Government negotiators offered to resume peace talks via video conference with the Arakan Army (AA) and its three allied ethnic armed groups, a member of a group helping in the negotiations said on June 9.
The AA, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army belong to the Northern Alliance, which has not signed the government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement but has been pressing for a separate deal.
U San Aung, spokesperson of Peace talks Creation Group, said the alliance received a government proposal to discuss a separate ceasefire agreement last week.
He said, “We send letters to the four groups but they have not yet replied.”
U Hla Maung Shwe, a member of the government’s Peace Commission, said the groups rejected a government offer to hold talks with the alliance in Myitkyina in Kachin State or in Kyaingtong in Shan State over security concerns.
He said the government has sent a new proposal to the alliance to hold the talks via video conferencing.
The alliance held talks with the commission in Namkham, Shan State, in April 2019, in Kyaingtong in August and September 2019, and in Kunming, China, last December. But the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the talks.
The Tatmadaw (military) declared the AA a terrorist group on March 23. It has been fighting the AA in Rakhine and Chin states since November 2018, when the ethnic armed group tried to establish a base in Mrauk-U town in Rakhine.
The fighting has killed or injured hundreds of civilians and forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes to refugee camps.
On May 9, the Tatmadaw declared a ceasefire across the country except in Rakhine and Paletwa township in Chin State, where it is fighting the AA. mmtimes