Burmese State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the nation’s military commander yesterday opened a major conference with representatives of ethnic minority groups to try to reach a lasting peace after seven decades of strained relations and armed conflict.
The third session of the 21st Century Panglong Conference is scheduled to last five days and follows meetings held in August 2016 and May last year. Those sessions failed to make much headway in resolving differences between the government, the military and ethnic rebel groups seeking greater autonomy.
The government has since 2015 promoted a ceasefire agreement that several ethnic minority groups have signed, but some other major rebel groups, especially in the north, are wary of committing to the deal until political terms are made clearer.
Photo: EPA
The event is named after the original 1947 conference convened by Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, who was head of an interim government while his nation — then called Burma — prepared for independence from Britain.
An agreement brokered by Aung San and signed by several major ethnic minority groups granted minorities significant autonomy and the right to secede if they joined a post-independence federal union, but Aung San was assassinated shortly after and the deal fell apart.
Since then, ethnic groups have accused successive, mostly military governments of failing to honor the 1947 pact.
Despite the framework of the conference allowing only the ceasefire signatories to attend, the Burmese government invited a political alliance of non-signatory armed ethnic groups from the north, often referred to as the Northern Alliance, to attend the conference.
The non-signatories would be allowed to attend the group discussions, but would not be permitted to speak, government spokesman Zaw Htay said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has previously called on all armed ethnic groups to sign the ceasefire. Her National League for Democracy-led government promised that peace would be the top priority when it came to power in 2016, but has since come under fire for a brutal military crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, as well as for failing to stop atrocities against other ethnic minorities.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
The White House on Tuesday questioned the humanitarian commitment of the Episcopal Church after it refused to comply with a federal directive to help resettle South Africans granted refugee status by US President Donald Trump’s administration. On Monday, about 50 South Africans arrived for resettlement in the US after Trump granted them refugee status as victims of what he called a “genocide,” a claim rejected by the South African government. On Monday, the Episcopal Church said that it would end its refugee resettlement program with the US government rather than comply with the administration’s orders to help resettle the South Africans. White House
RSS