only when every armed group in the country had signed ceasefire agreements.
Also present at the meeting were minister Aung Min of the government’s Peace-working Committee and some deputy ministers. The RCSS/ SSA were represented by Lt-Gen Ywet Sit, consultant Hkun Sai, Brig-Gen. Aung Htwe of the Peace Implementation Committee, and some central committee members.
Both sides signed a ceasefire agreement on December 2, 2011. Sai Hla said that more than 70 battles have occurred in southern Shan state since the ceasefire. This is the seventh time the Shan army has met with the president for talks since 2011.
