Informal Meeting: Representatives Of NRPC And KNU Meet

Representatives of National Reconciliation and Peace Centre (NRPC) and Karen National Union (KNU) held an informal meeting at National Reconciliation and Peace Centre in Yangon, Saturday.

Union Attorney General U Tun Tun Oo in his capacity as Vice-Chairman of the NRPC and KNU Vice-Chairman Pado Saw Kwe Htoo Win gave opening remarks at the event.

The meeting goal is for reconvening of the 21st Century Panglong Conference and aims to discuss peace building process among the government and KNU based on the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and to carry out the regional development tasks as well as for future collaboration on peace process.

KNU proposed draft proposal of achieving sustainable peace including 4 steps at NRPC-KNU meeting on 11th April, 2019. NRPC proposed 4 programs that will continue to implement the peace process at the UPDJC Secretariat Informal Meeting on 13th and 14th June of this year.

At the same time, peace commission representative group and KNU representatives met at Chiang Mai, Thailand in August of this year to find solution on matters in which the two sides were differing.

This is the 10th meeting between NRPC and KNU and it was to implement successfully and achieve progress in implementing the NCA.

Ministry of the office of State Counsellor Director General U Zaw Htay and KNU General Secretary Pado Saw Tar Do Mu gave a press briefing at the event.

Director General, Ministry of State Counsellor Office, Zaw Htay said “Today discussion is related to Chiang Mai meeting. We discussed in details of bilateral proposals and ongoing processes. We also discussed NCA session No. 3 and 4 with bilateral common points of view for ceasefire. Through this meeting, we found various methods and solutions for peace process. This was a successful meeting.”

Efforts are made for working towards how to reach an agreement through discussions and finding ways to achieve progress and  success in the peace process that was being implemented, an official of KNU said.

General Secretary, KNU, Pado Saw Tar Do Mu said “This is the step for official peace meeting. In the peace processes, we need to coordinate and negotiate for bilateral assessments. So, we need the time and we are stepping to official peace meeting based on those facts. We really want peace. That’s why, we are finding solutions and ways for peace process through such kind of discussions.”

With the results of this meeting, officials planned to organize a meeting with 10 groups of Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) at NRPC in Yangon on 10th and 11th September.