Shan State Army

Shan State Army: Negotiations Have Not Begun

A highly placed source from the Shan State Army South of Yawdserk has denied there were any negotiations with the junta, as reported earlier by several agencies. 

Orntern, regarded as Yawdserk's spokesman, told S.H.A.N. yesterday what had transpired so far was only some exchanges of messages between the Shan State Army South's 727th Brigade and the area commander in Mongton Township. "Negotiations have not begun at all, although we are prepared for them, if there are going to be any," he said. 

According to the Shan State Army's statement No. 2/2000 on 6 March, Rangoon, after receiving the SSA's Statement No. 1/2000 dated 25 January, stating its desire to resolve problems by peaceful means, had dispatched a delegation to the former with "4 truce terms": acknowledgement of the SSA's right to bear arms, the right "to trade in whatever they like", the right to be free of other armed groups in the areas where the SSA is active and to surrender their arms in future along with other ceasefire groups. 

In response, the SSA stated its own conditions on 3 March, as follows:

It also set the deadline for Rangoon's response as end of April. However, another bulletin from SSA on 18 March that rendered a translation of Yawdserk's letter to Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, fixed the latest date for reply 31 March instead. 

In the letter, the SSA demanded the negotiations take place in Thailand with "authorities from at least two countries" as witnesses. 

Referring to it, Orntern said, "So far we have received only a request to wait as the authorities in Rangoon are still in session to decide on the matter." 

Militarily, the junta's activities in the SSA's operational zones are, on the whole, still in abeyance, according to him.