Myanmar president urges ceasefire accord

Myanmar President U Thein Sein urged ethnic armed groups on September 9 to sign the national ceasefire accord (NCA) before the end of this month.

During a meeting with nine top leaders of ethnic armed groups in Nay Pyi Taw, the President called on leaders to grasp firmly the chance to reach a ceasefire agreement, stressing that several decades have proven that the issues of ethnic armed groups cannot be settled using force but instead need to be addressed through political dialogues to resolve the issues and attain peace.

This is the first meeting between the President and the armed groups in the capital on bringing about the signing of the NCA before the country’s general election, which will take place in November 2015.

Meanwhile, the group leaders expressed their willingness to make joint efforts while asking the president to consider total inclusiveness in the formal signing of the NCA to realise genuine and lasting peace nationwide. 

The peace process between the government and armed groups began in November 2013. During a meeting between the government’s Union Peace Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the Senior Delegation (SF) of the ethnic armed groups on August 6, the two sides agreed on all items in the draft NCA except for the signatories of the official accord.-VNA