Myanmar ethnic armed group reaches peace agreement with gov't
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E-mail Xinhua, April 7, 2012
Myanmar's Rakhine state government and a Rakhine ethnic armed group, the Rakhine State Liberation Party (RSLP), have initiated a preliminary peace agreement, official media reported Saturday.
The five-point agreement was signed in Sittway of the western state on Thursday by peace-making groups of the two sides, represented by Rakhine State Minister of Security and Border Affairs Colonel Htein Lin and Joint Secretary of the RSLP Khine Thukha respectively..
The agreement mainly covers ceasefire starting Friday (April 6), opening of liaison offices at Paletwa and Kyauktaw, formation of peace-making groups for talks at central level on agreed date and venue and allowing negotiated transgression and arms carrying apart from mutually-agreed areas.
The RSLP represents the 11th ethnic armed group which has initiated peace pacts with the government starting from the state level and then proceeding to the central level.
President U Thein Sein made a peace offer to armed groups in the country on Aug. 18, 2011, calling on anti-government ethnic armed groups to come for peace talks through region or state level governments to end internal armed insurrection and build internal peace in the country.
Under the president's peace offer, peace making is being carried out in three phases -- the first phase is to ceasefire, set up liaison offices and travel without holding arms to each other's territory, while the second phase is confidence building, holding political dialogue, implement regional development tasks in terms of education, health and communication, and the third phase is to sign agreement for eternal peace in the presence of the parliament represented by nationalities, political parties and different walks of life.
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