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ETHNIC NATIONALITIES COUNCIL

ETHNIC NATIONALITIES COUNCIL (Union of Burma)

Member Area
New Mon State Party, gov’t sign preliminary agreement PDF Print E-mail
By Mizzima/ Reuters   
Thursday, 02 February 2012 10:56

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The New Mon State Party (NMSP) peace delegation and the Burmese government agreed to a five-point state-level peace program on Wednesday.

NMSP-and-Burmese-government-peace-delegates-met

The NMSP delegation will submit the five-point preliminary agreement to the NMSP central committee and if it its accepted, Mon officials will sign a cease-fire agreement in the third week of February.

The peace talk was held in the Strand Hotel in Mawlamyine in Mon State.

The agreement covers a halt to fighting, the formation of peace delegations to conduct national-level peace talks, the selection of liaison offices, an agreement not to travel with weapons except in designated areas, and to stay in agreed upon control areas.

The 12-member delegation led by NMSP Vice Chairman Nai Rao Sa and the Burmese government delegation was led by Rail Transportation Minister Aung Min, both of whom signed the agreement.

On December 22, after a preliminary meeting between the two sides, the government’s peace team leader, Aung Min, said, “I’m 100 percent satisfied with the meeting because the ethnic people trust us like we trust the ethnic people.”

The government delegation said there were three stages to a lasting peace: first, to stop fighting; second, to hold a political dialogue with all ethnic groups; and third, to put forward the issues in Parliament, and finally to amend the Constitution.

Myanmar agrees to ceasefire with Mon separatists

Wed, Feb 01, 2012 at 18:02 |  Source : Reuters

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar agreed to a ceasefire with ethnic Mon separatists on Wednesday, a peace mediator said, the latest in a series of tentative peace deals sought by a nominally civilian government trying to escape economic sanctions.

The ceasefire between the army and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) was the seventh such agreement between the government and ethnic rebel groups since former military junta leader and now President Thein Sein made a public call for peace talks with separatists late last year.

The ceasefire, one of 11 being sought by the government which came to power in 2010 in disputed polls, may strengthen Myanmar's case for getting Western sanctions lifted. Along with freeing political prisoners and holding fair by-elections in April, the United States and European Union have made peace with ethnic militias a pre-requisite for a review of their embargoes.

The NMSP, the political wing of the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), which has fought for autonomy in eastern Mon State under various guises since 1948, agreed to set up liaison offices and restrict movement of weapons, a mediator told Reuters.

"The Mon State government and NMSP this morning signed a five-point preliminary agreement in principle," Hla Maung Shwe said by telephone from Mawlamyaing, the venue for the talks about 304 km (190 miles) east of the biggest city, Yangon.

Most ethnic groups seek some form of self-rule.

Deals have been reached with the Karen National Union (KNU) and Shan State Army (South).

But talks with the powerful Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have been derailed by persistent fighting that aid groups say has displaced as many as 50,000 people and underlines the high political, economic and diplomatic stakes at play.

Kachin State is central to the energy interests of both Myanmar and China, hosting crucial hydropower dams and twin pipelines that will transport oil and natural gas to supply southwestern Yunnan province.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Lane)