Myanmar seeks NGO help in relief missions

Yangon, May 3 (IANS) The Myanmar government will seek help from the civil society organisations to provide aid in insurgency-hit areas, President Thein Sein has said.

The government is talks with 10 ethnic armed groups to persuade them to give up violence, Thein said. However, the Kachin Independence Organization, a major militant group, broke off talks and stepped up violence in the Kachin state recently.

Thousands of people have been displaced in Kachin after the group resumed fighting against the government in June 2011, Mizzima News reported Thursday.

Thein Sein said efforts were also on to eliminate forced labour. "Our elected government has been in the office for over a year and it is high time we should eliminate all forms of forced labour," Thein Sein said in a message on Labour Day Tuesday.

He said the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Myanmar government have launched a joint strategy for elimination of forced labour in the country by 2015.