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4 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar willing to sign cease-fire accord with gov't

Xinhua, August 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Four ethnic armed groups in Myanmar have expressed willingness to sign a nationwide cease-fire accord (NCA) with the government, according to a joint press release of the groups on Tuesday.

The decision of the four groups -- Kayin National Union (KNU), Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA), Kayin National Liberation Army - Peace Council (KNLA-PC) and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) -- have raised prospect of signing the NCA.

There have been 15 ethnic armed groups negotiating with the government on the cease-fire deal since 2013.

In the 9th round of peace talks in Yangon between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the Senior Delegation (SD) of the ethnic armed groups, which ended on Aug. 6, the two sides were able to finalize the draft NCA, except the matter of inviting all other armed groups to take part in the signing of the peace deal.

By signing the pact, signatories will get some guarantees from the government which cover continued holding of arms for self- defense, removal from list of unlawful organizations and meeting for political dialogue to freely seek the solution, joint implementation of code of conduct and joint monitoring of cease- fire to prevent recurrence of clashes and rights to be obtained for changing the 2008 constitution generated from agreement of political dialogue, the release said.

The four groups believed that those groups, not included yet in the signing, should seek practical way to settle political issue through political means, the release added.

Negotiators from the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups are expected to further their talks in Nay Pyi Taw later this month, aimed at overcoming the only sticking point that is deadlocking the NCA.

The government side reiterated its policy of initially signing the deal alongside the 15 ethnic armed groups, with which it has already struck bilateral peace agreements.

However, the ethnic side insisted that all 17 senior delegation members be included in the NCA signing,

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

The NCA to be signed by leaders of both sides will be forwarded to the parliament for approval and a political dialogue framework is also to be drawn up within two months with the dialogue to be taking place within three months.

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 cease-fire talks, while last round of talks took place in Yangon on July 22. Endi