“The commission will know about the situation in our region and won’t need to investigate the people here if we publish our public statements and decisions after holding the meeting. We plan to hold this meeting mainly to assist the commission”, said U Ko Ko Maung, the spokesperson of the organizing committee of the meeting.

He said it is also expected that the whole Burmese government including the President, the Patron and the Chairman of the Parliaments as well as other ethnic peoples in the country will understand the problems from which the Arakanese people are suffering once the public meeting is held.

U Ko Ko Maung also said that the meeting is scheduled to be held on the 25th of September and an organizing office has been already opened in Rathedaung and has been preparing for the meeting.

“We have invited the people under three categories—intellectuals, representatives from all townships (five persons per a township) and Arakanese social organizations and interested individuals”, he said.

Some Arakanese scholars living in exile are also said to have been invited to the meeting.

The preparations are now being undertaken by seven sub-committees that include a monograph writing committee, information and news committee, and a reception and accommodation arrangement committee for organizing the meeting.

The meeting was initially dubbed “The Conference of Mayu River Basin”, but has now been changed to “The Arakan Regional Public Meeting” because the former name was deemed to be unsuitable by many people, said U Ko Ko Maung.