SLORC blames Daw Aung San Suu Kyi f

[ausgeo@xxxxxxx]

Subject: SLORC blames Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for failed ceasefire talks with  Karen.

SLORC blames Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for failed ceasefire talks with Karen.

RANGOON, May 4 - SLORC attacked Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her democratic 
opposition Sunday for undermining the ruling junta's attempts to agree a peace 
deal with the Karen National Union (KNU).

An editorial in the English-language edition of the official New Light of 
Myanmar daily alleged her group persuaded the KNU, which has been fighting 
Rangoon for almost 50 years, not to reach a ceasefire with the government.

Her group had "coaxed the KNU, the only armed group remaining to return to the 
legal fold, to quit the peace parleys at the stage of almost making peace," it 
said.

"Thus the cohorts of colonialists disrupted efforts of the Government for 
forging national reconsolidation."

Some 15 ethnic insurgent groups have reached ceasefire deals with the ruling 
junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) through a 
combination of military pressure and promised development assistance.

Talks between the junta and KNU took place last year but the SLORC embarked on 
a large-scale offensive against the Karens this February after the rebels 
refused to budge from their position of not giving up armed struggle without 
the prospect of substantive political dialogue.

The KNU claimed the SLORC began the offensive -- which has swept through Karen 
enclaves along the Thai border and caused an exodus of thousands of refugees 
-- although the KNU was seeking further talks.

AFP