The Star Online
Monday, 29 May 2017
Naypyidaw: Talks to end decades of bitter civil war in
Myanmar have faltered, a government spokesman warned, blaming ethnic rebel
demands for greater autonomy, which the military fears could break the country
up.
The civilian-led government of Aung San Suu Kyi has made
striking a peace deal a key pillar of her administration, but fighting has
instead intensified in recent months, with tens of thousands displaced by
conflict.
With only a day to go before the end of the second round
of peace talks under her watch, officials said little headway had been made on
the federalism or increased autonomy that are key demands for ethnic minority
groups.
“There will be a less good result than people are hoping
for,” Zaw Htay, spokesman for the president’s office, told reporters yesterday,
adding “we did not get agreement on the matter of seceding”.
“People, the military and the government have worries
that the union (of Myanmar) will split into pieces if we do not have that
commitment.”
Secession is a red line for Myanmar’s army, with “unity”
an oft-repeated mantra of the military, which ruled Myanmar with an iron fist
for nearly half a century and still retains huge power in the South-East Asian
nation.
Myanmar, scarred by some of the world’s longest-running
civil wars, has dozens of ethnic minorities, mainly in a horseshoe of
impoverished mountainous border regions.
Negotiators from the government, military and multiple
rebel groups have spent the last five days in the capital Naypyidaw trying to
hash out a long-elusive deal.
While few expected the breakthrough in signing a
nationwide ceasefire agreement that Suu Kyi has pushed for, there were hopes
the conference might produce some sort of progress on federalism or increased
autonomy for ethnic groups.
Zaw Htay, who was a senior figure in Myanmar’s previous
military-dominated government, said negotiators, discussed 21 points dealing
with political issues, but only found agreement on 12 – an illustration of how
little consensus had been reached.
Hopes had been high that Myanmar’s first freely elected
government for generations would end the running conflicts that have claimed
thousands of lives and kept the country mired in poverty.
But many ethnic groups say Suu Kyi – a member of the
ethnic group that also dominates the army – has not listened to their concerns
and is working too closely with the military.
The talks come as violence in Myanmar’s northeast have
reached its worst point since the conflict-ridden 1980s.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee
months of heavy fighting between the army and insurgent groups, many of them
crossing into neighbouring China, which has sent delegates to the talks.
Under Myanmar’s junta-era constitution, Suu Kyi’s
civilian government has little control over the military. — AFP