Khun Myint Tun, the chairman of the PNLO told Photphaw News: “Our two organisations cannot negotiate together anymore. The Wa group is also in the area so they should become involved and help us with the negotiations as it’s a problem for all the groups in the area.

There are Wa people living in the disputed area, but the Wa have no claims on any of the disputed territory.

The PNLO are a government supported People’s Militia group and the government have given them permission to claim land in the area as their own territory.

The RCSS/SSA objected when the PNLO started implementing a local government development project at Naung-Daw Village in Kadugyi Area, Maukmai Township, southern Shan State. This led to battle clashes between the groups on 3rd September as both sides claimed the territory as their own.

A local Shan person said: “Both Shan and Paoh people live in that territory and it has been Shan territory for a long, long time. It is a lowland area and normally no people live there, but Shan soldiers can be seen going through the area.”

After the battle clashes both sides met up on 11th September and decided to control their forces and avoid any further clashes. They agreed to meet up again in October.

According to Khun Myint Tun the October meeting did not happen so they want another independent group to mediate negotiations and help solve the problem.

Colonel Sia La, a spokesperson for the RCSS/SSA did not know why the meeting had not happened.

He said: “I don’t know why we could not meet up again as decided. The Paoh side never contacted us.”

Major Sai Oo the head of the information department at the RCSS/SSA Taungyi liason office said that as well as the Wa they also want the government to join the negotiations.

He said: “We want to have negotiations to solve this problem. We do not want to have armed clashes with each other. I believe that the government gave that territory to the Paoh group because they wanted to provoke problems between us. Actually, since it is our territory, they should allow us to have it after some negotiations.”

According to him the government should have negotiations with all the relevant armed groups before they decide to implement development projects in disputed areas. Now that a problem has occurred it cannot be solved at a local level so it is the government’s responsibility to ensure negotiations happen and the problem is solved.

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI