Myanmar signs ceasefire agreement with Shan rebels

Dec 4, 2011, 3:06 GMT

Bangkok - Myanmar's new government has signed a ceasefire agreement with Shan insurgents in the wake of an historic visit to the country by the US Secretary of State, news reports said Sunday.

The truce was signed Friday in the Shan State capital of Taunggyi, the Bangkok Post reported.

'This is a good start,' Shan State Army (SSA) leader Colonel Yodsuek said.

The ceasefire was inked on the last day of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's three-day visit to Myanmar, where she met President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and promised to support the country's reform process with greater engagement.

She was the first US secretary of state to visit the military-ruled country in more than five decades.

One of the steps Clinton required of the new regime, which came to power in March, was a cessation of all conflicts with ethnic minority groups, some of whom have been fighting the central government for greater autonomy for more than six decades.

The Myanmar government last week initiated peace talks with the Shan State Army, Karen National Union, Karenni National People's Army and Chin National Front.

The SSA have asked the government for permission to set up 'a special area for development' and to carry out joint crackdowns on drug production and smuggling, which is rampant in the northern Shan State, which borders Thailand.

Skepticism still runs deep among insurgents about the sincerity of the new government, which is packed with ex-military men.

'If the government does not keep its word, Burma will get nothing,' Yodsuek told the Bangkok Post, using the old word for Myanmar. 'For me, I will take my gun to fight again.'