Lieutenant-General Myint Soe was speaking to reporters at the Myanmar Peace Centre in Yangon on March 10 after talks between government negotiators and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team produced agreement to form a committee to draft a truce agreement next month.

“I explained during the meeting that the military did not launch any offensives,” said Lt-Gen Myint Soe, once of six senior military officers to participated in the talks at the request of the NCCT, which represents some of the main armed ethnic groups.

He was responding to accusations by the Kachin Independence Organisation that the military launched offensives on the Kachin Independence Army in January and February as part of a crack down on illegal logging.

Colonel Khun Okkar, an NCCT member and the head of the Pa-O National Liberation Organisation, said armed ethnic groups had not launched any offensives because they did not want to create obstacles while peace talks were taking place.

Fighting was also reported between government forces and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in northern Shan State in January.