By Lun Min Mang / Myanmar Times | January 9, 2017

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army – one of the armed groups engaged in ongoing fighting with the Tatmadaw – has slammed the new government’s guidance of the peace process as “ineffectual”. The group, which has not signed a ceasefire, demanded a widening of the peace process and called on the NLD to do more leg work to involve all ethnic groups.

In a January 7 statement released after the TNLA annual conference, the group went so far as to accuse the NLD of hindering the political transition’s forward momentum.

“Since the NLD-led government has not been able to change the Tatmadaw’s peace policy, the fire of more than 70 years of civil war has not ceased, but has instead intensified,” the statement reads.

To achieve success in the peace process, the TNLA said the NLD must be willing to overhaul the roadmap.

“The NLD-led government should review current peace-related processes and its seven-step peace roadmap and initiate a more practical approach

[that will] include all armed ethnic revolutionary organisations,” it said.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also the chairperson of the National Reconciliation and Peace Centre, announced a seven-step roadmap to peace during the one-year celebration of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The outlined roadmap includes all groups signing on to the NCA, then joining political dialogues, amending the 2008 constitution in line with the results of the talks and holding free and fair elections for the future federal democratic union.

The TNLA, which is a member of the newly created Northern Alliance coalition force, added in the statement that it is willing to stop all military offensives in order to begin political dialogue with the government. The group also said it would protect its operational areas which were invaded by the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS).

“To avoid unnecessary problems, we are willing to meet with the RCSS and have dialogues as soon as possible to prevent problems between us,” said the statement.

The RCSS is party to the NCA but began engaging in fire with the TNLA toward the end of 2015 over territorial disputes. The TNLA accused the RCSS of invading with the assistance of the Tatmdaw, an accusation both the RCSS and the Tatmadaw have denied.

The Northern Alliance – made up of the Kachin Independence Army, the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the TNLA – launched a joint offensive against the Tatmadaw near the mile 105 trade outpost in Muse township, Shan State in November.

Government peace negotiators have tried to broker ceasefire negotiations, so far unsuccessfully, due to disputes over the composition of the talks. The alliance insists on a group meeting, while the government demands one-on-one negotiations.

The TNLA did not attend last August’s 21st-Century Panglong Conference after disagreements over a precondition to disarm. It is not yet clear if the group will be invited to the second 21st-Century Panglong Conference anticipated for the end of this month, or if only NCA signatory groups will be invited.

In response to the TNLA’s statement, U Zaw Htay, deputy director general of the President’s Office yesterday referred to the state counsellor’s November 23 statement.

“In her statement, she stressed three points: political problems must be solved by dialogues, they [the ethnic armed groups] need to come under the umbrella of the NCA to participate in dialogues, and only after this, will the political dialogues start. The government’s stance has not changed,” U Zaw Htay said.

This article originally appeared on Myanmar Times on January 9, 2017.

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