The largest Mon ceasefire group is slated to hold an emergency meeting to form a response to the Burmese government’s continued pressure to bring the groups armed wing under Burmese state control.
The New Mon State Party (NMSP) emergency meeting appears to be the fist official gathering to address the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) official request for the NMSP’s armed wing, the New Mon Liberation Army (NMLA), to reform as a 326 soldier Border Guard Force (BGF) with 18 spots filled by Burmese SPDC officers. The meeting will be conducted during the last week of July at the Central Headquarters in Ye township, southern Mon State, and will be attended by all of the NMSP Central Executive Committee (CEC) and Central Committee (CC) members.
“I got the message that I have to go to a meeting at the Central Headquarters on July 25. It is an emergency meeting for all of us,” a CEC member explained to IMNA over the phone. “We will hold talks about the SPDC offer to change our armed forces into a BGF before 2010 election and we will go with out a time limit until we have reached a decision.”
The NMSP has administered a small amount of territory controlled by the MNLA along the Thai-Burma border since agreeing to a ceasefire in 1995, and has approximately 700 troops under its command.
The plan for the emergency meeting comes following a June 7th assembly, in with the NMSP chairman Nai Htaw Mon, Joint Secretary Nai Chan Toi, CEC member Nai Htar Wara, Major General Jeya, and CEC member Nai Tala Nyi met Southeast Command (SEC) General That Naing Win. At that time General That Naing Win officially requested that the NMSP transform its forces into a BGF, drawing the NMSP into the ranks of the more then 15 ethnic armed groups that are now under pressure from the SPDC as it attempts to follow its own 7-step “roadmap” to a “disciplined democracy”.
In the first week of March, senior NMSP officials, including Chairman Nai Htaw Mon, party Vice Chairman Nai Rotsa, and CEC member Nai Tala NYi met with Lt.Gen.Ye Myint at the Southeast Command headquarters in Moulmein. Lt.Gen. Ye Myint urged the NMSP leaders to bring the party into the 2010 election while the nature of the BGF was discussed only superficially and no official offer was made to the NMSP to join.
“We have to join the meeting at the Central Headquarter in the last week of this month. It is not regular meeting - It is emergency meeting,” said a Central Committee (CC) member.
The meeting comes before the deadline set by the SPDC for a response to their request. General That Naing Win’s rest for the MNLA to form a BGF gave the NMPS until the end of this month to reply, according to a Khitpyaing News article published in Burmese in July.
The possible outcome of the BGF decision is a contentious one amongst members of the NMSP. On June 12, a letter was written by a group of Mon monks and students urging the NMSP it not to transform its armed wing into a government-controlled BGF.
