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Intermediaries Play Key Role in Myanmar's Peace Process

Minn Thu writes from Yangon
INTERMEDIARIES or peace brokers in Myanmar are playing an important role in forging peace agreements between the ruling military and insurgent groups fighting a 46-year-old civil war.
A total of 12 rebel groups had signed peace agreements with the ruling military State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) 10 months after it announced a unilateral ceasefire and started its peace qvertures.
Military intelligence has acknowledged that talks with insurgent groups went faster and smoother when there were intermediaries or peacemakers such as in the case of negotiations with the Kachins, Karennis and Kayans.
A Baptist missionary priest was among a three-man group df intermediaries, who brought the military and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to the negotiating table. This resulted in a ceasefire accord between the two sides signed last Feb 23.
Roman Catholic priests in the Kayah state also played a role in bringing two armed ethnic groups operating In the smallest of the seven states on the Thal-Myanmar border back to the legal fold last May and July.
The two returning groups are the Karennl National People's Liberation Front (KNPLF) of Tun Gyaw and the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) of Than Soe Nalng.
Now, the primate of the Anglican church of Myanmar, the most Reverepd Andrew Mya Han, has decided to Join the bandwagon and mediate between the military and the oldest and most powerful ethnic Insurgent group — the Karen National Union (KNU)
There are also reports that initial talks are going on with other remaining Insurgent groups, including the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) and the New Mon State Party (NMSP).
Archbishop Mya Han seemed to have been encouraged'by the achievements of other intermediaries who successfully negotiated peace agreements.
' Thus, when he attended in July the 10-day Haggal leadership training course in Hawaii, he stopped in Bangkok to set an appointment with the KNU leadership. KNU leader Bo Mya. a Seventh Day Adventist, sent his personal boat to pick up the archbishop.
Mr Bo Mya. Premier Padoh Ba Thlnn of the Kawthoolei (meaning Karen republic or state in Karen), and nine KNU executives met the archbishop.
The latter Is also the vice president of the Myanmar Council of Churches, an executive of the national Young Men's Christian Association and president of the Yangon YMCA.
Elected archbishop in 1988, Rev Mya Han said the KNUs still stuck to their earlier demand that the military meet with the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB) to which several armed ethnic groups (including the KNU) and unarmed democratic forces are affiliated
The KNU also asked that the meeting be held in a third country in the presence of United Nations observers and media. It claimed that the military had opened fire at Its delegates returning home from an aborted peace talk In the early 1960s the primate said
The military. In Initiating peace overtures, had said it would meet only with Individ
ual groups inside Myanmar.
Earlier, the military rejected the call made by the DAB to represent its affiliates in peace talks. SLORC Chairman Senior General Than Shwe said the policy is for the military to meet separately with ethnic groups with differ- 3 ent policies on autonomy rather than have one meeting with a single representative group like DAB.
Because of pressures from the Thal government, the KNU headquarters in Bangkok had to be moved back to Menaplau ’ where its 20.000-strong force In currently based.
“We are living in hope, and I hope that the peace process would also be successful," said Archbishop Mya Han, who expects a second meeting with the KNU when he leaves for Japan.
And what do insurgent groups get by rejoining the fold of law?
The returning rebel groups would be given "a special region” of their own. permitted to wear their own uniform, handle their own firearms, and allowed to attend the ongoing national convention that is drafting a new constitution.
The first nine rebel groups that signed a peace agreement with the military are already represented at the constitutional convention that began on Jan 9. 1993. They are calling for the conversion of thei/ "special regions" Into self-ad ministered areas or zones under direct presidential rule.
Myanmar's military has been fighting insurgents since the country regained on Jan 4, 1948 from the British their lost Independence In the last few years. Its annual defence budget averaged about USil.4 billion.
— Depthnews Asia