BANGKOK: A major Myanmar ethnic rebel group said on Monday (Nov 25) it was ready for talks with the junta to end more than a year of renewed fighting that has ravaged areas along the China border.
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) can call on around 7,000 fighters and has fought the Myanmar military for over a decade for autonomy for the Palaung ethnic minority in northern Shan state.
Last year the TNLA and two other allied rebel groups launched an offensive against the military that has seized swathes of Shan state, including ruby mines and a lucrative trade highway to China.
The military has repeatedly pounded territory it has lost with artillery and air strikes but a promised counter-offensive on the ground is yet to materialise.
“We announce that we are ready to meet and discuss in order to end the military conflict from both sides,” the TNLA said on its Telegram channel.
“In the day-to-day fighting in our Ta’ang region … the local people are suffering badly from the war.”
While it said it was ready for talks, it also added that it would reserve the “right to defend ourselves”.
“We will talk, but we will not give territory,” the TNLA’s General Tar Bhone Kyaw told AFP.
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.
Source: CNA
