Myanmar’s government has signed a five-point agreement with the Wa rebel group to build mutual trust in an effort to defuse recent tensions between the armies from the two sides, state-run media reported on Saturday.
The Kyemon daily said agreement signed on Friday includes clauses calling for prompt meetings between the two armies whenever military issues arise and committing the rebel United Wa State Army not to secede.
The Wa, in the country’s north, are believed to have the biggest of the ethnic guerrilla armies, with as many as 30,000 men.They had reached a peace agreement with Myanmar’s former military regime in 1989, which allowed them to exercise a measure of autonomy even maintain a powerful armed force.
