Negotiations between the government and armed ethnic groups over a draft national ceasefire agreement have been delayed by disagreements over the language to be used in the document, said an MP who attended the talks at the Myanmar Peace Center on April 5 and 6.
PyithuHluttaw MP U Hla Tun (Union Solidarity and Development Party, Hkamti Township, Sagaing Region), said the talks were due to resume on April 7.
"If only we had exchanged the drafts with each other before the meeting started and pre-negotiated then a compromise might have been reached…but now we must negotiate further" U Hla Tun told Mizzima on April 6.
He said that while most of the draft had been agreed, there was disagreement on two issues.
The first was that the Government’s draft referred to an agreement as being between the government and “armed groups” whereas the armed ethnic groups’ National Ceasefire Coordinating Team preferred the term “armed resistance ethnic national groups”.
The other disagreement was over the NCCT’s support for a “genuine federal system”, which the government negotiating team, the Union Level Peace Work Committee, had said was not in accordance with the constitution, U Hla Tun said.
