17 EAOs likely to attend junta-organised peace talks: regime spokesman

By DMG 27 Apr 2022

DMG Newsroom
27 April 2022, Naypyitaw 

Seventeen ethnic armed groups are likely to attend peace talks invited by the Myanmar junta chief, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the State Administration Council (SAC), told a press conference on Wednesday. 

Nine out of 10 signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) are expected to accept the invite for face-to-face talks, the junta has said. Eight out of 11 recognised non-signatories to the NCA are also likely to attend the junta-sponsored peace talks, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun added. 

The military council also said that the National Unity Government (NUG) and its armed wing, the People’s Defence Force (PDF), were not included in the invitation for nationwide peace talks. 

“We don’t invite terrorist organisations in our call for peace talks. This is because ethnic armed organisations [EAOs] are demanding the rights of ethnic nationalities and the rights of ethnic areas. Terrorist groups such as the PDF and NUG are only committing acts of terrorism,” he said. 

Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on April 22 invited Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups to engage in dialogue as the military regime endeavours to restart the country’s moribund peace process in the wake of its February 2021 coup. 

In an address carried by state media, Min Aung Hlaing called for representatives of the country’s ethnic armed groups to register for talks by May 9, adding that he would meet them personally.