Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) chairperson, Khun Htun Oo and Gen Say Htin, patron of the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), plan to join the Union Peace Conference (also called the 21st Century Panglong Conference) in Naypyidaw tomorrow.
“Political issues must be solved with political methods,” said the SNLD chairperson.
During the conference, the party will read a paper on federalism, Khun Htun Oo said.
Gen Say Htin and other SSPP/SSA members have already arrived in Naypyidaw for the peace conference.
As have members of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army but the armed group’s leader Lt-Gen Yawd Serk didn't join them.
The SSPP/SSA, which wasn’t a signatory to the nationwide ceasefire agreement but signed a Union-level ceasefire in 2012, didn’t attend the first Union Peace Conference held in January under the previous U Thein Sein administration.
On Sunday as its leaders prepared to leave for the conference, the Burma Army allegedly attacked their Wan Hai headquarters in northern Shan State.
Since inking a ceasefire the group has fought with the Burmy Army over three-hundred times, according to BNI’s Myanmar Peace Monitor website, with heavy fighting taking place late last year and continuing into 2016.
Reporting by Sai Aung Saing for SHAN
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by BNI staff
