The Latest Peace Charade by Thein Sein Government, this time, with the Kachins

By Dr. Maung Zarni
May 31, 2013

Listen to the speeches by Kachin politicians and military leaders, as well as by Myanmar 'peace negotiators'.

The signed 7-point agreement between Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army leaders is not unlike what Thein Sein government in Naypyidaw has dragged the Karen National Union through.

The meeting in Myitkyina and the joint 7-point statement is largely designed to show Western donors, international creditors and potential foreign investors that Myanmar's 'new' government is serious about lasting peace and a business-friendly environment in the country.

Naypyidaw is, in effect, waging a public relations offensive targeting the West - and the international organizations - which are all too eager to believe in the reformists' in Naypyidaw.

It is not really pursuing lasting peace on equal terms with the Kachins.

The Kachins who co-founded the Union of Burma in 1947 as a federal union where ethnic equality was the foundational principle have reiterated their call for reviving both the spirit and content of the Panglong Agreement (signed 12 Feb 1947), the country's founding treaty among the co-founding ethnic communities.

Nearly 7 decades since independence, Myanmar military has failed to honor, respect and institutionalize ethnic equality among all constitutive ethnic communities of Burma.

On this glaring violation of ethnic equality in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi has recently blasted her business partner, namely President Thein Sein as failing to formulate and implement credible reforms.

Thein Sein, the International Crisis Group's recipient of "In Pursuit of Peace" award this year has been falsely credited by the self-interested Western powers with what she herself calls 'reforms of 3 years with no positive or tangible impact on society'. It is under Thein Sein's watch Myanmar has gone through - and is still going through - renewed fightings in Eastern Burma, ethnic cleansing in Western Burma and massive land grab and ecological destruction in the Dry Zone heartlands of Burma.

A Kachin dissident is less diplomatic than the Lady when he shared his scathing view towards the 7-point Kachin Independence Organization-Myanmar military agreement, including an agreement 'to talk again and more'.

"What the Burmese side can offer is nothing new; the same old shit about humanitarian assistance, resettlement of IDPs , etc."

Both the Kachin and Naypyidaw Myanmar negotiators may have been happy about the public relations benefits they think they gained from simply holding a highly publicized and ritualized 'dialogue in Myitkyina in the presence of Yangon-based China's second secretary, UN Envoy Nambia and some Norwegian donors.

Already Thein Sein's presidential office spokesperson has tweeted this as 'good news'. The KIA leaders, however, in fact, reaped the windfall of overwhelming public support among its grassroots public in Kachin-land. Naypyidaw's militarists who have falsely and deliberately framed the KIA as non-representative of the Kachin interests at large could not have been happy by the sight of outpouring of Kachin and public support for the KIA's genuinely honest sounding and looking negotiators including General Gum Maw.

But still, from the perspective of Burmese/Kachin streets, absolutely nothing is really significant is in the text of the agreement in terms of the need to address the Kachin's decades' old political grievances.

(1) Government and KIA agree to continue holding 'political discussions';

(2) Both parties agree to work towards reduction in arm clashes and prevent them;

(3) It is agreed, in principle, that a joint monitoring committee to be made up of representatives from both parties needs to be established;

(4) Both sides agree to collaborate on the rehabilitation of the (Kachin) IDPs driven out of their homes owing to the insecure situation;

(5) In order to facilitate further line of communication and discussion, a KIO representative and a"work team" will be based in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State;

(6) (Respective) troop locations and troops resettlement will be further discussed;

and finally

(7) In the next KIO-Government meeting, it is agreed that all the delegates from both sides who attended the present meeting in Myitkyina will return to the discussions. Both sides agreed to discuss and work out new participants and organizations which may be invited to attend the next meeting.

The Agreement (In Burmese)