BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is again in global news headlines Wednesday as the country starts a landmark peace conference, dubbed the 21st Century Panglong Meeting, in reference to a historic gathering in 1947 that led to the country's independence from Britain.
The conference, attended by the government and 11 ethnic armed groups, is the most inclusive peace talks the country has ever seen since it slid into a long-running civil war some 60 years ago.
Generations of Myanmar national leaders have tried various means to resolve the ethnic issues at the heart of the protracted war, but such attempts failed to bring lasting peace.
Nowadays there is consensus in the Myanmar society that political dialogue is the only way forward to national reconciliation and peace.
The ruling National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, has made national reconciliation a priority, and Aung San Suu Kyi herself said on various occasions that "without peace there can be no sustained development."
Despite a lack of official data on civil war casualties in Myanmar, it is estimated that armed conflicts claimed tens of thousands in the country in the past several decades.
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