Clashes in Myanmar spark calls for restraint

YANGON:Fighting has flared in areas of Myanmar controlled by ethnic rebels who refused to sign a ceasefire, raising fears the army is pressuring groups that did not join in what was supposed to be a crowning achievement of President Thein Sein’s five-year term.
The United Nations and the United States have called on the military to de-escalate the tension, stressing that the groups, such as the Kachin Independence Organisation operating on Myanmar’s northern border, should not be pressured but seen as partners essential to achieving a lasting peace.
The army clashed with the Shan State Army-North, one of the ethnic armed groups that did not sign the deal, 37 times between October 6 and 19, military-run newspaper Myawady said this week. Seven SSA-N members were killed and the army suffered an unspecified number of casualties, the paper said.
“We made a point that it’s important the government and military show some restraint in those areas where groups did not sign the ceasefire,” Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser, told reporters in Yangon on Tuesday.
Tense talks between the rebels and the government unravelled after two years of gruelling negotiations, with only eight of more than a dozen major groups signing the peace accord last week.