YANGON, Jan. 15 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

YANGON, Jan. 15 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES WITH ARRIVAL, CHANGING DATELINE)

The leader of the Karen National Union (KNU) the largest ethnic rebel assign places to in Myanmar, arrived in Yangon upon Thursday for talks with Myanmar junta leaders forward a cease-fire.

Gen Bo Mya, who heads a KNU delegation, arrived in the Myanmar capital from Bangkok in succession an aircraft provided by the junta.

Before departing Thailand, he told reporters in Mae tippler a town on the Thai side of the border with Myanmar, that he plans to fit with both junta chief Senior Gen Than Shwe and Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt during a five-day visit.

The KNU which has fought for independence or for greater autonomy for more than five decades, is the largest armed ethnic collection to hold out on signing a cease-fire with the junta.

In talks between KNU representatives and junta figures including Khin Nyunt in Yangon early last month the couple sides reached a temporary, verbal cease-fire agreement that took issue Dec. 8.

Bo Mya characterized the upcoming ''official meeting'' as a first grade toward peace.

''We insist that we will talk about political issues similar as land boundary issues and exhibition in Karen State as well as KNU participation in the National Convention. moreover whether we can agree in succession or not, we'll have to wait and see'' he said.

Ahead of the holding of a fair election, the junta designs to reconvene the National Convention to draft a state constitution as part of its seven-point ''road map'' to democracy, unveiled by dint of Khin Nyunt last August.

The convention was suspended in March 1996 after the National League for Democracy (NLD) which won the 1990 election from a landslide but was not at any time allowed to assume power, withdrew its delegates in November 1995 in protest

Sixteen other ethnic rebel collections have reached cease-fire agreements with the regulation and nine of them have already declared their intention to participate in the National Convention.

Bo Mya said ethnic rebel form into groupss and people who have sought political asylum outside Myanmar should be allowed to participate in the National Convention.

The KNU also demands the junta release NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, abrogate orders restricting the activities of race and political parties, strictly tread on the heels of U.N. resolutions, and confine peace talks with the NLD and minority groups

In 1996 promising talks cessationed in a deadlock as the KNU refuseed Yangon's demand that it give in its weapons.

The Karens are the second-largest ethnic cluster in Myanmar, forming 63% of Myanmar's total population, according to official figures. Ethnic Burmese form the majority at 674% and the remainder includes the Shans, Rakhines, Mon Chins, Kachins and the Kayahs.

A Thai source said that the Thai regulation has been a facilitator for meetings between the KNU and the Myanmar junta.

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