Tuesday, December 13, 2011

10-party coalition only ‘cooperating’ with USDP

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Tuesday, 13 December 2011 19:57 Min Thet

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The Friends of Democracy, a 10-party coalition, says it has not joined forces with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) as reported in some domestic journals in Burma.

A spokesman at a press conference on Monday at the Democratic Party (Myanmar) office in Mingala Taungnyut Township in Rangoon denied the news reports.

“We didn’t join with them – absolutely not. We are just cooperating on common causes, just working together by cooperating,” said Saw Than Myint of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP).

Dr. Than Nyein, chairman of the National Democratic Force party Photo: Mizzima

Some domestic journals said that in a meeting on December 4 between members of the coalition and the USDP at the Mya Kyun Tha restaurant, the parties had combined forces.

National Democratic Force Chairman Dr. Than Nyein said, “Our people were not pleased with those news reports in the journals so we wanted to clarify our position here.”

“We just met with them after agreeing to focus on working for the country. We encountered many problems due to a lack of trust between us for many years, which affected the nation. We needed to talk with each other to correct the misunderstandings and to build trust. We must try hard to develop a better relationship,” he said.

At the meeting on Friday, eight coalition parties attended. The USDP party sent only Rangoon Region party chief Aung Then Lin, an ex-general who is on the USDP central committee.

Democratic Party (Myanmar) Chairman Thu Wei said, “As soon as we met, Aung Thein Lin said that the USDP had longed for this meeting with us for a long time. He said that his party could not accept the domination of our country by any foreign group. We said we agreed with them, and we liked that stand too.”

Saw Than Myint said that the 10-party coalition would cooperate with any party including the National League for Democracy and National Unity Party, if they shared common objectives.

The 10- party grouping incudes the Union Democracy Party, Peace and Unity Party, Democracy and Peace Party, Democratic Party (Myanmar), National Democratic Force, Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, Chin National Party, All Mon Region Democracy Party and Pha Lon Sa Waw Democratic Party.

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