CHIANG MAI, Thailand— An alliance of ethnic armed groups that did not sign an October ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government has announced that they will not participate in upcoming political dialogue.
Non-signatories, who are members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), have been invited only to audit the dialogue, which will begin on Jan. 12 in Naypyidaw.
More than 700 representatives of non-state armed groups and the newly formed Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) are set to convene for five days in the capital.
The UNFC boycotted the signing of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), a multilateral peace pact reached between the government and eight of Burma’s more than 20 non-state armed groups on Oct. 15 of last year.
The group abstained because the government refused to admit three allied rebel groups into the pact: the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National democratic Alliance Army of eastern Burma’s troubled Kokang region. (Courtesy of Irrawaddy)
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