Shan Herald Agency for News |
| Eight NCA signatories form steering committee at Chiang Mai summit Posted: 30 Mar 2016 06:59 AM PDT The leaders of eight ethnic armed groups who signed the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with Burma's central government last November, held a summit in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai last week from March 24 to 26.  The eight ethnic armed groups discussed their preparations for the national level political dialogue with the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government. Also discussed were ways these groups can cooperate with the remaining ethnic armed groups that have not signed the NCA "We have formed a coordinating team to jointly resolve emergency issues, but this team does not cover everything. The steering committee was formed to become more effective [than the coordinating team]. We have also prepared and discussed how to carry out the national-level political dialogue, which is mentioned in the NCA," explained Colonel Sai Hla, a spokesperson for the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA). Colonel Sai Hla attended the summit as did the leader of the RCSS/SSA, Colonel Yawd Serk. Colonel Sai Hla added that a committee has also been formed to engage with ethnic armed groups that have not signed the NCA. On March 27 this committee met with the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), which comprises many non-NCA signatories. The second summit of the NCA signatories was attended by the Karen National Union (KNU), the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Party-Peace Council (KNU/KNLA-PC), the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Chin National Front (CNF), the PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO), the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA). BY Staff/ Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) | ||
| Learning to share The EAO8 Summit # 2 Day-3 Posted: 29 Mar 2016 09:45 PM PDT Day Three. Saturday, 26 March 2016 We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?
The last day's session begins with exhortation by the day's chair Gen Mutu Saypoe:
"We have been able to draft the NCA, sign it, and have it ratified and enforced. I therefore want you to be proud of our achievement as I do" The main item of the day is the question: Whether the EAO8 should set up a steering committee to lead them or just continue with the Coordination Team (CT) founded in October. Some express concern that by having a "steering committee," the whole EAO8 may become another united front and thus emerges as a rival to the UNFC. "This will pose as a big stumbling block to our efforts for unity," says a participant. In the end, the summit decides to adopt the middle way: a steering team, named the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) and a work team under it. In practice they may be roughly comparable to the outgoing government's Union Peacemaking Central Committee (UPCC) and the Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC): Peace Process Steering Team Saw Mutu Saypoe Leader Sao Yawd Serk Deputy Leader Hkun Okker Coordinator-1 Pu Zing Cung Coordinator-2 Khaing Soe Naing Aung Member Yebaw Than Gay Member Dr Naw Kabaw Htoo Member (DKBA) Member The PPST will be responsible for giving guidance and supervision during the period between summits. Peace Process Work Team Saw Kwe Htoo Win KNU Sai La RCSS Saw Mra Raza Lin ALP Pu Thla Hei CNF Yebaw Sonny ABSDF Saw Kyaw Nyunt KPC Hkun Thomas PNLO (to be nominated later) DKBA The summit concludes with a closing speech by Pu Zing Cung, who is Vice Chair of the meeting for the day: "We now have a Union Peace Conference (UPC) to sort out our problems politically. This has never happened before throughout our country's past history. The battlefield has also moved from the jungles and mountains to Naypyitaw. But instead of settling our problems militarily there, we are doing it peacefully. I therefore urge all the EAOs and our people not to lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve lasting peace." I quite like his speech. I hope the readers do too. By SAI KHUENSAI / Director of Pyidaungsu Institute and Founder of Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N) All views expressed are the author's own |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Shan Herald Agency for News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.