Ban to Hold Meeting on Burma, as KIO Calls for UN Help

In this photo taken on September 18, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (L) meets with Burmese foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin at the United Nations in New York. (Photo: Getty Images)

By LALIT K JHA Tuesday, September 27, 2011

WASHINGTON — As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prepares to hold a meeting of his “Group of Friends on Burma” on Tuesday to discuss the current situation in the country, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is calling on the world body to take a more active role in resolving its armed conflicts.

Several ministers from key countries are expected to participate in the meeting of the “Group of Friends,” a consultative forum for developing a shared approach in support of the implementation of the secretary-general’s good offices mandate in Burma.

Among its key members are Australia, Indonesia, Russia, the United States, China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, France, Norway, Thailand, India, Portugal and Britain. Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, who is in New York to attend this year's session of the UN General Assembly, is expected to attend the meeting.

The announcement of the meeting came on the same day that KIO President Lanyaw Zawng Hra wrote to Ban seeking UN assistance in ending Burma's civil war. In his five-page letter, Lanyaw said that ethnic conflict in Burma directly affects regional development and the stability of neighboring countries.

The KIO urged the international community, including the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Burma's neighbors, to help the country find a way to end its civil war and finally achieve national reconciliation.

“Despite the fact that Burma achieved independence in I 948 as the Union of Burma, it has been operating as a Unitary System, rather than practicing a true federal system as agreed to by independence leader Gen. Aung San and ethnic leaders,” the letter said.

Lanyaw said that over the past 60 years, successive governments have ignored agreements with ethnic groups and broken promises to build a federal union. “In fact they have found new ways to suppress the concerns of the ethnic minority people; continuing to ignore our basic rights despite our willingness to resolve these differences through peaceful means,” he wrote.

“This ongoing disrespect of our original agreement ensured by the Burman majority rulers has driven the ethnic minority to maintain arms to protect our peoples and to ensure our basic rights, self-determination and promised autonomy inside our own lands,” he wrote.

Claiming that since independence in 1948, the ethnic minority territories have been pushed to the outer edges of the country bordering all of the neighboring nations, the letter said the civil war is happening in almost all of the border areas of Burma.

“One can interpret this civil war as a people's war to secure equal rights for not only the ethnic minority, but also the problems of unequal development in the country. It also presents a very complex set of national security issues. As such, these civil wars are not only the concern of our own country but also viewed as problematic and burdensome for our neighboring nations,” he said.