Politics

Conflicting accounts of China’s influence on northern armed groups in peace conference

Members of a bloc of ethnic armed groups based along Myanmar’s northern border with China have given conflicting accounts of whether China persuaded them to attend a peace conference in the capital Naypyidaw.

Gen Sumlut Gun Maw of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), speaking to local media, denied any Chinese pressure in his decision to attend. He said his aim was to re-establish lines of communication with the Myanmar military and government after several months of intense fighting in Kachin State.

However, U Kyi Myint, secretary of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) based in Mongla in eastern Shan State, told Myanmar Now bloc members had been repeatedly urged to attend by Beijing as well as the provincial government in Yunnan, which borders Myanmar. 

He said senior Chinese officials persuaded them that, “We [the ethnic armed groups] need to discuss our aims at the conference so that everyone will know what our goals are. We will know what we can and cannot get only if we attend the conference. To not attend would be our loss.”

The seven-member bloc that includes the KIA and the NDAA remains outside of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) signed between the military and 10 ethnic armed groups and being promoted by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi as the solution to decades of civil conflict.

The bloc members formed the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC) to negotiate with the Myanmar government. However, talks have stalled while the Myanmar army has ramped up assaults on four members of the group, who together form the Northern Alliance. The latter includes the KIA but not the NDAA.

FPNCC members have been invited to the six-day conference, known as the “21st Century Panglong” or Union Peace Conference, which started on 11 July. Though, as NCA non-signatories, they can only observe the negotiations, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is meeting with them separately.

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