The new office aims to promote ethnic unity and equal rights for Shan people in Kachin State.

The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), Burma’s largest ethnic political party, has opened a central branch office in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina.

The new office was opened on Sunday to promote “equal rights for Shan people in Kachin State and to strengthen ties between Shan and Kachin people,” Sai Lek, the party’s joint secretary-1, told SHAN.

He added that it would also serve to “facilitate cooperation in building a federal union and to get unity among ethnic people.”

The SNLD, which is also known as the White Tiger Party, has opened about 50 branch offices and five central branch offices across the country.

“Shan people in Kachin State and Shan people in Shan State are the same. We are all Shan people,” said Sai Lek, adding that the party represents “not only the Shan but also all ethnic people in this Union.”

 “Our message is that we are working together with all ethnic people for the Union.”

 In addition to the new office in Myitkyina, the SNLD has central branch offices Lashio, Taunggyi, and Kengtung – representing the northern, southern and eastern parts of Shan State, respectively – as well as in Mandalay.

The opening of the new office in Myitkyina’s Myae Myint Ward was attended by SNLD vice-chairman Sai Kham Pai Pha, joint secretary-1 Sai Lek, and several SNLD MPs, as well as representatives of two other parties – the Kachin National Congress Party and the Shanni (Tai Leng) and Northern Shan Tribes Solidarity Party – and town elders.