Christian leaders in Burma are holding peace talks with the country’s central government they hope will end the 60-year conflict that has exhausted the nation’s civilian population.
Burma has faced decades of oppressive rule by the country’s totalitarian military junta. However, a small glimmer of hope opened up in the South Asian nation last March when the country held its first elections in 20 years.
Although the elections in Burma resulted in many former junta members trading their military uniforms for new political titles, some reforms carried out over the past several months by the new civilian government have pointed to a potential of increased freedoms in the oppressive state.
The rare opportunity for change has resulted in a group of Karen National Union leaders establishing a peace committee in hopes of capitalising on the transformations occurring in their fractured country.
The Karen are a predominantly Christian minority group located in eastern and southern regions of the country that have been at war with the government since shortly after Burma gained independence from the UK in 1948.
The peace committee, established in November, is composed of Karen leaders and an umbrella group of other ethnic minorities all vying for freedoms and autonomy in the tyrannical state.
Members of the KNU and peace committee are hoping that this week’s historic meetings will lay the foundation for a ceasefire that could eventually lead to the political changes – consisting partially of autonomy for Burma’s ethnic states – that the Karen and other minority groups have been fighting over for decades.
Due to the protracted conflict, many in the country live in tumultuous human rights conditions with United Nations Refugee Agency estimating that Burma is home to at least 451,000 internally displaced persons.
The violence has left the Karen minority with little social, economic, and cultural development to speak of, and KNU members hope that the talks can lead to a breakdown in violence that will allow Karen children to have access to education and other rights.
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