The Sixth Round of Nationwide Ceasefire Talks Concludes

The sixth official round of Nationwide Ceasefire negotiation talks, between the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) and Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC), concluded this afternoon after five days of meetings in Rangoon from September 22-26, 2014.

The KNU representatives included P'doh Saw Kwe Htoo Win NCCT Deputy Team Leader One, P'doh Saw Tah Doh Moo NCCT Code of Conduct Team Leader, Major Saw Tamla Thaw KNU Technical Team Member, and Saw Nimrod support staff, who participated in the negotiations.

During the 5 days of negotiations some key issues that both sides negotiated on but were unable to reach consensus on were: The steps in the Roadmap, and the issues in the Political Dialogue, including the roles and responsibilities of the EAOs, government, parliament and the Tatmadaw after the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire and in the Peace Process. These issues will continue to be negotiated in the next round of talks scheduled for October.

While many media reports stated that this round of talks wasn't as successful as expected, according to P'doh Saw Kwe Htoo, "Some negotiation talks go smoothly but others face challenges and difficulties. The most important part of this negotiation is that we build better understanding and find solutions". He continued, "The closer we get to our goals, the more challenges we will face".

P’doh Saw Tah Doh Moo, NCCT Code of Conduct Team Leader said, “We will finalise a date in October to continue negotiating our Technical issues with the Technical committees (teams) from both sides. The negotiations between NCCT and UPWC will be on the Ceasefire Code of Conduct and Joint Monitoring System, including armies related issues”.