Tripartite talks were held for the first time yesterday to discuss domestic peace between the Union Peace-Making Working Committee
(UPWC) led by the minister of the President’s Office U Aung Min, the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) led by Nai Hong Sar, and thirty-four political parties at the Myanmar Peace Center (MPC) in Rangoon City.
“We can say that this is the first time tripartite talks [have been held]. It’s mainly that [at the meeting] we, [the NCCT] submitted the process of peace talks and requested the political parties to provide their points of view,” said NCCT’s leader Nai Hong Sar, in an interview with IMNA.
At yesterday’s meeting, ethnic and national political parties submitted ideas as to how the country should engage in peace-building activities, and what those activities should be.
“The political parties support the agreement of [a] federal [draft] in this talk process, and they said they would [willingly] participate in future political talks,” said Nai Hong Sar, who also serves as Vice-Chairman of the New Mon State Party (NMSP).
According to the All Mon Regions Democracy Party’s (AMDP) Central Executive Committee member Nai Chan Htoy, who presented at the meeting as an AMDP representative, the AMDP submitted for discussion its two points for national peace, while other political parties also submitted their points for discussion.
“To be more successful in peace talks, the UPWC and NCCT should [hold a public] conference with people and political parties for them to know about the points that they [the UPWC and NCCT] agree and [disagree with]. And, another point is that to be able to implement the ‘political dialogue framework’, a group like ‘negotiating team’ should be formed,” said Nai Chan Htoy.
The UPWC and NCCT held a meeting on August 15-17, in which the government’s UPWC accepted the principles [and policies] of the federal union, which grants democracy, national equality and self-determination, as proposed by the ethnic armed groups.
According to Nai Hong Sar, the government accepted the points in principle, and remaining points will be implemented in accordance with decisions made at future political talks.
On the evening of August 18th, participants of the tripartite talks met for dinner at the MPC, where the United Nations General Secretary’s Special Advisor Vijay Nambiar gave a speech.
