Burmese Regime Invites Arakanese Rebels for Peace Talk

Dhaka: The Burmese regime has recently invited the Arakan Liberation Party, or ALP, to union-level peace negotiations, said a spokesperson from the party.

Khine Thukha, Secretary-2 and spokesperson for the ALP, said his party received the regime's invitation for peace talks on 23 January through their armed wing based on the Thai-Burma border.

"The Deputy Leader of the regime's Union Level Peace Making Group, U Thein Zaw, sent an invitation letter to our Vice-President U Khine Soe Naing Aung on the Thai-Burma border on 23 January to hold union-level peace negotiations with our party," said Khine Thukha.

He added that his party welcomes the regime's move for peace and is preparing to reply to the invitation very soon.

When asked what would be the outcome of negotiating with the regime, Khaing Thukha said, "It is now difficult for us to guess the outcomes before negotiating with them, but we would be able to tell what their intentions are and what we would continue to do after negotiating with them."

The Arakan Liberation Party and its armed wing, the Arakan Liberation Army, has been fighting guerrilla wars against the Burmese regime on the frontiers of the Indo-Burma and Thai-Burma borders for the freedom and ethnic rights of Arakanese people in Burma.

The party and its armed wing were founded by General Khine Moe Lunn in 1973 in the area of the Karen National Union on the Thai-Burma border, and its headquarters are now based on the Indian border near Arakan State.