At a recent meeting held with civil society organizations (CSOs), the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) saidthat its current peace talks with the Union Peace-Making Working Committee (UPWC) are moving backward, rather than forward.
“The talk this time is a little bit disagreeable. The Tatmadaw (government army) sees us with a lot of negative views; they also have criticisms [of the] United Nationalities Federation Council (UNFC),” said NCCT leader Nai Hongsar, in an interview with IMNA.
Nai Hongsar added that the easier points had been agreed upon in previous talks, while the more difficult points were put aside. This recent round of talks between the UPWC and NCCT has not furthered the discussion, but has highlighted many difficulties. According to Nai Hongsar, it seems that the peace talks are moving backwards.
“At [the peace talk] conference, the representatives from the Tatmadaw side [could not] make any decisions upon the points we [brought] up for discussion”, said Nai Hongsar, “They only said that they would present these points to [their superiors].
The NCCT met with civil society organizations (CSOs) on September 28th, at the Green Hill Hotel in Rangoon. This meeting was the second of its kind, and attracted attendance of about 29 CSOs.
“According to the points that [the] NCCT explained to us, the final result from the talk shows that the government army is in [a] situation where it is moving backwards,” said meeting attendee Ko Aung Htoo, secretary of the Mon State Civilian Observing Ceasefire Committee.
Various CSOs presented at the meeting, highlighting the topics of peace and the women’s sector, peace talks and youth involvement, the peace education sector, the ceasefire civilian observation sector, investment projects and transparency in ethnic areas, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)’s resettlement sector, and the civil society forum for peace movement sectors.
“For [the] NCCT, as it stands, it [is heading towards a] ceasefire agreement. But, NCCT accepts that future political dialogue must include the civil society organization sector, and community based organizations (CBOs). But there are some difficulties at some points of the discussion,” said Ko Aung Htoo.
According to Ko Aung Htoo, since the NCCT does not know some of the CBOs and CSOs, the NCCT has requested that they write concept papers, and submit them to the NCCT.
Second round tripartite talks were held by the UPWC, the NCCT, and more than 60 political parties on September 27th, at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC).
