Wednesday, 01 February 2012 19:02 Nyi Thit
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.
The cease-fire deal is the seventh between Burma's new, nominally civilian government and rebels from 11 ethnic groups.
Mon rebels opened hostilities against the central government starting in the 1940s, along with other ethnic groups in the country’s isolated eastern border area with Thailand and China.
The latest cease-fire comes as the United States and the European Union consider when and if to lift economic sanctions imposed on the former junta after decades of human rights abuses.
The newly elected government signed similar deals with ethnic Karen and Shan leaders in January. Talks are now underway with Kachin rebels. Observers say the pressure is on the government to sign an agreement with the Kachin prior to the April 1 by-election.
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.
The cease-fire deal is the seventh between Burma's new, nominally civilian government and rebels from 11 ethnic groups.
Mon rebels opened hostilities against the central government starting in the 1940s, along with other ethnic groups in the country’s isolated eastern border area with Thailand and China.
The latest cease-fire comes as the United States and the European Union consider when and if to lift economic sanctions imposed on the former junta after decades of human rights abuses.
The newly elected government signed similar deals with ethnic Karen and Shan leaders in January. Talks are now underway with Kachin rebels. Observers say the pressure is on the government to sign an agreement with the Kachin prior to the April 1 by-election.
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