Myanmar resistance rejects Thaksin’s mediation offer: sources
Myanmar resistance groups have rejected efforts by former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to mediate in the civil war that has engulfed the neighbouring country, according to sources.
Thaksin reportedly held talks with ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and the pro-Aung San Suu Kyi National Unity Government (NUG) in Chiang Mai during the Songkran festival in April.
Thaksin has offered to mediate between the resistance and the military regime, having established ties with current junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing and other Myanmar generals while serving as prime minister from 2001 to 2006.
The talks involving Thaksin were divided into two rounds.
On April 13, he met with representatives of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), and the Kachin National Organisation (KNO).
In the second round, he met with Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS/SSA) leader General Yawd Serk and representatives of several other armed ethnic groups. Thaksin also held talks in Bangkok with Myanmar’s oldest and most powerful ethnic organisation, the Karen National Union (KNU), accompanied by NUG foreign minister Zin Mar Aung.
Ethnic group sources said Thaksin had offered himself as a mediator to facilitate peace talks between all factions in Myanmar.
His intervention came amid the failure of ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus peace plan to gain traction after more than three years of escalating violence in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.
However, Thaksin’s move was met with wide-ranging criticism by EAOs involved in the talks, according to sources from the groups.
EAO leaders reportedly doubt that Thaksin understands the complex intricacies of the conflict in Myanmar.
Invitations extended to representatives of EAOs seem rushed and lacking in knowledge regarding who is who among the resistance factions. The Kachin National Organization (KNO) was apparently mistaken for the powerful Kachin Independence Army (KIA). In fact, the KNO is a small political organisation representing the Kachin people.
"Thaksin brought a formal document, granting himself the authority to act as a mediator, for each group to sign," one EAO source said.
“No group has signed the document presented by Thaksin," the source said, citing concern over upsetting the Thai government.
Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said on Tuesday that Thaksin’s intervention was a personal matter and not part of Thailand’s official policy on Myanmar.
“What we can do at the moment is to wait and see,” said the source, adding that the EAOs and the NUG will not negotiate peace individually but only as a collective of all ethnicities and factions.
The source said the conflict in Myanmar could not be resolved without the participation of key northern ethnic groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Arakan Army (AA), and Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
