Reported by Chit Min Htun, The government was unaware of the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), after U Thein Sein government took office and when the government invited the ethnic armed groups to participate in the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) inking. Thus, the AA and MNDAA are denied
participation in the NCA inking, according to U Aung Min, the Union Minister and Vice-chairman of the Union Peace-making Working Committee (UPWC).
The Union Minister U Aung Min discussed the topic during the meeting with political parties at Myanmar peace Center (MPC) last Monday (September 14).
“After our president came to office, on August 18, 2011, the [ethnic armed groups from] whole country was invited for peace [talks]. At the time, our government only knows 16 [ethnic armed] groups. We did not know the AA. We only got to know it when cadets were shot dead at training in Laiza. And, we got to know there’s an AA when the news about death of AA’s cadets was reported. Likewise, MNDAA only came out in February, 2015, when fighting erupted with the government troops. We only got to know the MNDAA at the time. It did not exist in the past, but we were told of the Kokang armed group and it was officially [legal and] recognized by the government. Not this MNDAA. This armed group just emerged,” said minister U Aung Min.
Minister U Aung Min explained this to representatives from Phalon-Sagaw Democratic Party, Ta’aung (Palaung) National Party and National Democratic Party, of the political parties present at Monday meeting, when the political parties suggested to include all the ethnic armed groups in the NCA inking.
U Aung Min continued to state that in 2013, although the government representatives went to Muse Town to meet with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), no agreement was reached. Afterwards, the president summoned and directed U Maung Kyaw, the chairman of Palaung Region Administration, to meet with the TNLA, but the TNLA turned it down. Ultimately, no meeting between the TNLA and the government has been held.
However, according to the MPC, the President and the government representatives came to agree but in principles only because everyone [ethnic armed groups, political parties and other civil society organizations ] requested for an all-inclusive [all ethnic armed groups involved] NCA inking. It is visible that it is difficult to implement in practice, so more talks will be held.
Because the government does not accept the 6 armed groups, namely AA, MNDAA, TNLA [Ta’ang National Liberation Army], Arakan National Council (ANC), Wa National Organization (WNO), and Lahu Democratic Union ( LDU), for the NCA inking, there could be misunderstandings between the government and some ethnic armed groups. Due to that, various political parties also have misunderstandings and negative views on excluding certain groups.
The government already announced that it won’t accept those six groups in the NCA inking but it will allow them to join in political talks.
