Learning to share A bout low hanging fruits

Day Four. Friday, 5 August 2016

A person with sweet mouth but sour bottom

One ought not live with such in the same house

(Shan proverb)

Has the peace process proceeded in strikes since the new NLD government took over? That’s the question the workshop tries to answer today.
First, the positive developments:

• It has promised a federal democracy plus amendment of the military drawn charter
• It is trying its best to include the 13 non-signatories armed movements in the upcoming Union Peace Conference, renamed Union Peace Conference (21^st Century Panglong).

Through the new government’s efforts, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an alliance of 9 EAOs (some say only 7) appears to have accepted the government’s invitation to attend the Framework Review meeting, due 12-13 August, in Rangoon. The 3 excluded movements (Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and Ta-ang National Liberation Army) are negotiating with government representatives a public statement acceptable to both sides, after which they would be invited to join the UPC-21 PL. (There were reports that negotiations broke down while this report was being filed) The National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), a non UNFC group, has already accepted Naypyitaw’s bid to attend the Framework Review meeting. The United Wa State Army (UWSA), regarded as the strongest non-state rebel group, is also expected to join the UPC-21 PL on 31 August , if not the framework meet.

 At the same time, the workshop also points out that all these developments have come out at the expense of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) that was signed in October and ratified by the Union Parliament in December. “There was no need to bypass the NCA,” one comments. “The government could have achieved the same result by simply implementing the guidelines laid out by it.”

According to the NCA the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM), composed of representatives of the signatories, is the highest decision making body.
The Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JMC), that deals with military matters, and the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) that deals with political matters, which include drafting/amending the Framework for Political Dialogue, managing political dialogues and holding the UPC, are formed by it.
The following are some, if not all, of the workshop’s observations:

• The formation of the UPC-21 PL Preparatory Committee, ostensibly to convince the non-signatories to join the process in April. “The UPDJC could have done it just as well,” says one participant.
• The dissolution of the UPDJC made up of 16 members each from the government, political parties and signatory EAOs, formed under (not by) the previous government, to appoint a new one headed by the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, by the President.

“The UPDJC, as well as its chair, should be appointed by the JICM, if we play by the rules,” says another participant.

• The 16 members from the political parties, also under the previous government, were chosen by the parties themselves, following the principle of inclusivity, as enshrined in the NCA:

National League for Democracy                                                 2 members

Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)                         2 members

Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD)                        1 members

Arakan National Party (ANP)                                                     1 members

United Nationalities Alliance (UNA)                                            1 members

Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBR)                                1 members

Federal Democratic Alliance (FDA)                                             1 members

Other Burma Proper parties                                                      3 members

Other States parties                                                                 4 members

“The government now says only elected parties are eligible, despite Article 22 pointing out clearly that they must be Tayawin (legal registered) parties,” an unhappy politician had told SHAN.

• “The form adopted under the previous government wasn’t perfect,” he continued. “Because there was little time to hold a prolonged debate. But it closely followed the principle of inclusivity.”

Another politician explained how the political parties bloc attending the UPC had chosen its 150 representatives quota:

92           representatives from 92 registered parties

22           representatives, one each from elected parties

16           representatives chosen to the UPDJC

8              representatives, chosen as advisors to the UPDJC

12           representatives, one from each of the 13 parties elected to the Union Parliament (the USDP decided to forgo its right)

The government now says unelected parties should join the CSO Forum due to be formed in the unspecified near future. “This really is an outrage,” the first politician had exploded. “The government promised it would adhere to the NCA. It’s time to prove the deed goes with the words.”

• Last but not least, the JICM has not been called since the new government took over. “Without the JICM, everything being done is illegal,” comments an EAO leader.

It seems, they say, negotiating with the elected government is tougher than negotiating with the USDP government set up by the military.
“The Thein Sein government had questions of legitimacy,” explains an academic. “So it was forced to make allowances, such as slackening the rules on the media and the political parties and initiating negotiations with the EAOs, in order to boost up its legitimacy. But the NLD doesn’t have such problems, if you overlook the fact that in most constituencies in states like Chin it had won by securing only about 20% votes (there were 12 Chin parties entering the fray).”

In addition, technical problems like lack of experience, inclination for formal  negotiations, and slow communication lines, both within and without, have been dogging the government’s negotiations, unlike under U Thein Sein.

No doubt, the government side has a lot of complaints against the EAOs too, like no longer having practically a single communication line as it did before they split into signatories and non-signatories last September.

The participants’ conclusion is that, first and foremost, both sides must return to the NCA, the only bond between the two sides, without which the peace process will become dangerously anchorless.

“You can look the other way once and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier to compromise next time, and soon all you’ll be doing is compromising because that’s how you think things are done, “Jack Bauer, the character played by Kiefer Sutherland, tells his colleague in the popular TV series, 24, on corruption. “You knew these guys I blew the whistle on. You think they were bad guys? They weren’t. They were just like you and me, except they compromised once.”

Naturally, the next conclusion is to decide how it should be made known to the government side, ASAP. But that is another day, and another story.

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 http://english.panglong.org/2016/08/12/learning-to-share-a-bout-low-hanging-fruits/

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Myanmar rebels hold rare meet as Suu Kyi yearns for peace

Flags of ethnic armed groups

MAI JA YANG (MYANMAR) (AFP) -  Leaders of Myanmar rebel armies held talks in a war-hit border town Wednesday, state media reported, as they prepare for a major peace conference with a government desperate to end insurgencies that have plagued the country.

Myanmar has been racked for half a century by ethnic rebel wars in its resource-rich frontier states, leaving tens of thousands dead or displaced.

Some groups have signed ceasefires but several other rebel armies are still fighting the nation's army -- including in the northern state of Kachin, where Wednesday's talks were held.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy activist leading the country's first civilian government, says ending the fighting is essential if Myanmar is to rise from the ashes of junta rule.

She wants to restart full peace talks within weeks.

This week's summit, held in a Kachin town ravaged by years of warfare, brought together "leaders representing 17 ethnic armed groups to search for common ground in working toward a federal system for the country", state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

The negotiators, many sporting traditional clothing, gathered in a hall in Mai Ja Yang, a town ringed by displacement camps on the border with China, which also sent an envoy to the talks.

Peace is hard to secure.

Distrust in the still-powerful military runs deep and the rebel groups themselves are divided -- with four pulling out of the Mai Ja Yang talks at the last minute.

The conflicts are complex and fuelled in part by the illegal trade in drugs, timber and jade, much of which is funnelled across the border to China. Rebels use the proceeds to buy guns.

The former military-backed government launched a peace dialogue but failed to secure a nationwide ceasefire with all groups.

Suu Kyi has promised a greater level of federal autonomy in a bid to secure peace, but has yet to spell out how it would work.

It is a promise her independence hero father also made in 1947. It was ignored by the junta that took control several years after his assassination and ruled over Myanmar for almost 50 years.

Suu Kyi's ability to wrest a peace deal or decentralise the government will depend heavily on the support of the military, which remains a potent political and economic force.

It holds the keys to any charter changes, runs crucial government ministries and dominates the economy's most lucrative sectors.

© 2016 AFP

http://www.france24.com/en/20160727-myanmar-rebels-hold-rare-meet-suu-kyi-yearns-peace

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Embattled Ethnic Armed Groups Cast Doubt on Suu Kyi’s Peace Drive

The varying approaches of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing towards the peace process do not inspire confidence in its speedy resolution. But equally worrisome is the growing doubt over Suu Kyi’s mooted “21stCentury Panglong Conference” displayed by key ethnic armed groups that have come under considerable attack from the Burma Army in the last six months.

Suu Kyi has signaled her desire to include all of Burma’s ethnic armed groups in the looming peace talks, but troops serving under Min Aung Hlaing have conducted intensifying campaigns against ethnic armed groups that refused to sign—or were excluded from signing—the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October last year.

The NCA was signed by eight ethnic armed organizations, who represent only a minority of such groups in Burma, and do not include many of the most well-armed and influential.

One such non-signatory is the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the second largest ethnic armed group in Burma, operating from Kachin State near the Chinese border. The KIA has publicly expressed doubt over Suu Kyi’s planned “21st Century Panglong Conference.”

The political wing of the KIA is the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which engaged in sporadic bilateral talks with the government after a 17-year ceasefire broke down in 2011. These talks eventually floundered, providing no relief to the 100,000-plus people displaced by the conflict between the KIA and the Burma Army in Kachin and northern Shan states.

The “21st Century Panglong Conference” seeks to draw all of Burma’s ethnic armed groups—both those inside and outside of the NCA—into a political deal to resolve half a century of armed insurgency fueled by ethnic minority grievances. It is so named in reference to the 1947 Panglong Agreement signed between Suu Kyi’s father Aung San and leaders representing some of Burma’s ethnic minorities, prior to Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948.

Daung Khar, who heads the KIO’s Technical Advisory Team based in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, told The Irrawaddy: “We have lost trust with the government and the army and we doubt their motives.” He noted that the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government had kept quiet after the Burma Army’s recent assaults on the KIA in northern Burma.

“We did not gain our ethnic rights from the first Panglong agreement. We have doubts whether we would gain them from this ‘second Panglong,’” Daung Khar said.

Daung Khar contended that Burma is effectively still ruled by the military, which he said had successfully retained its influence and power despite the transition of executive power. As long as this lasts, “the prospects of obtaining our political goals [of federalism and self-determination for the Kachin people within the Union of Burma] remain dim.”

Recent clashes between the Burma Army and the KIA have made for a very difficult working environment, in terms of building the trust necessary to resolving the conflict, Daung Khar continued.

“Whoever formally leads this country—Daw Suu [Aung San Suu Kyi] or any other person—we are no longer interested. Politics in Burma cannot move forward.”.

The Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), whose political wing is the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), has also publicly expressed doubts over Suu Kyi’s “21st Century Panglong Conference.” The Burma Army has waged a prolonged offensive campaign against the SSA-N’s core positions since the NCA signing last year, which the SSA-N refused to take part in.

Last week, the SSA-N lost a temporary base in Noung Ma village, in northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township, after clashes with the Burma Army.

“We have suspicions that the Burma Army is trying to destroy the second Panglong conference,” the SSPP/SSA-N said in a statement issued last week.

This is the time for trust-building between ethnic armed groups and the Burma Army, but the recent activity of the Burma Army—launching strong military offensives against Kachin, Palaung (Ta’ang) and Shan armed groups, after the NLD assumed formal control of the government—suggest that Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is intent on destroying the necessary conditions for trust.

On a May 19 meeting in Naypyidaw, Min Aung Hlaing told a Chinese special envoy that all ethnic armed groups must “abide” by the “peace principles of the Tatmadaw” (as the Burma Army is known), and stick to their “designated areas” to avoid clashes, so that peace can be achieved through “the current political system,” according to a post on the army commander-in-chief’s Facebook page from the same day.

Min Aung Hlaing’s words suggest no softening on his core position: that peace should be achieved on the Burma Army’s terms.

He has also reiterated that three ethnic armed groups engaged in current or recent conflict with the Burma Army, and who were excluded from signing the NCA—the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army—should disarm before joining formal peace talks with the government.

This is a condition that these three armed groups—who are closely allied, and whose participation in the peace process is crucial to quelling ongoing fighting in the west and north-east of the country—are unlikely to ever accept.

“[Min Aung Hlaing’s] words just fuel civil war in the country and we condemn him for it,” said a statement released jointly by the three groups.

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Myanmar gov't, ethnic groups set to resume ceasefire talks in Yangon

by Feng Yingqiu

YANGON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators of Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups have been set to resume their formal talks at the Myanmar Peace Center in Yangon next Wednesday on seeking formal signing of a draft nationwide ceasefire accord (NCA).

The two-day fresh talks will be a follow-up of an informal one held in Chiangmai on July 2-3 between the government's Myanmar Peace Center and ethnic armed organization's senior delegation.

The 8th round of ceasefire talks between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the ethnic armed group's senior delegation is expected to focus on finalization of the NCA, all-inclusive in the signing, the role of the signatories and matter of international witnesses as outlined in the Chiangmai talks.

In the Chiangmai talks, the government side proposed signing of the NCA with 15 armed groups first and the others to be followed later.

In the upcoming Wednesday's resumed talks, the government delegation will be led by its Vice Chairman and Minister at the President's Office U Aung Min, while the EAO's senior delegation be headed by Naw Zipporah Sein, Vice Chairman of Karen National Union (KNU).

Invitations are being extended to the United Nations Special Envoy and the Special Envoy of China on Asian Affairs to attend the resumed talks as observers.

Government negotiator of the Myanmar Peace Center U Hla Maung Shwe disclosed that there will be negotiation also on a set of amendment to the draft NCA by the ethnic side.

The 15-member ethnic new negotiator was formed at the last ethnic summit conference in Law Khee Lar, Kayin state, held on June 9 and was assigned to further deal with the government.

That ethnic summit rejected the signing of the NCA until further amendment, insisting that all armed groups be included in the signing process.

The draft NCA was preliminarily signed between the government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the ethnic groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) at the end of March after conclusion of more than one year's negotiation on the NCA.

The government on its part has indicated readiness to complete the formal signing over the draft NCA as soon as possible once it is adopted by top leadership of the ethnic side.

According to the draft NCA, the formal NCA signing by leaders of both sides is to be further forwarded to the parliament for approval and a framework for political dialogue is also to be drawn within two months with the dialogue to take place within three months.

The peace process began in November 2013 when UPWC and NCCT met in Myitgyina, Kachin state's capital, for the very first time for the nationwide ceasefire talks, while the last 7th round of talks took place in Yangon in March.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=293072

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