Suu Kyi-brokered sitdown a step on the path to peace

8:17 am on 3 September 2016

Analysis - In the short months since Aung San Suu Kyi and the Democratic League for Democracy took power in Myanmar the clamour for change across the country has been insistent.

Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her address during the opening of a peace conference in Naypyidaw on August 31, 2016.

Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her address during the opening of a peace conference in Naypyidaw. Photo: AFP

Fifty years of dictatorial rule were swept aside at the ballot box last November, in an election widely predicted to be violent and corrupt, but that turned out to be effective and transforming for a country so inhibited and disadvantaged it barely knew where to turn first when the shackles came off.

But the long-running conflicts between ethnic minorities in the provinces, and the Yangon Bamar-dominated government was always going to be somewhere near the very top of the priority list when it came to charting a course for the new, democratic Myanmar.

And this week, after a process so complex and frustrating it would fry the brain of many western politicians, Myanmar's back-seat leader has brought the factions to the table.

Through the distrust and recrimination that comes from - in some cases - decades of fighting, this week they fronted from across the country, with a vague sense that maybe this time they can take something tangible away from a week-long meeting in Naypyidaw.

Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw,fourth from the right, sit nexts to Aung San Suu Kyi in a group photo after the opening of Union Peace Conference.

Myanmar's President Htin Kyaw, fourth from the right, sits next to Aung San Suu Kyi in a group photo after the opening of Union Peace Conference. Photo: AFP

Myanmar's ethnic conflicts stem from a variety of racial, religious, nationalist and territorial arguments that have confounded the negotiators and frustrated the military administration over decades.

Most provinces in the country have standing armies of various capacities, and most are ready and willing to engage with the Tatmadaw - the national armed forces - at the drop of a hat.

Under military rule, the policy was to stamp out these irritable and unruly rebellions, and hold the country together federally.

But the people of Kachin, Shan, and other ethnic minorities have no real interest in a federal model for Myanmar, instead wanting to forge their own way with a loose kind of independence and self-autonomy in the regions.

Ms Suu Kyi's primary focus must be to stop the shooting, and bring the factions to the table over the next few years to beat out a durable peace agreement with all of then. No mean feat with an inexperienced administration full of new MPs, many of whom have spent their adult lives fighting the military government, often for the same kinds of rights demanded in the regions.

But there is huge symbolism here, with the conference picking up on the partial success of a national ceasefire agreed before the election.

In a very Burmese way, expectations for some sort of national breakthrough are low, with most participants viewing the gathering as an exercise in trust building in an environment where very little exists.

Myanmar Akha ethnic delegates wearing their traditional dress attend the opening of a peace conference in Naypyidaw on August 31, 2016.

Myanmar Akha ethnic delegates wearing their traditional dress at the conference. Photo: AFP

Ms Suu Kyi has dubbed the meeting the "21st Century Panglong", referencing the considerable legacy of her father, General Aung San.

In 1947 he hosted a conference of ethnic leaders in the central town of Panglong that helped create modern Myanmar by bringing factions together around the promises of equality and self-determination. It was a moment in the country's history now regarded as a high-water mark, but one that was quickly dashed by the assassination of Aung San months later.

The country declared its independence from the British Empire in 1948 , and the insurgencies began a few months later. Some still continue.

And serious obstacles remain concerning the various hugely dynamic conflicts across the country, with ethnic armed groups fighting Tatmadaw, fighting each other, and even fighting within themselves.

Many groups are driven on by longstanding political grievances, and a sense of revenge against the oppression and persecution meted out by the Tatmadaw.

Others have economic imperatives, with trade in opium and illegally-mined jade setting their agenda.

As the conference kicked off in the Burmese capital Naypyidaw this week, the Tatmadaw once again launching an offensive against several groups in Kachin and Shan States.

The fighting continues, but at least the talking has started.

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