Shan Herald Agency for News

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Peace process: Both sides need to review own mindset Posted: 30 Apr 2014 08:26 AM PDT In order to achieve a speedy Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), both the government and the armed resistance movements (ARMs) will have to change their entrenched mindsets, according to sources from the ARMs' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) that had been holding a two-day meeting in Chiangmai to review the first draft of the NCA single text document that came out of the 4-day NCCT-government meeting earlier this month. NCCT meeting in Chiangmai, 28-29 April 2014 (Photo: Aung Moe Myint/ DVB) "On the government side, nothing spooks them more than the word 'federalism'" said a source who did not wish to be identified, following the conclusion of the meeting. "On the contrary, many on our side can't even go to sleep or eat without using or hearing it." Which also applies to other words like "revolution" and "civil war" the two sides are at loggerheads with each other. "At the next round of talks, we will therefore be discussing more about the concepts of the words than the words themselves," said another source. "If both sides share the same basic concept, then any words, either theirs or ours, will be okay." India, for example, is in practice a federal country, though official statements have not referred to itself as one. The date of the next meeting has been proposed on 19 May. But there are also differences which are more about principles than words. "For instance, the government wants both sides to be subordinate to the Union Peacemaking Central Committee (UPCC) headed by the President," said the second source. "But we have counter-proposed that there must be a joint supreme body." The 11 person UPCC is comprised of: President, 2 Vice Presidents, 2 House Speakers, Attorney General, Commander in Chief, 3 military appointed ministers for defense, home and border affairs, and a secretary from the President's Office. It is, to all intents and purposes, the most powerful National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), known as Ka-Long, as the only differences are that the latter has the foreign minister and deputy commander-in-chief instead of the Attorney General and Secretary from the President's Office, according to critics. The NCCT has cited necessity for consultations within each movement and among all movements for the postponement of the next NCCT-UPWC (Governments Union Peacemaking Work Committee) which was initially scheduled for 5 May.

Convincing international community biggest challenge for war-on-drugs critics: researcher Posted: 30 Apr 2014 08:25 AM PDT The Burmese military is clearly involved in the drug production and trade in Burma but convincing the international community would be the most daunting task, according to a British researcher speaking to researchers in Chiangmai last week. Panhsay Kyaw Myint Patrick Meehan, a Ph.D candidate from the Oxford School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, who has been engaged in in-depth research since 2009 including 9 months of field research in Shan State, quoted excerpts from the 2010 UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report to prove his point: (T)he best deterrent for state interference with this (poppy cultivation) process is a rebel army. Without an active conflict, heroin production can be eliminated. (U)sing the armed forces to promote internal instability may be seen as cost effective. The two central arguments in this approach to Burma's drug trade, he says, are: War finances rebel armies Drugs weaken state power In the meanwhile, drugs have benefited the Burmese military through its people's militia strategy which is enshrined in the 2008 constitution: by accommodating its 'live off the land' policy in borderlands by reducing territory which was hitherto safe for resistance armies to enter by controlling the choke points of the regional economy based on drugs U Myint Lwin The People's Milita Forces (PMFs) in Shan State have been given a free hand in drug production and trade, according to reports from Palaung Women's Organization (PWO) and Shan Drug Watch (SDW). Mr Meehan's report include two of the most prominent PMF leaders who are also top businessmen as well as government MPs: Panhsay Kyaw Myint and U Myint Lwin aka Wang Guoda. Opium production in Burma during the last season had gone "no holds barred", with the paradoxical exception of areas under the control of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), considered the largest drug trafficking organization in Burma. Meehan is not the only critic to the current drug policy of the international community. Best known critics include Bertil Lintner, Adrian Cowell (deceased), Chao Tzang Yawnghwe (deceased) and the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute (TNI). All have called for a political solution for the drug problem in Burma. Shan CBOs meanwhile have called for a bottom-up initiated remedy rather than top-down solutions.

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