“The first point is peace. After the nationwide ceasefire agreement we want to focus on establishing rule of law. There are so many things that need to be fixed, especially in education and the development of the state. But essentially we need security and peace. We believe this will need to happen before rule of law can be implemented.”

Both the government and armed groups must also accept the participation of independent observers and civil society groups during the peace process said participants.

“During national ceasefire agreement meetings both sides agreed to form and acknowledge a freelance watch group to monitor. If that agreement is to be honored that group will need to be implemented soon,” said Plureh from the Karenni State Peace Watch Group.

Nine proposals titled: monitoring peace process, farmland problems and peace process, and twelve proposals title: accountability, responsibility and transparency in development projects, sustainable development, and rural development, were drafted during the forum.

Other proposals called for justice, democracy and women’s’ rights. In Karenni State women have no political power. To address this there needs to be programs designed to empower women and a forum on gender equality, said Naw Lu De, from Nationalities Democracy Party.

Participants were disappointed by the absence of state-level governmental and parliamentary members invited to forum. All of the proposals will be detailed in a report that will be sent to the Union government, said U Kyaw Lin Oo, executive director of Myanmar People Forum.

English version translated by Aung Myat Soe, edited by Brennan O`Connor