Although the New Mon State Party (NMSP) has yet not joined the national Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JMC-S), it has been handling a conflict at the Liaison office-level, according to the person-in-charge of the NMSP’s Home Affairs Department.
The NMSP signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) two years ago, but indicated they would only join the JMC-S of Karen State and Tanintharyi Region.
“We could not attend any JMC-S meeting for conflict dialogue, but there is no difficulty for us. NMSP has already opened liaison offices following the ceasefire agreement. we can still handle issues from the liaison offices,” said Nai Win Hla, in-charge of NMSP’s Home Affairs Department.
After the ceasefire in 1995, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) obtained permission to set up three battalions in Karen State and two battalions in the Tanintharyi Region.
NSMP has also opened many liaison offices in different regions including Ye Phyu Township in Tanintharyi, Three Pagoda Pass in Karen State, Ye, Thanbyuzayat, Mudon and Mawlamyine in Mon State.
The peace process has been hindered at the Union-level Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC-U) and the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) meetings have been on hold since two NCA-signatories members, the Karen National Union (KNU) and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) removed themselves from the official peace dialogue, according to Mi Yin Chan, a civilian representative of JMC-S, Mon.
“Some process has been impeded during this suspension state. If the [NMSP) is joining [the] JMC-S, Mon, we can resume the meetings to speed up some of the processes. Although [NMSP] is not yet participating in [the] JMC-S, our team has been [in] contact [with] respective liaison offices to resolve emerging issues,” Mi Yin Chan added.
The current participants of the JMC-S, Mon , include five government representatives, five representatives from the Karen National Union (KNU), four civilian representatives, but no representatives from the NMSP have yet been able to participate.
