Myanmar’s Suu Kyi sets date for crunch peace talks

Several complex ethnic conflicts simmer across Myanmar’s poor and militarised borderlands, hampering efforts to build the country’s economy after the end of junta rule. Some groups who fought the army for decades have signed ceasefires but those are fragile, adding urgency to Suu Kyi’s task.

“The first meeting of the ‘21st century Panglong’ conference will be held on 31 August,” according to a statement posted late yesterday on the Facebook page of State Counsellor Suu Kyi. Panglong refers to a historic conference held by her independence hero father -- Aung San in 1947 -- that saw major ethnic groups commit to joining Myanmar.

But that deal collapsed under the junta that took control several years after Aung San’s assassination and embarked on almost 50 years of devastating rule. The date of the talks emerged after discussions between Suu Kyi and army chief Min Aung Hlaing yesterday in the capital Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi appears to have developed a good relationship with the senior general in the four months since her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a parliamentary majority in elections.

At a speech yesterday marking the anniversary of a brutal 1988 army-led crackdown against student protesters, Tin OO, an NLD veteran and former general who joined the democracy movement, said it was important to find common ground with the military in the push for peace.

But disagreements over issues such as federal rule, ownership of lucrative natural resources, disarmament of rebels and an end of operations by Myanmar’s army have impeded progress on talks.

The areas beset by conflict are also hot-beds of illegal logging, jade mining and drug smuggling, further complicating the picture. 

Suu Kyi wants to thrash out a deal on greater federal autonomy for ethnic groups in exchange for peace.