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| Myanmar Lieutenant General Myint Soe from the Defence ministry and Kachin Independence Army, left, Deputy Chief of Staff Guam Maw, right, shake hands after signing an agreement to cease hostilities. Photo: AFP |
The Kachin are the country's only major ethnic group not to sign a ceasefire-agreement since the reformist government of president Thein Sein came to power in 2011.
Under the agreement reached after three days of talks fighting that has raged for two years will stop and further talks will be held on Kachin demands for more political rights and greater autonomy.
The agreement stopped short of a formal ceasefire but both sides agreed to maintain the status quo in the conflict.
A team will be set-up to monitor displaced people and troops.
"I think we have achieved a breakthrough," said Min Zaw Oo, a director of the EU funded Myanmar Peace Centre which took part in the talks in the Kachin capital of Myitkyina.
"The agreement is to stop fighting at this point and afterwards there are going to be detailed discussions about the repositioning of troops," he said.
An official translation of the agreement said the two sides vowed to strive for "de-escalation and cessation of hostilities."
The Kachin Independence Organisation entered into a ceasefire with Myanmar's former military regime in 1994 but it collapsed in 2011 over the exploitation of resources in the northern state that borders China.
The organisation also refused at the time to turn its Kachin Independence Army into a government militia.
The agreement will provide a significant boost for Mr Thein Sein's nominally-civilian government which is struggling to control clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslims in several parts of the country.
The military's use of air-strikes against the Kachin last December provoked international outcry.
The Age
