Suu Kyi offers to broker peace talks in Burma

burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has offered to help negotiate an end to conflicts between the government and the country’s ethnic minority groups.

BURMESE opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has offered to help negotiate an end to conflicts between the government and the country’s ethnic minority groups.

Ms Suu Kyi made the offer yesterday in a video address to members of her National League for Democracy party on Union Day, which marks when her late father, General Aung San, signed a 1947 agreement with leaders of the country’s ethnic minorities to gain independence from Britain together.

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Rebellions by ethnic minorities striving for greater autonomy were hard for a democratic parliamentary system to deal with, which increased pressure for strong central authority and helped lead to an army takeover in 1962. Military rule persisted until 2011.

The government of elected president Thein Sein has reached ceasefire agreements with most of the major ethnic groups, but is still in a bitter struggle with the Kachin in the country’s north. Ms Suu Kyi said she would take part in peace talks if the parties involved asked her to.