The 8th Mon National Conference, organized under the leadership of the New Mon State Party, the predominant ethnic Mon resistance group, will be held in NMSP-administered territory in the first week of August.
Mon National Conferences are typically held every three years, with the last conducted in 2013 in the Mon State capital of Mawlamyine, formerly known as Moulmein. This year’s event will take place over three days in Taung Pauk Village, part of NMSP’s Moulmein District Headquarters in Kyarinnseikkyi Township, Karen State.
At the 7th Mon National Conference, participants decided to plan a national convention for the next event, not another conference, but the change was not implemented and the objective will be raised again this year, according to the organizing committee.
Nai Win Hla added that although members of Mon political parties and the NMSP can have differing opinions and varying degrees of commitment to the conference, the event aims to find solutions that unite ethnic Mon people and priorities.
At total of 150 representatives will be invited to attend the conference, including 40 members each from the NMSP, Mon political parties and Mon civil society, along with several monks and community members.
The conference’s organizing committee is comprised of five members from the NMSP, including Nai Win Hla of NMSP’s central executive committee, Nai Hongsar Bone Khine, Nai Lawi Mon and Nai Chem Mon of NMSP’s Central Committee, and five members each from Mon political parties and Mon civil society organizations.
Previously the Mon Affairs Union was to head the 8th Mon National Conference in May in Japanese Well, a village in NMSP-administered area along the Thai-Burma Border, but the plan was halted.
