JUNTA HOLDS HISTORIC PEACE TALKS WITH KAREN

(Kao Wao: January 20, 2004)

The Burmese military chief Senior General Than Shwe on Tuesday held a meeting with Karen National Union leaders during talks aimed at ending one of the world's longest-running insurgencies according to AFP news.

The unprecedented two-hour meeting raised hopes that the regime could soon
agree on a ceasefire formalising a deal hammered out in December with one of
the last ethnic armies still battling Yangon. Dressed in traditional Karen costume, General Bo Mya and the KNU delegation met Than Shwe at a military reception centre in the capital Yangon, witnesses said.

The length of the unprecedented meeting and the decision to hold it at a venue typically used to receive visiting heads of state indicate the talks are progressing well, observers said. The Karen visitors will also be honoured with a dinner Tuesday on the banks of Yangon's tranquil Kandawgyi Lake, hosted by Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and held in part to mark Bo Mya's 76th birthday.

"The signs are good because the talks are continuing. We hope that something
positive will come out of this meeting," said a source close to the Karen mediating team. The source said nine of the most senior members of the 20-strong Karen delegation attended the meeting, after which they expected to conclude a number of agreements.

The closed-door talks which began on Thursday are aimed at ending half a century of military struggle which has caused extreme hardship for Karen civilians, tens of thousands of whom live in refugee camps on the Thai border.

The KNU is the largest of the handful of rebel groups still fighting against Yangon's rule. The junta estimates there are 7,000 rebels in the insurgent group which took up arms 53 years ago. A successful ceasefire arrangement with the KNU would be a major achievement for the junta as it works to have all rebel ethnic groups attend a national convention to draft a new constitution planned for this year.

The inclusion of the ethnic groups is key to the credibility of the convention, the first step in a "road map" to democracy announced last year which the junta hopes will mute international criticism over its failure to embark on reforms.

Contacts between the KNU and junta resumed after a long impasse when the
regime dispatched its representatives to meet KNU officials at the Thai border town of Mae Sot on November 22. A second round of talk in Yangon in December were arranged after progress was made on a number of issues, including an agreement that no third party be involved in the negotiations. Under the deal, all the talks must be conducted inside Myanmar's territory, either in border towns or the capital, and the opposition National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi is to be excluded. The junta also agreed to the KNU's demand that they negotiate a ceasefire first before surrendering their weapons -- an issue which caused previous talks to fail.

The KNU is expected to be seeking the ceasefire before considering whether
it will participate in the national convention. However, the KNU General Secretary Pado Mahn Shah denied the meeting between Bo Mya and Than Shwe according to the Radio Free Asia.

Despite the positive mood at the talks, KNU representatives on the Thai-Myanmar border say fighting is continuing and that more refugees are being forced across the frontier.

"About 30,000 villagers have been displaced to the jungle in the past week. It's very difficult to find food, and the weather is cold in this area, about zero degrees (Celsius)," Pado Mahn Shah told AFP.