Leaders of 17 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar will gather again in Hlaingbwe, southeastern Kayin state, on Dec. 18 for a three-day conference ahead of their continued ceasefire deal with the government, the local Standard Times Daily reported Monday, quoting a senior leader of the Kayin National Union (KNU).
Hlaingbwe is the headquarters of the KNU.
The Hlaingbwe conference will be a follow-up of an earlier ethnic leaders' conference held in Laiza,
northernmost Kachin state in October-November, in which the ethnic leaders signed an 11-point
framework agreement. The framework had been presented to the first round of talks with the government in November in Myitgyina, the capital of Kachin state, for making a nationwide ceasefire deal.
The three-day Hlaingbwe conference will be followed by the second round of talks between the government's Central Peace- Making Work Committee and the ethnic armed groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team reset for next January in Pha-an, the capital of Kayin state.
During the Myitgyina talks, in addition to the ethnic armed groups' presentation of their 11-point ceasefire framework agreement, the government's Central Peace-Making Work Committee also put forward its draft nationwide ceasefire accord for future signing.
That talks resulted in no immediate response to each other's proposals.
