“General Secretary Hseng La and Sao Kham Mawng (CEC member) has already left for Kengtung,” an informed source from the Sino-Burmese border who is in touch with the NDAA told SHAN. “They will be flying from there to Lashio (133 miles south of the border).”

The source added that 3 representatives from the UWSA would also be leaving for Lashio by car:

Zhao Zhongdang (Photo: UWSA)

    Zhao Zhongdang                   Deputy Commander in Chief
    Li Julie aka U Aung Myint      CEC member
    and a yet-to-be identified senior member

Representatives from the 11 member United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), one of which is the KIO/KIA, as well as Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), a non-member, have also been invited to witness the meeting.

SHAN reported earlier that the last meeting between the two sides on 4 February had gone well until the KIO and Naypyitaw began discussing humanitarian assistance for the 100,000 IDPs and the setting up of a monitoring mechanism to oversee the anticipated ceasefire between the two sides. To the surprise of the participants, Chinese officials hosting the meeting reportedly told the Kachin and Burmese negotiators they were against any deliberation on the said subjects.

The participants, as a result, were so upset about the Chinese position that many doubted the next round of meetings would be taking place in China at all.

The meeting that came in its wake between the UNFC and Naypyitaw took place in Chiangmai, Thailand, with the support from Nippon Foundation, whose chairman Yohei Sasakawa was appointed by the Shinzo Abe government as special envoy to facilitate reconciliation in Burma just a day before the meeting on 20 February. “This entry by the Japanese may have changed the minds of Naypyitaw and armed opposition leaders,” commented a Thai security official.