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Myanmar gov't, ethnic armed groups vow to continue to work toward ceasefire accord

Xinhua, August 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Negotiators of the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups on Friday vowed to continue to work toward a nationwide ceasefire accord (NCA) and initiate a political dialogue as soon as possible.

According to a joint press release from the government's Union Peace Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the Senior Delegation (SD) of the ethnic armed groups following the end of a two-day ninth round of peace talks held at the Myanmar Peace Center here, the two sides were able to agree on all points included in the draft NCA except the point concerning the matter of inviting all other armed groups to take part in the formal signing of the NCA.

The matter is to be discussed by leaders of both sides when they meet in days, the release said.

The two sides also agreed to publish the details of the draft NCA to keep the public informed, the release added.

Friday's talks between the UPWC and SD mainly focused on ethnic- proposed all-inclusiveness of other armed groups in signing the draft NCA.

The government side's UPWC was led by its vice chairman and Minister at the President's Office U Aung Min, while the SD was headed by Naw Zipporah Sein.

The ceasefire talks was attended by UN and Chinese special envoys as observers.

The draft NCA was preliminarily signed between the government's UPWC and the ethnic groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) late March after more than one year of negotiation.

The peace process began in November 2013 when UPWC and NCCT met in Myitgyina, Kachin state's capital, for the first time for the nationwide ceasefire talks, while the previous eighth round of talks took place in Yangon on July 22. Endi