News
Nang Kham Aye, regarded as one of the boldest woman MPs, has called for a 5% cut from the proceeds of the ongoing Sino-Burmese oil-gas pipeline project under construction for Shan State.
“Local people, in whose land the pipelines are passing through, are suffering and compensations have not be sufficient,” she told the Shan State Assembly which met on 25 September.
Unabated nationalism, tinged with xenophobic outlooks, may be running counter to the successful establishment of the ambitious Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, barely 3 years from now, said participants at a seminar held in Chiangmai yesterday.
Almost a year after he plunged into the peace process, doing his shuttle diplomacy between ethnic rebel movements on the border and Naypyitaw, U Aung Min, the newly appointed President’s Office Minister # 4 or “Minister Without Borders” as he likes to call himself, is disclosing loud and clear for the first time that payments for peace are not coming from either the state coffers or the foreign peace support groups, according to Karen Information Center (KIC)’s interview with him on 4 September.
Alternative peace roadmap approved by Ethnic Nationalities Conference
(14-16 September 2012)
Unofficial translation
After more than six weeks under custody, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) released the 20 Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ fighters, according to Shan and Thai sources.
Their freedom was reportedly preceded by a letter from Lt-Gen Yawdserk, Chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State/ Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA)
Why did they hold the ethnic nationalities conference, 14-16 September?
The following excerpts from the first day’s speeches and presentations delivered by the participants, as SHAN heard, will provide some, if not all, the answers.
Nagging suspicions cast against Norway and the Burmese government pulling strings behind the 3 day Ethnic Nationalities Conference almost wrecked the day for the 150 participants and observers attending it in Chiangmai yesterday, saved at the last minute by a timely explanation by the organizers.
Hkun Htun Oo, leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) that had won the most seats in Shan State in the 1990 elections, is leaving for Washington D.C. this evening, according to SNLD sources.
The government may be serious about making peace with the non-Burman rebels, but the Army is negotiating with Russia for the purchase of unidentified missiles, according to a source close to the diplomatic circle.
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