The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) has decided that it will attend the upcoming Union Peace Conference (also called 21st Century Panglong Conference).
The decision was made during an emergency meeting yesterday in northern Thai city Chiang Mai.
U Tun Zaw, UNFC’s joint general secretary 1, told reporters that the ethnic armed group alliance have agreed to join the conference so it can take part in all levels of political dialogue towards establishing a federal union.
State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has announced that there will be a peace conference every six months.
Tun Zaw explained that the UNFC has collectively reviewed all of the topics—politics, security, economics, land, environment and social issues—to be tabled during the conference.
The UNFC held the emergency meeting a day after attending the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting on the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) in Naypyidaw with the government, Burma Army and the eight armed groups that signed the NCA.
The UNFC chose the leaders that will represent the alliance at the peace conference that starts next Wednesday.
They are Maj Gen Sai Htoo and Sai Ba Tun, from Shan State Progress Party; Maj Gen Gun Maw, from the Kachin Independence Organisation; Nai Aung Ma Nge from the New Mon State Party; Col Min Tun, from the Arakan National Council; and Khu Hte Bu, from the Karenni National Progressive Party.
The issue of the three armed groups that have been excluded from taking part in the peace conference—the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army—two of the latter being members of the UNFC—was notably absent from discussions at the meeting.
According to the Irrawaddy online media, Tun Zaw said it wasn’t necessary as the groups are still involved in negotiations with the government.
The groups are being pressured to sign a statement that they will surrender their arms as a precondition for attending peace talks—a demand that hasn’t been issued to any of the other armed groups, even those that have also fought with the Burma Army in the last two years.
Edited by Network Media Group
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by BNI Staff
