|
||
|
|
COMMENTARY
When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Burma this week, one of the key issues she is certain to raise is the ongoing hostilities and human rights violations in Burma’s ethnic regions.
Aung Min, who was an intelligence officer in the 1980s and a former commander of the Southern Command, is said by colleagues to be straightforward and moderate. He is also known to be close to both Thein Sein and former junta chief Snr Gen Than Shwe. Following the talks, Maj Sai Lao Hseng, a spokesperson for the Shan State Army-South, said that “Minister Aung Min explained to us that there are three steps toward the emergence of peace—a ceasefire, cooperation between ceasefire groups and Naypyidaw for development, and a meeting hosted by the government to tackle unsolved political conflicts.” While the fact that the peace talks took place at all is a welcome development, and the Bangkok Post went so far as to call the talks “historic,” it must be cautioned that nothing approaching historic has happened yet. Although sources reported that three of the ethnic armed groups informally agreed to a ceasefire—and the United Wa State Army previously accepted a temporary accord—no permanent ceasefire has been agreed to with any major ethnic armed group and fighting in Shan, Karen and Kachin states continues with no end in sight. This is not the first time that peace talks have been held in Burma. In fact, every time Burma has had a new government its leaders extended what appeared to be an olive branch, only to have the initial good will eventually break down and lead to more distrust and conflict. Following his military coup in 1962, Gen Ne Win called for a ceasefire and offered to hold peace talks with all armed groups, including communists and ethnic groups. The government facilitated meetings and provided the rebel leaders with transportation, including air travel, from their jungle hideouts to Rangoon for the month-long peace talks. During the discussions, ethnic groups such as the Kachin, Shan and Arakanese all wanted some form of near-complete autonomy within a federal system, while the government asked them to surrender their arms and come back into the legal fold. With the positions of the government and the ethnic groups firm and so far apart, and with no apparent trust between the parties, the talks finally broke down and fighting soon resumed. With the civil war continuing, Ne Win then built a military machine with the intention of wiping out the resistance, but he never succeeded. A new military regime took over in 1988, and then in 1989 the government took advantage of a serious mutiny within the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) by entering into ceasefire agreements with drug warlords who splintered off from the CPB. The result was a booming drug trade in northern Burma as the regime simply turned a blind eye towards the production and export of heroin and methamphetamines. With the initial ceasefire agreements in place, others fell like dominos and the regime agreed to ceasefire terms with more than a dozen ethnic armed groups. These rebel militias and their political representatives were told at the time that if they were patient until a new civilian government was formed, then discussions of their political demands would take place. The ethnic groups waited as asked for more than fifteen years, but then in 2009, with the polls to elect a new civilian government already in sight, the regime blundered badly and shattered any trust that existed. 1 | 2 COMMENTS (10)
|
Thailand Hotels Bangkok Hotels China Hotels India Hotels |
Home |News |Regional |Business |Opinion |Multimedia |Special Feature |Interview |Magazine |Burmese Elections 2010 |Archives |Research |
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. |