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| State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, centre, listens to
members of the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee during a meeting in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar in May. (EPA photo) |
Tomorrow's critical talks between Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and representatives of the armed ethnic groups, who have yet to sign the national ceasefire agreement (NCA), could put paid to the planned "Panglong" peace summit at the end of August. Weeks of preparation have brought the peace process to the brink of a significant break-through.
The Union Peace Conference as it is now called -- previously dubbed the 21st Panglong, after the historic meeting between General Aung San and some ethnic leaders in 1947, which committed the country to a federal state -- has been on the cards since Aung San Suu Kyi overwhelmingly won the elections last November. Since coming to power in April, she has said national reconciliation and peace is the government's top priority.
Aung San Suu Kyi's peace negotiator, Dr Tin Myo Win has spent much of the last few months meeting ethnic leaders and trying to agree on an agenda for the planned talks. Substantial progress has been made, and a tentative structure and schedule for future dialogue has been agreed -- at least with the eight ethnic groups that signed the NCA last October, during President Thein Sein's time.
As a result a "framework for political dialogue" has been agreed after four days of discussion between the two sides in Nay Pyi Taw earlier this month. This originally came out of the talks with the previous government, and was written into the NCA; the revised framework will be the basis of the discussions at the 21st Panglong conference.
Read More in Bangkok Post...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1037037/myanmars-peace-process-looks-precariously-poised
