Myanmar govt, armed groups agree on continued peace process

YANGON - The Myanmar government and eight signatory armed groups have agreed on seven points with their continued peace process at the 6th Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM) held in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw.

The JICM meeting agreed to continue implementing a union agreement in accordance with the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA), said a statement released by the State Counselor's Office late Monday.

The meeting decided to hold the third meeting of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in Nay Pyi Taw in January 2018 as well as 7th JICM in February next year.

Other agreed points included holding an ethnic-based national-level political dialogue led by the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS)/ Shan State Army (SSA) in Shan state, which will represent the voices of the Shan people at the upcoming third Panglong conference.

The meeting agreed to continue efforts to hold national level political dialogue led by Arakan Liberation Party (ALP).

A report by a task force of reviewing implementation of NCA was approved at the meeting and the meeting decided to continue working on political framework, Terms of Reference (ToR) and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services Vice Senior General Soe Win and leaders of eight signatory armed groups to the NCA attended the JICM meeting.

Myanmar's previous government and eight armed groups signed the NCA on Oct 15, 2015.