August 18, 2020
Director-General U Zaw Htay of the Ministry of Office of State Counsellor, New Mon State Party (NMSP) central executive member Nai Aung Ma Ngay, and Sai Kyaw Nyunt, Joint-Secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), held a press conference on the 19th meeting of the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) at Myanmar International Convention Center-I in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.
U Zaw Htay first said this meeting produced 9 points of agreement and a topic put on record. He said they discussed the days the peace conference will be held, number of representatives attending, placing full responsibility on UPDJC members according to its rules and regulations, and putting the decisions made at the 9th JCM on the UPDJC’s record.
The Director-General said they also discussed the three sections to Part III of the Union Accord which will be submitted to the peace conference. He said they reached an agreement on the role of political parties outlined in the first section of Part III in addition to the reports from UPDJC and JMC that will be submitted.
They also approved of the moderating group for the peace conference, distribution of duties during the conference, and rules for representatives to follow during the conference.
Nai Aung Ma Ngay said this UPDJC meeting discussed the programme of the upcoming Union Peace Conference and the content of the Union Accord.
He said they also changed the assigned duties of representatives from ethnic armed organizations and divided overall duties for the peace conference. He said they reached 9 points of agreement and put one matter on record.
U Sai Kyaw Nyunt who said the political parties did something unique at this meeting. He said the agreements chosen to be added into the Union Accord in this session of the peace conference were written for both sides of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) but that made it look like political parties were left out. He said there wasn’t enough time to recall the JICM to address this issue but the content in the Union Accord may take a different form later on. He said they thus decided to adopt a model where the government, Hluttaw and Tatmadaw as one group, EAOs as another group and political parties as one group will handle the implementation of UPDJC-related agreements.
U Zaw Htay, Nai Aung Ma Ngay and Sai Kyaw Nyunt responded to questions from journalists present.
After the press conference, U Zaw Htay went to the Nay Pyi Taw City Development Committee Guesthouse and explained the programme, rules for representatives to follow, and the formation of the next part of the Union Accord to Pyithu and Amyotha Hluttaw representatives who will be attending the Fourth Session of the Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong. Peace Commission member U Hla Maung Shwe also explained the daily programmes of the peace conference to the Hluttaw representatives.—Myo Han Soe
(Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)
