Among the topics up for discussion are the steering team’s structure and NCA terminology.
A meeting of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) will be held from May 14-18 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Leaders of Burma’s 10 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) ethnic armed organizations are set to discuss letters sent by the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and Karen National Union (KNU) to State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and military commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing. The two groups, which have suspended participation in formal talks with the government, outlined in the statements the changes needed for them to re-join such discussions.
At the upcoming meeting, PPST members will also discuss the structure of the steering team, which Khuensai Jaiyen, a PPST advisor, described as “like a step ladder.”
“They will have to discuss it and it make it equal,” he told SHAN.
Participants will also examine the wording of the NCA.
“They will review and analyze the definition of terms and phrases stated in the NCA,” Khuensai Jaiyen, a PPST advisor, told SHAN. “What words are contrary in the NCA? We have to discuss it in detail,” he added.
He added that participants will “seek common points” from state- and Union-level differences, and those between the central government and the Tatmadaw.
Padoh Saw Tadoh Moo, the general secretary of KNU, reported the upcoming meeting to the government’s National Reconciliation and Peace Center on April 11.
The KNU, RCSS, the Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council, All-Burma Students Democratic Front, Arakan Liberation Party, Chin National Front and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization signed the NCA with the government on October 15, 2015. The New Mon State Party and the Lahu Democratic Union signed it on February 13, 2018.
