Other ethnic militias had refused to go along with the pact or had been excluded from it because they were engaged in ongoing hostilities with the Myanmar army.
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Speaking in Burmese, Ms Suu Kyi highlighted how “we will never achieve long lasting peace without national reconciliation”.
“This is the first time that such a peace process has been initiated in the seventy-year history of conflict and division between the Union Government and armed ethnic groups”, Mr. Ban said.
However, Myanmar’s hope for an economic takeoff may be dashed should the country continue to be burdened with constant armed conflicts.
“This is the beginning of the process of creating a attractive mosaic of a diverse, harmonious, and peaceful new Myanmar”, emphasised the UN Special Rapporteur.
The four-day historical Panglong Conference gathered representatives of the government, parliament, military, invited political parties, ethnic armed and non-armed organisations and civil society.
Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw (2nd R) talks with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (2nd L) during a group photo session as they attend the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference at the Myanmar International Convention Centre in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, Aug. 31, 2016.
Aung San was assassinated the following year and the deal fell apart.
Part of the problem is that distrust between ethnic groups and the army is profound, and the military has retained enormous influence even though Suu Kyi’s party has assumed nominal control of the government.
“That’s why we discussed including them in the conference”, he said. “As with the peace process generally in Myanmar, this is the opportunity to transform the country, into a state that the people of Myanmar have wanted for several decades”. “Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen bilateral security and defence cooperation, which is crucial for maintaining peace and stability along the long India-Myanmar border”, the statement said.
Today marked the beginning of the five-day 21st Century Panglong Conference between Myanmar armed ethnic rebels and the government.
In an early blow to the historic Myanmar peace talks, delegates from one of Myanmar’s most heavily-armed ethnic groups stormed out of the meeting on Thursday.
In wide-ranging talks with Myanmarese President U Htin Kyaw, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed that India will stand by with Myanmar at “every step” of its new journey and that it wants to take the ties to “new heights”.
Representatives from the insurgents said the military had launched new attacks on rebel positions in the northern states of Shan and Kachin on Tuesday morning.
Mr Ban has said the talks are “an important first step”, but negotiations are expected to last for months if not years.
But he also warned against drawn out peace talks.
“We are intending to make it a really substantive visit”, Sripriya Ranganathan, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs had said on Friday while briefing reporters on the visit. “We wanted to show that we really wanted to have a federal and democratic system”.
That would give ethnic groups – who have complained of decades of oppression and neglect by the central ethnic Bamar majority – some autonomy over their government, land and resources.
According to reports, It is Htin Kyaw’s first visit overseas after assuming charge of the top office and Modi told him that India was deeply honoured that he has chosen India for his first State visit overseas.
As many as 120,000 Rohingya have been languishing in squalid displaced persons camps in western Rakhine state since 2012, when fighting broke out between Buddhist nationalists and Muslims.
Many from the million-strong Muslim minority are denied citizenship, voting and work rights, and are reviled in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar.
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The world body said it had found “a pattern of gross human rights violations against the Rohingya”.
