Japan’s Nippon Foundation has again played an important role in negotiating a peace agreement between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Burma Army (BA), which have been fighting each other for several years in southern Chin and northern Rakhine states.
At the AA’s sixth press conference on 28 November, the group’s spokesperson Khine Thukha said that Mr Sasakawa, the chairperson of the Nippon Foundation, helped broker the new peace agreement. Sasakawa also mediated with the groups during the 2021 and 2020 ceasefires.
Khine Thukha said they agreed to the peace deal with the welfare of the people in mind and dismissed accusations by critics that the group was pressured by a superpower—China.
The AA agreed to the informal ceasefire with the regime on 26 November, but with nothing on paper, no one can say how long this ceasefire will last. The 2020 informal ceasefire held until 2022.
The conflict has displaced thousands of villagers in southern Chin State, many of whom have sought refuge in camps in Paletwa town, where they’ve remained until now.
Sasakawa (83) is also Japan’s special envoy for national reconciliation in Myanmar (Burma).
The Japanese government has made huge investments in the Southeast Asian country.
The Nippon Foundation has provided humanitarian aid in several contested areas, including funding the construction of the Karen National Union’s Lay Kay Kaw “Peace Town”, south of Myawaddy in Karen State, which was eventually overrun by the regime.