The government has offered to hold peace talks with the Northern Alliance this month and has already sent each member a draft of a preliminary ceasefire agreement, a spokesperson for the President’s Office has said.
“The government is ready to talk,” said Zaw Htay at a press conference last week. “Which means we are waiting for a response from the four northern groups.”
The alliance’s members – the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Arakan Army (AA) – say they are still discussing the offer.
All four of the groups, which are among the most powerful insurgent armies in the country, have so far refused to sign Myanmar’s National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) despite holding talks with the government several times in 2019.
Zaw Htay suggested that peace negotiations with the four allies would have three phases. The first would be to sign a preliminary ceasefire agreement between the Tatmadaw on one side and the Northern Alliance as a bloc on the other.
A draft of that agreement has already been sent to each group, he said.
The next step would be to sign a ceasefire with each group individually, while the third stage would be for each group to join the NCA, he said.
During the second phase, the Tatmadaw would discuss the deployment of troops and the issue of displaced people with each group, he added.
The government has suggested Kengtung in Shan state and the Kachin capital of Myitkyina as locations for the meetings, Zaw Htay said.
Colonel Naw Bu, the KIA’s information officer, said that the four northern allies were not yet ready to meet with the government and needed to hold detailed discussions between themselves first.
Those talks are expected to conclude at some point this week, he told Myanmar Now, and only then would he be able to comment on the government’s offer.
Khaing Thukha, the AA’s spokesperson said a plan for holding discussions with the government had not yet been approved.
The Tatmadaw and the AA held online discussions on November 25 and December 30. Top officials from both sides then met face-to-face in Panghsang, the capital of Wa region, on December 9.
The Tatmadaw and the AA have fought fiercely in Rakhine state and southern Chin state for about two years, but the clashes suddenly stopped in early November ahead of the general election.
Zaw Htay said at the press conference last week that the lull in fighting was not an official ceasefire but was based on “understanding” between the two sides.
In November the Tatmadaw and the TNLA clashed in the ruby-rich region of Mogok township, Mandalay region. The TNLA has been accused of kidnap and extortion in the region.
The four Northern Alliance members held talks with the government six times in 2019 but made little progress towards a peace agreement.
