ETHNIC NATIONALITIES COUNCIL

The 98 page Discrimination, Conflict and Corruption: The Ethnic States of Burma, which was launched by Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) yesterday in Chiangmai, has once again urged an end to continuation of “a military solution to what is primarily a political problem” with the non-Burman ethnic groups.

Speaking at a press conference in Thailand on Tuesday, the secretary-general of the Ethnic Nationalities Council, Dr. Sui Khar, urged the UN Burma envoy Vijay Nambiar to address the status of Burma’s ethnic nationalities. Sui Khar, who also serves as a senior leader in the Chin National Front, a non-ceasefire armed group, described the position of Burma’s ethnic minorities as being central to the county’s ongoing struggle for democracy and stability.

While launching a report titled “Discrimination, Conflict and Corruption – The Ethnic States of Burma,” in Chiang Mai, Thailand, leaders of the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) said that the Burmese government is still engaging ethnic armed groups in a military manner—which they said is a mistaken approach that has failed to solve the problem since the era of Gen Ne Win, the former Burmese dictator who took power in 1962.

02 November 2011: The exile-based Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) today calls for Burma to end the practice of systematic discrimination against the ethnic groups. A new report  entitled Discrimination, Conflict and Corruption: The Ethnic States of Burma says government corruption and widespread discrimination against ethnic peoples continue to fuel armed conflicts in the ethnic areas.