Despite statements from the government-established Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) and the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT)—a group which is negotiating with the government on behalf of Burma’s armed ethnic groups—that the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) won’t be concluded by 1 August as planned, both the government and armed ethnic groups appear ready to offer more concessions at their next meeting, according to sources from the Thai-Burma border and Rangoon.
“The three key [outstanding] issues identified by the NCCT are negotiable,” said an MPC official visiting Chiang Mai on July 7th. These issues include the government’s position that:
1. Issues that cannot be resolved by both sides will be handled by the 11-person Union Peacemaking Central Committee (UPCC), the equivalent of the country’s highest organ (according to the 2008 constitution) and the 11-person National Defense and Security Council (NDSC)
2. The military Code of Conduct (COC) will be drafted after signing the NCA
3. Disarmament, demobilization and re-integration (DDR) of armed ethnic groups will be carried out before any political settlement
However, the NCCT’s position is that a joint body should be established to arbitrate disagreements between the two sides. In addition, the NCCT insists that the COC must be signed alongside the NCA and that DDR can only be carried out after reaching a political settlement.
“We think the NCCT’s arguments are reasonable,” said an MPC official. “The problem, in fact, is not with the [two sides’] positions, but with [how they define certain words and concepts].”
Yet the NCCT has already made a major concession by accepting the government’s core principles—non-disintegration of the Union; non-disintegration of national solidarity; and the perpetuation of national sovereignty, according to a copy of the NCA’s second draft obtained by SHAN.
Further, an NCCT member said that “We also agreed at the NCCT review meeting (June 13-16) to drop some of the definitions we previously proposed for certain concepts…”
As for other words over which there is still disagreement—such as “federal” and “the right of self-determination”—these issues will first be addressed at the Laiza Summit, where leaders from armed ethnic groups will meet from July 24-26 to hammer out their differences in order to present a united front during later negotiations with the government.
The MPC and the NCCT will meet informally next week to discuss how much the government and the armed ethnic groups are willing to concede, particularly regarding definitional issues.
For its part, the NCCT has already compiled a list containing its own definitions of various contested words and concepts and sent it to the Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC), the body which is negotiating with armed ethnic groups on behalf of the Burmese government.
Meanwhile, political parties and civil society organizations in Burma are calling for a speedy conclusion to the NCA negotiations, which have been primarily conducted between the UPWC and the NCCT.
“We have waited long enough to participate in the peace process,” one politician said at a meeting in Chiang Mai on Monday.
