Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.)

November 04, 2009

Kurt M. Campbell
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Washington, DC

Dear Assistant Secretary Campbell,

First of all, we would like to thank you for taking the initiative to engage with the State Peace and Development council (SPDC) to further reconciliation and democratisation process in our deeply divided society.

We are grateful to know of your keen interest not only to meet the SPDC, but also pro-democracy opposition parties, Aung San Suu Kyi and non-Burman ethnic leaders.

With regards to meeting the ethnic leaders today, we would like to lay out some important core issues, which you, no doubt, might have been  acquainted with.

As you are aware, the SPDC is pushing for its Border Guard Force (BFG) program to swallow all the ethnic resistance movements and the cease-fire groups are now at the receiving end of forceful integration into Burma army, which would spell the end of their strive for rights of self-determination.

It is essential to note that the cease-fire agreement is in nature temporary and if the political settlement or solution are not met, the armed internal conflict could resume anytime.

We are now at this crucial stage and it seems, the SPDC is quite determined to push on, leading to more bloodshed and continuation of heightened civil war.

In our opinion, your good office could be instrumental and even might be able to divert this apocalypse scenario from happening, for the sake of the people of Burma.

Recently, the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) has pointed out the essential spirit of Panglong Agreement, as a condition not only to be integrated into Burma army, but a total surrendering of arms, if the required environment of this treaty could be virtualized.

Panglong Agreement was jointly signed on February 12, 1947 by Burman leader Gen Aung San and ethnic leaders of Kachin, Chin and Shan states  to create a genuine multi-ethnic Union of Burma.

After the end of the Second World War, the leaders of the various ethnic nationalities met in Panglong to deliberate the possibility of a future together after the proposed withdrawal of British protection.

General Aung San, the Burman leader of the independence struggle, proposed that the separate ethnic homelands in the Frontier Areas join as equal partners in a "Union of Burma" to hasten the process of achieving independence from Britain.

The Panglong Agreement, which recognised the equality, voluntary participation and self
determination of the constituent states, formed the basis for the Republic of the Union of Burma.

In a legal constitutional sense, the Union of Burma ceased to exist when the Burmese military, following a coup in 1962, declared the suspension of the constitution and terminated the only existing legal bond between them and the ethnic nationalities.

Since then the Burmese military regime has been attempting to hold the defunct union together by sheer military force, whilst the real and only solution is political.

The non-Burman ethnic nationalities occupy 57 per cent of the land mass and constitute 40 per cent of the population of by conservative estimate.

This being the case, it is only logical that any political settlement excluding them would never work, much less a lasting solution.

But this does not mean that the non-Burmans are opting to break away from the country and create a Yugoslavia-like situation.

While the political aspirations of the non-Burman ethnic nationalities have swung back and forth between total independence and federalism during the past decades, most have now come to terms with settling for a genuine federal structure, if it meets their needs and aspirations.

This acceptance comes mainly through the prevailing international mood against dismemberment of an existing state on one hand and an unwillingness to fight an uphill battle for international support and recognition for secession or total independence on the other.

It should also be noted that almost all ethnic resistance movements started out on a total-independence platform, notably the Shan, Karenni, Karen, Arakan and Kachin.

The military junta's exaggeration of 135 races and possible disintegration of the country without its heavy-handed rule is nothing more than an excuse to cling to power.

Given such circumstances, we would like to strongly urge you to take into account, the importance and restoration of Panglong  Agreement and its spirit, which could again lead all of us to genuine reconciliation and establishment of a harmonious and peaceful multi-ethnic state.



Sincerely,

Sai Wansai
General Secretary
Shan Democratic Union
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