Myanmar government sends peace delegation to northern war zone

Jan 18, 2012, 1:34 GMT

Yangon - The government dispatched a peace delegation Wednesday to end fighting with rebels belonging to the Kachin ethnic minority, which has raged since June in northern Myanmar.

The panel - led by Aung Thaung, head of the government's peace-building committee - flew to the Shan State capital, Lashio, and were scheduled to travel to the Chinese border town of Ruili for talks with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), government sources said.

The talks with the KIO followed a similar ceasefire dialogue a week ago with the Karen National Union, another ethnic minority rebel group.

At those talks, the government agreed to end all hostilities with the dozen ethnic minority rebel groups that have been fighting for a measure of autonomous rule in their traditional states for the past six decades.

Prior to its talks with the Karen rebels, the government signed tentative ceasefire agreements with the Shan State Army-South and China National Army.

In contrast to these three insurgencies, Myanmar's military has waged an all-out offensive against the Kachin Independence Army, the KIO's military wing, since June, displacing about 60,000 civilians.

'The people of Kachin State live in fear due to the massive presence of Burma army troops, ongoing fighting and grave violations of human rights,' the KIO said in statement. Burma is another name for Myanmar.

Western democracies have called for an end to all fighting with ethnic minority groups as one of their conditions to normalizing diplomatic ties with Myanmar, whose atrocious human rights record earned it pariah status during the 23-year rule of the military junta.

The junta was replaced last year by a pro-military, nominally civilian government after a November 2010 general election, the first in 20 years.