Regime not ready to hold informal talks with seven NCA signatories

By DMG 13 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 December 2022, Sittwe

Myanmar’s military regime is reportedly not ready to hold informal talks on the issue of sustainable peace-building with seven signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

The seven NCA signatories sent a letter to the junta’s National Solidarity and Peace Negotiation Committee (NSPNC) on December 7, and the military regime replied the next day that it was not prepared to hold informal talks with the seven NCA signatories.

“We have tried to hold an informal talk after meeting step-by-step. I think the military council replied that it is not yet possible to hold such an informal meeting due to the difficulties that are currently occurring in the country. The military regime replied that they are not ready to hold an information talk on our proposal, so there is no possibility of a meeting at the moment,” Colonel Saw Kyaw Nyunt, spokesman for the seven NCA signatories, told DMG.

He added that the informal talk was originally intended to discuss how to overcome the two-year political difficulties and Myanmar’s crisis, but at present, the exact date of the meeting is not yet known.

“Myanmar’s political crisis has now reached two years. We are facing difficulties, crises and challenges that we have never faced before under any government. I can’t see how long these difficulties and crises will last. We are going to meet and discuss with the military junta in order to overcome the difficulties and crises that the whole country is facing,” he explained.

The seven NCA signatories are the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA); Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNU/KNLA-PC); Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO); New Mon State Party (NMSP); Arakan Liberation Party (ALP); Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS); and Lahu Democratic Union (LDU).

The seven NCA signatories wrote in a letter sent to the junta’s Lt-Gen Yar Pyae, chairman of the NSPNC, that they are prepared to conduct the talks secretly. The letter also references an eventual goal of a formal signing of a common positions and agreements declaration accepted by the two sides, at a place and time convenient for the two sides.

Three out of the 10 NCA signatories — the Karen National Union, Chin National Front and All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) — have officially declared their opposition to the military coup and joined anti-regime forces in conflict with the junta.