UNFC decries recent wave of fighting

In a statement released over the weekend the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of Burma's armed ethnic groups, expressed the group's concern regarding the recent wave of fighting that has taken place in Shan and Kachin states.

Over the past few weeks government forces have used air strikes against the recently resurrected Kokang based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). The army also used air strikes in Kachin state against Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) positions in Mansi township last week.

In the statement Khu Oo Reh, the UNFC's general secretary, called for an immediate end to the fighting in the Kokang region, an area located in northern Shan state along the China Kachin border.  The MNDAA and their leader Peng Jiasheng recently re-emerged to take up arms against the central government after being soundly defeated and driven out of Kokang in 2009.

Talks between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), a group largely made up of UNFC members, are expected to resume this week.