Ethnic Council Warned Junta March 11, 2005
The Kachin Post
The Ethnic Nationalities Council, or ENC, a Burmese opposition group based in Thailand, urged the Burmese military government to adopt their propositions as a means to reach a political solution, according to a statement released by the ENC on last Saturday.
ENC released a statement after concluding a two day meeting in Kawthoolei, Karen National Union control area near Thai-Burma border. During the meeting, ENC members, advisor and Ethnic Nationalities Solidarity and Coordination Committee, or ENSCC, members discussed the current political situation in Burma.
The ENC said that if the government did not follow their suggestions, they would strongly oppose the junta’s new constitution. The current National Convention is establishing guidelines through which to draft a new constitution. The ENC said that if the SPDC did not accommodate their suggestions towards finding a political solution, they would hold the SPDC responsible for all consequences including the resumption of hostilities.
At the National Convention, the junta dismissed a proposal, which suggested power sharing between the ethnic states and the central government, submitted jointly by 13 ethnic ceasefire groups. The ENC urged the junta to allow ethnic ceasefire groups to freely organize and participate in the constitution drafting process. Just before the National Convention reconvened on February 17, several ethnic leaders, including chairman of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy Hkun Htun Oo, were arrested for unknown reasons. This suggests that the junta is not interested in allowing the full participation by the ethnic groups in the political process.
The ENC does not believe the SPDC’s claim that the current National Convention will lead to a democratic Burma, noting that the National Convention does not include the political parties that received support in the 1990 general elections. Additionally, the ENC claims that the NC does not reflect the aspirations of the ethnic ceasefire groups, who have repeatedly called for a dialogue on the future of Burma. The statement calls for the government to “amend the procedures of the National Convention to allow free and open debate on the constitutional articles proposed by the SPDC.”
ENC urged the junta to allow the international community, especially ASEAN, to observe the National Convention, the proposed referendum for the new constitution, and the projected general elections under the new constitution.
The Ethnic Nationalities Council is committed to finding a political solution to Burma’s crisis through a Tripartite Dialogue as called for by United Nations General Assembly resolutions since 1994. The ENC was founded by members of Ethnic Nationalities Solidarity and Coordination Committee, or ENSCC, in March 2004, aiming to proceed a “United Ethnic Nationalities Voice and Platform” for the Tripartite Dialogue.
The ENSCC, established in 2001, proposed an ethnic version of Burma’s Road Map to Democracy plan, which reflects the interests of ethnic groups, six days after Burmese junta announced its seven steps Road Map to Democracy in 2003.
