A November meeting for discussions on a bilateral ceasefire between Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF) and government officials has been cancelled due to recent attacks on the ethnic armed group, said the General Secretary Lt. Col. Tar Bone Kyaw.
“The government attacked our troops with heavy-fire three times in Kukai township, twice in Namhsan township, and once in Nanksan township.”
But U Nyo Ohn Myint, of the government’s Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC) is confident the meeting will still happen this month. “We are still negotiating a new meeting date; however the PSLF has yet to respond to our latest request."
He claimed that during an early November meeting in Kachin state capital Myitkyina the PSLF said they would sign a state-level ceasefire.
Tar Bone Kyaw has denied this saying the meeting in Myitkyina only involved simple dialogue and didn’t include any such agreement.
Since November 2012 several unofficial ceasefire talks have taken place in the northern Thai city Chiang Mai, Muse township in Shan state and the Chinese city Shwe Lin, Tar Bone Kyaw said. At least twelve battles have broken out between government forces and the PSLF’s military branch the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) since October 2012.
