Some ethnic armed organisations to meet with UPDJC

31 October 2018
Some ethnic armed organisations to meet with UPDJC
Members of Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) attend a  committee meeting in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 15 July 2018. Photo: Hein  Htet/EPA

Some of the five ethnic armed groups that have not signed Myanmar’s nationwide cease-fire accord will attend talks with the committee responsible for holding political dialogue and convening peace conferences, as stakeholders in the country’s stalled peace process continue to iron out their differences, according to an RFA report.

The Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) invited the United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Kachin Independence Organization/Kachin Independence Army (KIO/KIA), Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA), and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)/Karenni Army for a meeting on Nov. 1-3 at the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) in Yangon, said Hla Maung Shwe, a member of the UPDJC’s secretariat group.

The UPDJC’s 15-member secretariat group includes five members of the Myanmar military, government, and national parliament, as well as five representatives chosen by the ethnic armies, and five selected by political parties.

So far, only the NDAA and SSPP have confirmed their attendance, said Zaw Htay, spokesman for State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s office, at a press conference on Monday in the capital Naypyidaw.