Thursday, 12 January 2012The government of Myanmar began talks with representatives of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), one of the world's oldest insurgencies, on Thursday, the DPA news agency reported.
Railways Minister Aung Min was quoted in the report as saying the sides were expected to sign a ceasefire agreement.
The talks, designed to end a 60-year conflict, took place in the Karen State capital Pa-an.
While the Myanmar government has declared the talks a major step towards peace with the separatist group, the KNU has downplayed them as “preliminary discussions” on how to reach real peace with the central authorities, the report said.
An estimated 500,000 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced as a result of the KNU’s armed rebellion for the independence of the eastern Karen Region populated by the Karen ethnic minority between the late 1940s and the mid-1990s.
Although the armed conflict has since vanished, there has been no formal peace agreement between the central government and the rebels, who have maintained control of the Karen State. |
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Ria Novosti
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