Suu Kyi: Securing peace with Myanmar's ethnic minorities is new government's priority

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Tuesday 05 Jan 2016 - 11:09 Makkah mean time-25-3-1437 Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi (Getty image) Yangon (IINA) – Myanmar's Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said establishing peace with the country’s ethnic minorities will be the single most important goal when her party forms government in coming weeks, following a landslide victory in November elections, news agencies reported. In her second public speech since the November election, Ms. Suu Kyi on Monday marked Myanmar’s 68 years of independence from Britain by saying her National League for Democracy (NLD) party would make ending insurgent conflicts, some dating from the end of colonial rule, its priority. "The peace process is the first thing the new government will work on. We will try for the all-inclusive ceasefire agreement," Suu Kyi said in a speech to mark Independence Day at the NLD headquarters in Yangon. Across vast swathes of the Southeast Asian country’s remote regions, ethnic rebel groups have fought wars against the military for greater autonomy, many of them lasting for decades. Ethnic minorities have long accused the central government and the military of human rights abuses and resource grabs. Myanmar's outgoing military-backed government recently inked ceasefires with a clutch of ethnic armed groups, with a landmark peace conference due to start next Tuesday. But several major conflicts persist and some of the most significant insurgent groups have yet to sign the deal. Suu Kyi has said her party supports a federal future and has made ethnic affairs and peace a central pillar of her party manifesto for Myanmar. She has also vowed to rewrite the junta-era constitution and be "above the president" when her government takes power. In a statement supporting her speech, the NLD executive committee said it was time to go forward and “build a peaceful, democratic federal union together.” “We must learn from history and turn the page from the legacy of previous governments,” it added. AB/IINA