Suu Kyi launches peace talks with appeal for unity

NAYPYITAW — Myanmar has a unique opportunity to end decades of ethnic rebellion in various parts of the country, leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday, as she promised that her government would guarantee rebel groups equal rights and respect in the historic peace talks that her government organised.

“This is a unique opportunity for us to accomplish a great task that will stand as a landmark throughout our history,” said Ms Suu Kyi, who is also state counsellor. “Let us grasp this magnificent opportunity with wisdom, courage and perseverance, and create a future infused with light.”

Ms Suu Kyi was speaking at the start of the five-day negotiations aimed at ending decades of separatist insurgencies that have claimed thousands of lives.

The talks are being attended by representatives of 17 of the 20 major ethnic groups, including the Karen, Kachin, Shan and Wa, who make up 40 per cent of the country’s population.

Among those absent from the conference, however, were any representatives of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims, who face persecution and human rights abuses at the hands of their Buddhist neighbours in northwestern Rakhine State.

“So long as we are unable to achieve national reconciliation and national unity, we will never be able to establish a sustainable and durable peaceful union,” she said.

“Only if we are all united will our country be at peace. Only if our country is at peace will we be able to stand on an equal footing with the other countries in our region and across the world.”

The focus yesterday was on the symbolic, with few concrete proposals likely to emerge from this week’s talks. Delegates expect to meet every six months to discuss issues ranging from security, political representation, language and culture to control of Myanmar’s rich mineral resources.

The meeting comes almost 70 years after Ms Suu Kyi’s father, independence hero Aung San, signed a landmark agreement to devolve powers to some ethnic groups after independence.

The deal collapsed after he was assassinated, before Myanmar broke from Britain in 1948, triggering the civil wars that have rumbled across the country’s borders ever since.

Ms Suu Kyi has dubbed her summit the “21st Century Panglong” in reference to the agreement brokered by her father, who remains a deeply revered figure.

She also said her National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s aim has always been to hold political negotiations “based on the Panglong spirit and the principle of finding solutions through the guarantee of equal rights, mutual respect and mutual confidence between all ethnic nationalities.”

“The government that emerged after the 2015 elections is determined to uphold the same principles,” she said, referring to the landmark elections that brought the NLD to power after decades of military rule.

The previous military-backed government brokered individual truces with various insurgent groups and oversaw a ceasefire covering eight minor insurgencies last year that fell short of a nationwide deal.

Skirmishes, particularly in northern zones where Kachin insurgents are fighting the army, have displaced more than 100,000 civilians since 2011 alone. At least 100,000 more have sought refuge in squalid camps in neighbouring Thailand, and are unlikely to return home until true peace takes hold. AGENCIES