The talks would take place at a secret location in Shan State near the Thai border, he said.

Only authorised members of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) would represent the Shan minorities in the negotiations. He said other Shan forces had been instructed to stay away in order to avoid confusion during the negotiations.

Yawd Serk said it was necessary to keep minority rebel groups away as he was worried the military's divisive tactics may antagonise them.

The junta was able to get a faction of the Karen National Union (KNU) to surrender after a truce - a gentleman's agreement made during the time of the late leader Bo Mya - was broken. By getting them to surrender instead of re-establishing the truce, the Karen armed forces were weakened.

Yawd Serk would not reveal the conditions for setting up the talks, saying only that the Shan group had set a prerequisite that the junta must help the minorities

to suppress narcotics in Shan State.

The SSA and KNU are the two major insurgent groups remaining on the Thai border, and the junta has put a lot of effort in to defeat them over the past few years.

Yawd Serk formed the SSA after he broke away from Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, which surrendered to the junta in early 1996. He changed the name of the Shan armed group several times and ended up with the SSA, a legendary name in the Shan struggle 50 years ago. The RCSS is a political wing of the Shan.

Yawd Serk has made alliances with other rebel ethnic minorities. A recent RCSS resolution invited many ethnic minorities such as the Wa, Musur, Palaung and Kokang to unite under the RCSS to have more bargaining power when dealing with the junta, he said.

"There is a strong possibility of getting many minority groups to unite as they are all under Burmese suppression," he said.

Wiwatchai Somkham

The Nation

Doi Tailaeng