Peace Process Steering Team interim leader General Yawd Serk resigns

By DMG 07 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
7 July 2021, Sittwe

General Yawd Serk, the interim leader of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) formed of the 10 ethnic armed group signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, has been allowed to resign and was replaced by Nai Aung Min, the PPST said on July 7.

The chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), General Yawd Serk submitted his resignation letter on June 29, and it was approved by the PPST at a meeting earlier this month.

A three-person PPST leadership committee will be chaired by Nai Aung Min, with Colonel Khun Okkar and Colonel Sai Ngin as members, until a summit slated to be held later this year.

The PPST is made up of the 10 ethnic armed groups that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), and was first chaired by former Karen National Union (KNU) leader General Mutu Sae Poe. General Yawd Serk took over from him as interim chairman on March 19, 2019, serving as the face of the grouping for more than two years.

It was formed to hold peace talks with the government and military, and includes the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), Chin National Front (CNF), Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) and New Mon State Party (NMSP).

Fighting between the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has not signed the NCA, has been ongoing in Kachin State since February 1, when the Tatmadaw seized power in a coup.

Following the putsch, fighting has also flared in Kayin State between the Tatmadaw and the KNU, which has signed the NCA.