BGF talks on hold, junta and Wa at impasse

Friday, 15 January 2010 13:17 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - United Wa State Party (UWSP) Chairman Bao Yu Xiang recently rejected a meeting with the junta’s Lieutenant General Ye Myint for another round of talks on transforming the Wa Army into a Border Guard Force (BGF).

Military Affair Security (MAS) Chief, Lieutenant General Ye Myint, made a request via phone earlier this month for a meeting with the Wa leader, a major in the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the armed wing of UWSP, told Mizzima.

“Lieutenant General Ye Myint informed us of his wish for a meeting over the phone. Anyway, we must meet with him and talk with him. But our Chairman cannot sit and talk with him for a long time due to his health condition. He can talk with him only for a while,” the UWSA major said on condition of anonymity.

Nonetheless, he added that whenever they do meet with the junta’s representative, they will adhere to their nine-point proposal, delivered to the junta in November of last year.

Lieutenant General Ye Myint contacted the UWSP on the 5th of this month through the Wa liaison office for a meeting with party Chairman Bao Yu Xiang, but the reply came that the Chairman could not come and meet him in person, said U Sein Kyi, assistant editor for the Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), which closely monitors activities in Shan and Sino-Burma border areas.

“The Wa party replied to the junta’s representative that he could come to their party headquarters at any time, but that the Chairman could not come and meet him in person. The Chairman cannot go anywhere and the Chairman himself gave this reply,” U Sein Kyi told Mizzima.

The last meeting between junta and UWSP representatives occurred in November of last year. The deadline to reach an agreement on the Border Guard Force issue, the end of 2009, has since expired.

U Sein Kyi said that Bao Yu Xiang delivers an address, in Burmese and Chinese, every morning and evening for about ten minutes on Wa State TV - with recent addresses stressing that the UWSA is prepared to face any type of invasion unleashed by the Burmese Army.

Burma’s military regime has been demanding the transformation of all ceasefire groups into Border Guard Forces since April 28, 2009.

The UWSA split from Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1989, reaching a ceasefire agreement with the junta the same year.