National Ceasefire unlikely by UNION Day, say NCCT reps

Representative members of the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), a group that includes most of Burma's armed rebel groups, say that is very unlikely that a nationwide ceasefire agreement could be reach by Union Day on February 12th

President Thein Sein and his team from the Myanmar Peace Center have been pushing to seal a national ceasefire deal by Union Day but many of the armed groups are less enthusiastic about reaching a deal so soon.

Representatives from the NCCT and the government's negotiators from the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) met in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on the 21st of January.  The meeting was held to prepare for an upcoming meeting between the NCCT and the government's Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC).

“The negotiation are not over yet, so it is not possible to sign it on that day, we had lot of  agreement in this meeting but still there are some more things left,” Pado Kywe Htoo Win, the Karen National Union's Delegate to the NCCT, told Kachinnews after the meeting wrapped on Wednesday.

According Kywe Htoo Win the NCCT proposed that several issues be discussed with the UPWC, including the November 19th attack by the army on the Kachin Independence Organization's Laiza headquarters.

Reached for comment, Nyo Ohn Myint, an MPC staff person said that a lack of agreement among the armed groups was the reason for the hold up.  Originally the government proposed that the armed groups sign an agreement last December but the NCCT members needed more time.

"We re-negotiated during the meeting some disagreements relating to the draft," Nyo Ohn Myint said. The date for the next meeting has to be confirmed, according to Nyo Ohn Myint.