Ethnic leaders hold out olive branch to NLD

No.04 - 10/2006
20 October 2006
Politics

Ethnic leaders hold out olive branch to NLD

The Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC), an alliance of non-Burman ethnic nationalities calling for the UN backed Tripartite Dialogue, yesterday (19 October) dropped a bombshell by "reaffirming" its position on Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

Padoe Ba Thin Sein, Chairman, ENC
The statement which came out a day after its two-day quarterly meeting, held on the border of Chiangmai, reiterated its earlier position:

• Recognition of "The Lady", as Aung San Suu Kyi is known, as the leader "who has been struggling relentlessly to gain democracy for the entire people"
• Recognition of the NLD as the party that won the 1990 elections
• The alliance commitment to cooperate with the democratic forces which she and the NLD lead "in accordance with the Mae Tharawhta Agreement, concluded in the year 1997"

Questioned by S.H.A.N. the reason for the "encore", David Taw, Karen representative who also doubles as the meeting's spokesman, explained it was due to an anonymous letter, believed to have been circulated by a prominent NLD member in exile, that has been 'doing the rounds for months.'

Lian Hmung Sakhong, Secretary General, ENC

According to a copy of the letter, the writer had accused the ENC of seeking to "undermine" the roles of the NLD and The Lady, that it "might consider (the) NLD (has) become irrelevant in the future political process." The writer also expressed fear the alliance may be willing to settle for a "Chinese model" of allowing non-Han peoples to set up "autonomous prefectures". To which Dr Lian Hmung Sakhong, Secretary General of the ENC, flatly responded, "We will never compromise on federalism."

The Mae Tharawhta Agreement that had called for a federal democracy was welcomed by Aung San Suu Kyi.