Mediators trying to broker a peace deal between the military and ethnic minority rebels in northern Myanmar on Saturday appealed to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to help end the bloody conflict.

The military's use of air strikes against the rebels has stoked international concerns about a civil war that has overshadowed widely praised political reforms seen since the end of junta rule in 2011.

"Aung San Suu Kyi also has a responsibility to implement ethnic peace," Yup Zaw Hkaung, a local businessman and peace negotiator in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, told AFP by telephone.

"When she came to Kachin State to campaign for votes, she talked about peace. She cannot abandon Kachin," he said, adding that neither the opposition leader nor President Thein Sein had replied to letters asking for help.

"As air strikes with jets have been used in the attacks, hatred between the two sides could be growing," he said. "We assume that the military is fighting based on the decision of the union government."

Suu Kyi used her maiden speech to parliament in July last year to call for greater protection of ethnic minority rights.

But the veteran activist has disappointed rights campaigners by not speaking out more vocally in support of another minority group, the Muslim Rohingya, in the violence-torn western state of Rakhine.

In northern Kachin, tens of thousands of people have been displaced since June 2011 when a 17-year cease-fire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army broke down.

The Kachin accuse the government of pushing dialogue only on the basis of a cease-fire and troop withdrawals, neglecting to address long-standing demands for greater political rights.

AFP