Rai Maroah - The Mon State government is planning to discuss peace with the New Mon State Party (NMSP), a Mon political armed group, with the help of honorary mediators.
The five honorary arbitrators include a leader from the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMDP), one from the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), a highly regarded Mon monk, a former NMSP Executive Committee leader, and the former NMSP Central Executive Committee (CEC) member, according to a middleman who has negotiated the peace talk committee.
The source said that Mon State Chief Minister U Ohm Myint gave the responsibility to the Minister of Electric Power and Industry Nai Lawi Oung (aka Nai Myint Swe), a former NMSP major, to talk about peace with the NMSP.
It is too early to share the committee’s plans for peace talks, the source said.
An executive committee member of NMSP said that the NMSP has not heard anything from the government-sponsored peace talk group yet.
However, an advisor to NMSP who asked not to be identified said that recently Nai Lawi Oung had contacted a top NMSP leader.
The ceasefire between the NMSP and the Burmese government was dissolved in September 2010 after NMSP refused to give up its arms and reform to become a Border Guard Force (BGF). The ceasefire began in 1995.
