Statement on New Mon State Party’s Stand on the All-inclusive Policy

Statement by 22 Mon organisations | October 12, 2015

We, Mon communities in overseas, strongly support the New Mon State Party (NMSP) on its all-inclusive policy in signing the Nationwide Cease-fire Agreement (NCA).

On September 25, 2015, U Aung Min, Vice Chairman of Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC) visited Mon State and met with the Chairman of NMSP, Nai Htaw Mon, to urge the NMSP to sign the NCA. However, at the Ethnic Summit held in Chiang Mai on September 28-30, 201, the NMSP stands firmly on the all-inclusive policy and decided along with nine other Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) not to sign the NCA.

The NMSP believes that any forms of NCA that do not include all EAOs will not bring a genuine peace in the country. The NMSP has made the right decision because the government has singled out some EAOs and continue to launch military offensives against them. A nationwide cease-fire cannot be achieved unless all EAOs are allowed to sign the NCA and all military offensives against any EAOs are utterly stopped.

Burma has never been a peaceful country since it gained independence from the British in 1948. Successive Burmese governments have been waging wars against EAOs for over 60 years and have never genuinely attempted to reach cease-fire with all EAOs. Instead, the governments have used the ‘divide and rule’ policy in which the governments sign cease-fire agreements with some groups and continue fighting with the others. For instance, previous Burmese military government signed cease-fire agreements with a number of EAOs between 1989 and 2010 but refused to sign the agreements with the Karen National Union (KNU) and Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS).

U Thein Sein’s government, after it came to power in 2010, quickly reached a cease-fire agreement with the KNU and RCSS but resumed fighting with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and other EAOs in northern part of the country. In an intensified effort to reach a nationwide cease-fire, seventeen EAOs formed the Nationwide Cease-fire Coordination Committee (NCCT) in 2013. The NCCT negotiated with the government in the past 17 months to reach a draft agreement. When the two sides were ready to sign the agreement, however, the government allowed only eleven of NCCT members to join the NCA and excluded the other six. And, government’s troops are presently fighting against three of those six EAOs. Truly, allowing only part of the NCCT to join the NCA is another act of ‘divide and rule’ employed by the Burmese government. Unless there is an inclusive nationwide cease-fire agreement followed by inclusive political dialogue, Burma cannot end an over-six-decade long civil war and achieve a lasting peace.

Therefore, we come together and strongly urge

The NMSP to continue to stand firm on the all-inclusive policy and continue to take the leadership role for bringing a genuine peace to the whole country,

All Mon people living both inside and outside Burma to be united in supporting the NMSP in case Burmese government pressures the NMSP politically and/or militarily,

All political parties and civil society organizations in Burma and international community to fully support an inclusive nationwide cease-fire agreement followed by inclusive political dialogue.

This statement is jointly issued by