Myanmar govt wants ethnics to agree three-step plan

Tuesday, 19 February 2013 16:39 Phanida

As the Myanmar government prepares for talks on Wednesday in northern Thailand with the main ethnic bloc United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), one of the peace brokers, Nyo Ohn Myint, said that President Thein Sein’s team expects to move the peace process forward in three stages.

The UNFC meets with a Burmese government delegation in Chiang Mai, November 9, 2012.

“Primarily they will discuss framework for starting the peace process, beginning with: addressing ways to advance political dialogue; the division of revenue and resources between the central government and the ethnic states; and how to maintain communication channels for further talks,” he said.

“Union Minister Aung Min said that the government’s peace team will meet with each ethnic group, each armed group, and the ethnic alliance together for rounds of political dialogue,” he told Mizzima.

Nyo Ohn Myint said that the February 20 meeting in Chiang Mai will be attended by 16 representatives of the government’s Peace-Making Committee (PMC), including chief negotiator Aung Min, Immigration Minister Khin Yee, Livestock Minister Ohn Myint and Deputy Attorney General Tun Tun Oo.

An MPC delegation led by Aung Min met for the first time with the UNFC for an informal meeting in Chiang Mai on November 9, 2012. Other scheduled meetings have been suspended due to the ongoing conflict between government forces and the Kachin Independence Organization.
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For more background:

1. UNFC offers to liaise with Burma govt on Kachin conflict
2. UNFC proposes ‘six-point ethnic peace roadmap’