A 4 men team to hold peace talks with ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) yet to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) will be arriving in Chiangmai on a 3-day mission, 2-4 June, according to government and rebel sources.

The team will be headed by Dr Tin Myo Win, the new chief negotiator appointed by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. Members will include U Hla Maung Shwe, Secretary of the newly formed 21^st Century Panglong Conference Preparatory Committee and former special advisor to the now defunct Myanmar Peace Center (MPC), Lt-Gen (ret) Khin Zaw Oo, and an unnamed member of the Preparatory Committee.

The 12 person Delegation for Political Negotiations (DPN) formed by the 11-member EAO alliance, United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) will be holding an ad hoc meeting on 1-2 June in preparation for the negotiations, said a UNFC member.

“Some of us are suspicious of the latest move and are demanding official credentials from the mission,” he added. U Hla Maung Shwe, interviewed by SHAN, confirmed the matter, saying, “For the sake of peace, we are accommodating their wishes, although we had never done this during the previous government’s tenure,” he said.

Hkun Okker, Patron of the PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO), a signatory to the NCA, yesterday urged the DPN not to spurn this latest offer from the government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. “The question is not about who are coming,” he said. “It’s about who’s sending them.”

To which the UNFC source retorted, “We are only trying to make sure about that.”

Hkun Okker told SHAN the rejection by three EAOs (AA, MNDAA and TNLA) of the overtures made by a government delegation to hold informal talks earlier this month, was an ill-advised one. “This should not be repeated,” he said.

The purpose of the visit, according to sources, is to invite the non-EAOs to participate in the Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD) revision meeting to be held sometime in June. “Following their agreement with the revised FPD, they will be invited to sign the NCA, prior to participation in the upcoming 21^st Century Panglong,” said Hla Maung Shwe.” As most of them had taken part in the NCA negotiations, we hope the NCA would not prove a serious obstacle.”

The UNFC meeting in March reportedly discussed amendment proposal to the NCA, which was ratified by the Parliament on 8 December 2015. It remains a question whether the government would agree to new changes in the text. “The amendments proposed by them, however, may become part of the meeting decisions, which collectively constitute an integral part of the NCA,” explained Hla Maung Shwe.

Article 30 of the NCA reads:

We agree that, in consultation with each other, decisions contained in the agreed meeting minutes during negotiations for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement shall be referred to (and part and parcel of, according to the text in Burmese) in the implementation of the Agreement.