Myanmar's new ceasefire talks likely to be held in Thailand

YANGON - The Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups are likely to meet informally in Chiangmai, Thailand early next month to further negotiate on formal signing of a draft nationwide ceasefire accord (NCA), official sources said Wednesday.

The government delegation, led by Minister at the President's Office U Aung Min, will talk with a 15-member high-level special coordination team newly formed at the last ethnic summit conference in Law Khee Lar, Kayin state held early this month.

The Law Khee Lar conference decided not to sign the NCA until further amendment, insisting that all armed groups be included in the signing process.

The summit was able to obtain suggestions over the draft proposal for political dialogue prepared by the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) who initiated the peace negotiation with the government, vowing to cooperate with the newly assigned coordination team for further deal with the government on the formal signing.

The 15-member special coordination team is led by Naw Zipporah Sein, Vice Chairman of Karen National Union (KNU), involving members from Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Chin National Front (CNF).

The draft NCA was preliminarily signed between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the ethnic groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) at the end of March after conclusion of more than one year's negotiation on the NCA.

The government on its part has indicated readiness to complete the formal signing over the draft NCA once it is adopted by the Law Khee Lar ethnic summit conference.

However, the conference ended without adoption of the draft NCA on the ethnic part.