Lamai Gum Ja, a member of the Peace Talk Creation Group (PCG), a committee of Kachin businessmen and community leaders involved in the Kachin peace process, told a Burmese newspaper last week that he is unsure when the next round of Kachin peace talks will take place.
“Both sides need to put up mutual trust if they want the real peace. It depends on both sides for another peace talk to come,” Lamai Gum Ja told Weekly Eleven.
Although fighting between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Burmese government forces has decreased significantly since January, when government aircraft carried out airstrikes on KIO positions, clashes between the two sides are still occurring regularly in some parts of Kachin and northwest Shan states.
Peace talks were originally supposed to be held last month in Kachin state capital of Myitkyina. However, they were delayed after there was disagreement whether or US and EU international observers could attend and other differences about what would be discussed.
Many observers have questioned if the government's chief negotiator Aung Min actually has the authority to make any kind of real concessions with the KIO. Aung Min, a former general, has been supported during his regular meetings with the KIO by staff from the Myanmar Peace Center; an EU funded group controlled by President Thein Sein's office.
