NAYPYITAW: Aung San Suu Kyi, whose pro-democracy party will take over power in Myanmar from a pro-military government in coming months, on Tuesday participated for the first time in official talks to bring peace with the country’s fractious ethnic minorities.

Suu Kyi spoke at the opening of a peace conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, that seeks to drive forward a cease-fire agreement signed last year between the government and ethnic guerrilla armies. Several major groups failed to sign the pact, and were also absent from Tuesday’s event.

Myanmar has been wracked by war for decades as ethnic minorities fight for greater autonomy from the central government.

Suu Kyi, who led her National League for Democracy to victory in November’s historic election, said in her speech Tuesday that having all of the rebel groups take part would make the cease-fire talks more effective.

President Thein Sein hoped the cease-fire deal, inked in October, would be the keynote achievement of his term of office, which will almost certainly end within the next few weeks. But the failure to be inclusive has thrown its effectiveness into grave doubt.