The government and ethnic groups’ representatives have agreed in principle to work towards signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and the drafting of a political dialogue framework with President U Thein Sein’s administration.
The Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC) led by Minister U Aung Min and the ethnic Senior Delegation led by Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein met on 3 and 4 July in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the first time since the formation of the Senior Delegation. The preliminary meeting was to exchange views before an official round of talks takes place in Rangoon, which, according to U Aung Min, will be held around the third week of July.
Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein, vice chairperson of the Karen National Union and leader of the Senior Delegation said in an interview with Karen News that the government’s negotiators are pressing to have a NCA agreed to before the national elections.
She said: “They [the UPWC] want the NCA signed before the election. If the points that we want are included in the NCA, this will be possible. We also want this to take place as soon as possible.”
The agreement [in principle] was laid out in the four-point-statement released by the ethnic Senior Delegation on 5 July 2015. The statement described the agreement as a “good result” that allows them to meet officially and continue talks for a “genuine peace.”
Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein, told Karen News about the issues discussed at the meeting.
She said: “We mainly discussed about the decisions made at Law Khee Lar [the Ethnic Leaders' Summit] about being inclusive of all ethnic groups and the points [in NCA] that need further negotiation. We discussed how we are going to proceed on these issues. Minister U Aung Min said that he will report back to the President about what we agreed at the meeting on how we want to proceed.”
Minister U Aung Min who led the UPWC delegation also gave his impression on the meeting at the end of the session.
“The result of the meeting is good. It’s like a door is open for the signing [of the NCA] because we have decided that a nationwide ceasefire agreement will be signed. However, we still have to talk more before that happens. We will invite the Senior Delegation to Yangon and we will have further negotiations in Yangon – so we can say we have taken another step forward.”
The draft nationwide ceasefire agreement that was earlier agreed to by the ethnic armed groups of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team and the government’s UPWC was not approved at the last ethnic armed organization summit held at Law Khee Lar in Karen State in early June, 2015. Ethnic leaders at Law Khee Lar summit raised 15 points from the draft NCA that they said needed further negotiation.
Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein told Karen News about how they discussed these issues with the UPWC delegation at the Chiang Mai meeting.
She said: “We discussed the 15 points. From their [the UPWC] side, their position is that they don’t want to make changes to these points. From our side, we discuss with them to find ways, instead of holding on to the position of ‘making no changes at all’. We have to look at each point and try to see which point can be reworded or kept as notes or brought back for further discussion. They agreed with what has been discussed and they need to report back.”
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
