The leaders of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and the government forces should order their forces to stop fighting immediately Nai Hon Thar, the leader of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordinating Team (NCCT) told IMNA on 12th October.
He said that solutions should be based on equality and justice rather than armed conflict where one side tries to gain the upper hand.
He said: “Current fighting in Karen State and other states will affect the ongoing peace process meetings and destroy trust in the peace process.”
The ongoing clashes between government troops and ethnic armed groups in Karen, Shan and Kachin States will make it harder to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement he explained.
He said: “Clashes are happening because the terms that were agreed on for the state and union level ceasefires are inadequate. There were no agreements made on force numbers and they were not obliged to follow specific rules.”
Col. Saw San Aung, a tactical commander from DKBA Klohtoobaw tactical command said: “If there are political guarantees our ethnic leaders will agree to a nationwide ceasefire, but they [the government side] have said there will only be political dialogue on force numbers after the agreement is signed. Our ethnic leaders are not happy with that.”
He believes that if both sides agree on the terms and conditions before signing the ceasefire the political talks and the peace process that follow could be successful.
He said: “They are trying to get the upper hand on us which is not fair. What we want is fairness and equal rights, but they are not like that. Their attitude is that they are the authorities and we have to do what they say which means we have no say in what happens.”
Clashes continued during the sixth peace process between the NCCT and the government Union Peace Working Committee (UPWC) held from the 22nd to 26th September in Yangon.
