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Rebels to hold talks with Myanmar rulers

The largest ethnic rebel group battling Myanmar’s military sent a delegation to Yangon on Saturday to hold informal ceasefire talks with the military rulers the group’s secretary-general said.

The Karen National Union (KNU) is one of the few remaining insurgent groups yet to sign a peace deal with the junta, which goes by the name of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Pado Mahn Sha, the KNU’s secretary-general, said a five-man delegation had arrived in Yangon at 5.00 a.m. (2230 GMT Friday) for the talks. “They go to Yangon to meet with the SPDC,” he told AFP, describing the meeting as informal ceasefire talks.

“We need to ask them to stop their military operations, to stop fighting our people. We need to ask them to let the villagers back to their villages, then we need to talk with the SPDC in the future,” he said.

“How much our delegation can do, I don’t know,” he added.

The KNU and human rights groups accuse Myanmar’s military of launching in February a bloody offensive against the ethnic minority Karen. They say the crackdown has forced thousands of Karen to abandon their villages and flee into the jungles.

Pado Mahn Sha said the delegation, led by junior officers Colonel Paw Doh and Colonel Jonny, would discuss the alleged abuses in the villages. “In a few days they will come back,” he said. “When they come back we can know more about the situation.”

Rumours surfaced at the end of last week that a delegation was heading to meet with the junta. Initial reports suggested that they would go to the new administrative capital Nai Pyi Daw, but Pado Mahn Sha confirmed the meeting would take place in Yangon.

The trip was delayed because of disagreement within the KNU over who would attend the talks, he said. The junta and the Karen rebels called a halt to five decades of fighting with an informal pact in December 2003.

However formal talks between the KNU, the largest group still battling Yangon, and the military fell apart more than two years ago. Myanmar’s ruling junta has reached ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups.

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