By LAWI WENG – The leader of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic armed group in southern Burma, has rejected the claim by Ohn Myint, Chief Minister of Mon State, that NMSP tried to start peace talks.
Sources from members of the All Mon Regions for Democracy (AMDP) said that Ohn Myint told AMDP that Nai Htaw Mon, NMSP’s chairman, sent a messenger to Ohn Myint requesting peace talks.
Ohn Myint claimed that he refused the supposed peace talks, explaining that it was too early to have them as the government had just been set up. Ohn Myint continued saying that he will consider peace talks in the future.
Yet, Nai Hongsa, NMSP’s secretary, commented, “I can say this is totally not true about our chairman wanting to have peace talks with him.
There is no reason to talk with him as we did the ceasefire already for 15 years, but nothing changed.”
Nai Marn, an AMDP member in Thanbyuzayat Township, said, “He [Ohn Myint] told this to our party members, especially in Mudon Township.”
AMDP chairman, Nai Ngwe Thein recounted a speech that he heard by Ohn Myint, “It is better to live in town instead of living in the jungle. I will give them [NMSP] good positions and properties if they come and live in the township.”
NMSP leaders have claimed that they will not have individual peace talks with the new government, but instead, go along with their ethnic alliance group called the United Nationalities Federal Council.
The alliance includes ethnic groups with major armies such as the Kachin Independence Organization, the Karen National Union (KNU), the Karenni National Progressive Party, the NMSP, the Shan State Army–North and other small ethnic armed groups.
