 |
| Mr.Aung Myint Thu, suggesting |
 |
| This standing man - Senior Solder of ALA (Arakan Liberation Army) |
A purported Rakhine national-level political dialogue named " Arakan National Stakehoder's Meeting (ANSM)" which was not officially permitted by the Myanmar government was held in Mae Sot, Thailand and attended by nearly 90 delegates. There, I (Aung Myint Thu) was the facilitator at Social Sector Principle Development. We discussed and wrote policy/principle of all sectors.
This dialogue was led and organized by Arakan National Council (ANC) which is a member organization of United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) from June 8 to 12.
We held this meeting with the intention of complementing the formal process with this informal process. So we will carry forward the results from this meeting to the next step.”
This political dialogue meeting was attended by almost all Rakhine organizations namely Arakan Liberation Party/Arakan Liberation Army (ALP/ALA), Arakan National Council (ANC), Rakhine National Party (RNP), Rakhine Patriotic Party, ethnic Rakhine tribes of Mro, Khami, Dainet and other political parties KNDP, MNDP and MNP except United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) and political party Arakan League for Democracy (ALD).
81 delegates of Legal Aid groups, CSOs on natural resources and environmental affairs, CBOs of human rights and 7 observers attended the meeting.
The delegates agreed to change the name of ‘Rakhine/Arakan State’ to ‘Rakhine/Arakan Nation’ at this meeting as they believed it would mean establishing the Federal Democratic Union by constituting independent Nations at their free will.
We are currently in the form of bogus union in the current status. We want to build a genuine federal union. In our understanding, genuine federal union means constituted by independent nations of diverse ethnic nationalities. Our Rakhine/Arakan Nation will be in this federal union. Union means building with constituents of independent nations.
Why we are doing this in Thailand ourselves?
Rakhine leaders dissolved their working committee on national-level political
dialogue after the government and the military prevented them from holding
public meetings, according to local sources this year, 2018. We have rights to do inside Rakhine/Arakan and we can discuss about all sector development at Union Peace Conference.
Rakhine leaders from the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the
Arakan National Party (ANP), and civil society groups have abolished the
committee, which was formed last year, in frustration at the government’s
refusal to allow it to hold public consultations.
We had a gentlemen’s agreement with the UPDJC [Union Peace
Dialogue Joint Committee] that we would be allowed to hold public meetings. But
when we tried to do it, we were denied permission. This has been very
demoralizing. So we discussed the issue with the ANP and decided to abolish our
working committee on public meetings.
The ALP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) along
with eight other armed groups in October 2015. Under the NCA, the ALP has the
right to hold a national-level political dialogue. It planned to hold public
meetings before opening the political dialogue in the region.
When we signed the NCA, we had no idea we would face these
restrictions. We believed we would be able to consult and discuss with our
people at any time. The government said the ALP could not hold public meetings,
despite signing the NCA, because the conflict with so-called- "militants" had
affected the stability of the state.
Our nation (Rakhine) has conflicts. But the public is able to travel, and
it is safe to hold public meetings. It [the government] is afraid of coming
under international pressure over the conflict in Rakhine. They have blocked us
from holding public meetings, but our situation is not related to the
international issue.
The ALP cooperated with the Union government to work for peace
in the country after signing the NCA. Since the first
session of the 21st-Century Panglong Peace Conference in 2016, the ALP has not
be able to submit its own proposals on the type of political system to be
implemented in the region in the future. This situation continued when it was
denied permission to hold public meetings by the second Panglong session in
2017.
The government just told that it could not permit us to
hold public meetings because of the conflict with the Bengalis [Rohingya]. We
asked them if so called "the Bengali conflict" would lead to our being denied democracy or
a federal system.
The ALP, ANP, and civil society groups in Rakhine were deeply disappointed
by the repeated denials of the ALP’s requests. ALP signed the NCA because we want peace in our region. We have
waged an armed revolution since 1988. We drafted a federal system along with
other ethnic armed groups, as we understand our country needs a federal system.
Without one, our country will continue to see fighting.
We urged and have urged the government to view the eight armed groups as
actors who seek peace and want to work hard for the country. If it
believes there is a problem with holding public meetings, the government should
sit and meet with the Rakhine leaders informally so we can discuss the
root causes of the problem. The government should say honestly why it doesn’t
want to allow public meetings in Rakhine, and needs to build trust with the
state’s leaders, she said.
We should be able to
hold public consultations, even though they denied us permission to hold a
national-level political dialogue. The government only let civil society groups organize public
consultations, but not the ALP or ANP. Therefore, we have decided not to work
towards that anymore; we are no longer interested.
Therefore, we know that National level -Political Dialogue" meeting should be done. Today, we are doing this, ourselves, but we are sad that we cannot do this inside the country of our own. Later, the rest organizations and its leader who were not in the dialogue, are always welcome to participate at this further discussion.
https://www.burmalink.org/statement-from-arakan-national-stakeholder-consultation-meeting/ --------------"The Statement of the meeting"----- ANSCM Statement in English Version:
Statement from Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting
June 12, 2018
With the aim of facilitating domestic peace and building a federal democratic republic, an Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting had been held from June 8-12, 2018 on Thai-Burma border.
Those present at the meeting were 81 legal representatives from revolutionary armed organizations (ALP/ALA, ANC/AA), domestic political parties (ANP, APP, KNDP, DNDP, MNDP, MNP), legal aid organizations, indigenous ethnic groups, youth, woman, environment, human rights groups and community-based organizations plus 7 observers.
In order to provide necessary guidance and conflict resolution, a 9-member ''Leading Committee'' was unanimously nominated and basic principles, which the entire Arakanese should uphold for different sectors such as political, social, economic, natural resources, land and environment, were collectively discussed and decided upon.
We, who made discussion and decisions at this meeting on legal behalf of respective organizations, declare that we shall strive to employ those aforesaid principles as our common policy stand at any levels of political discussions and federal democratic republic building process.
Leading Committee
Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting
Contact :
U Twan Zaw (General Secretary, Arakan National Council – ANC)
Tel. +66 (0) 816 808 934
https://www.burmalink.org/statement-from-arakan-national-stakeholder-consultation-meeting/ --------------"The Statement of the meeting"----- ANSCM Statement in English Version:
Statement from Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting
June 12, 2018
With the aim of facilitating domestic peace and building a federal democratic republic, an Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting had been held from June 8-12, 2018 on Thai-Burma border.
Those present at the meeting were 81 legal representatives from revolutionary armed organizations (ALP/ALA, ANC/AA), domestic political parties (ANP, APP, KNDP, DNDP, MNDP, MNP), legal aid organizations, indigenous ethnic groups, youth, woman, environment, human rights groups and community-based organizations plus 7 observers.
In order to provide necessary guidance and conflict resolution, a 9-member ''Leading Committee'' was unanimously nominated and basic principles, which the entire Arakanese should uphold for different sectors such as political, social, economic, natural resources, land and environment, were collectively discussed and decided upon.
We, who made discussion and decisions at this meeting on legal behalf of respective organizations, declare that we shall strive to employ those aforesaid principles as our common policy stand at any levels of political discussions and federal democratic republic building process.
Leading Committee
Arakan National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting
Contact :
U Twan Zaw (General Secretary, Arakan National Council – ANC)
Tel. +66 (0) 816 808 934
15-6-2018
No comments:
Post a Comment