PEACE Info (August 29-31, 2020)

PEACE Info (August 29-31, 2020) − Baby steps to a democratic federal union − Villagers Demand Justice For Army’s Killing of Civilian − Man shot dead and woman killed in artillery strike, three other women wounded, as COVID ravages Rakhine − Myanmar’s Military Blamed for Two Rakhine Civilian Deaths − Locals Object to Confiscation of Their Land to Build Hydropower Plant Housing − 8.8 kg of heroin seized in Myanmar's central region − Myanmar blocks website of rights group critical of Tatmadaw − ဗ��လ�ခ��ပ��က��ယ�က�စစ�၏ �န�ပည��တ��ခရ��စ��သည�ဖက�ဒရယ�တည��ဆ�က��ရ�အတ�က� အ�ထ�က�အက��ဖစ�ဟ� RCSS ဆ�� − ၂၁ ရ�စ�ပင�လ�ံ စတ�တ�က �ပ��ခ��တ�� ည�လ�ခံ�တ� ထက� ပ��ထ��ခ��တယ� − KNU အ�ထ��ထ�အတ�င��ရ�မ��-၂ �ဟ�င�� ပဒ��မန��မန��မန��င�� တ��ဆ�ံ�မ��မန��ခ�က� − သ��ဖစ�သ� AA ထ��ရ�က��နလ�� က��က��ဖ�အမတ��လ�င�� အမည�စ�ရင��က�န ပယ�ခ�ခံရ − တပ�မ�တ��တ�င� ဗ��လ�မ��တ�ဝန�ထမ��ဆ�င�ခ��ပ�� AA အဖ��သ�� ရ�က�ရ��သ��ခင��က�င�� ၎င��၏ဖခင��ဖစ�သ� လက�ရ�� ရခ��င��ပည�နယ� လ�တ��တ��က��ယ�စ��လ�ယ�အ�� ၂၀၂၀ �ရ��က�က�ပ��ဝင��ရ�က�မည�� က��ယ�စ��လ�ယ��လ�င��အ�ဖစ�မ� �ပည��ထ�င�စ��ရ��က�က�ပ��က��မရ�င� ပယ�ဖ�က� − အမ��မ ��နယ�၌ က��ယ�ထ�လက��ရ�က�က��လ�န�ခ��တ�� စစ�သည� ၁ ဦ�က�� အ�ရ�ယ�မည� − ကရင��ပည�နယ�မ�� တ��က�ခ��က�ခံရလ�� တပ�မ�တ��သ��တခ�� သဆ�ံ� − ပစ�သတ�ခံရ�သ� တပ�မ�တ��သ�� ၂ ဦ�၏ အ�လ�င��အ�� သယ�ယ�စ�� ဗ�ံ��ပ�က�၍ ၃ ဦ� ထပ�မံ�သဆ�ံ��ပ�� ၅ ဦ� ဒဏ�ရ�ရ − ရ�သ��တ�င� �စတ��ပင�ရ��သ��တစ�ဦ� ��ခ�ထ�က�က�� က�ည�ဆံထ�မ�န� − အသ��ပ�မ� အ��နည��သ�ဖင�� နရပ��ပန��ရ� ဆ�ံ��ဖတ�ရခက� ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 1 of 30 Baby steps to a democratic federal union Sai Wanna | 31 AUG 2020 Myanmar’s peace process has entered a crucial stage after the government and the 10 ethnic armed groups that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement signed a deal expected to pave the way to a more equitable and peaceful country. On August 21, government and ethnic armed group negotiators signed the Union Accord Part III during the fourth round of the Union Peace Conference - 21st Century Panglong. The accord outlined federal principles on power-sharing between the union and the states, resource sharing, tax collection and revenue sharing, the rights and duties of citizens, equality among citizens, legal protections, and protection of ethnic cultures. These were among the most difficult issues at previous sessions of the Panglong conference. Kings governed the country from ancient times. Then the British colonised and ruled Burma with an iron fist from 1824 until independence in 1948. When the British left, Prime Minister U Nu governed under the so-called “Buddhist socialism” system, until the Tatmadaw (military) seized power in 1962 and ruled for the next 53 years. Thirst for freedom and self-rule However, the Myanmar people have always longed for freedom and self-rule. The British and the military junta that succeeded them violently suppressed demands for independence and freedom but the Myanmar people’s desire and determination remained undimmed. The signing of the Union Accord Part III exemplifies this determination for self-government. “The outline of a federation has emerged,” said Naing Ma Ngay, a leader of the New Mon State party (NMSP), one of the groups participating in the negotiations. But he said there is a lot more to be done before the dream of a democratic federation can be realised. The Tatmadaw, which remains a powerful force in the government, remains wary of any sign of secession or independence from the union. Months before the fourth Panglong, negotiators agreed to include a provision in the accord that would allow ethnic groups to draft their own constitutions as long as they were in line with the 2008 Constitution. But a week before the talks, the Tatmadaw demanded that the word “state constitution” be replaced with “state law,” apparently to emphasise there is only one constitution in the country. U Salai Lian Mhone Sar Gaung, an expert in federalism, said there is no legal or political problem in including or excluding the word “constitution” in the provision. He cited the case of Germany, which uses “basic law” on the union level and “constitution” at the provincial level. He added that Switzerland has a different usage of the words. He said the problem will eventually be resolved in the talks. Page 2 of 30 India’s model Due to its tradition of authoritarian rule, the Tatmadaw is not likely to concede to demands for self-determination by ethnic groups. Until 2010, the junta banned the word “federal” from all negotiations. In 2014, during the military-backed administration of U Thein Sein, the word was again allowed in official discussions, such as the preliminary talks on peace negotiations and the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The Tatmadaw began looking for models of a federal system in the governments of India, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Switzerland and the United States, a member of the Tatmadaw negotiating team, who preferred to remain unidentified, said. Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seemed to favour India’s centralised federalism. India’s provinces do not have separate constitutions, and the Indian Constitution defines the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the Union government and state governments. The official said that while the Tatmadaw allowed the states to write their own constitutions, it still leans toward the Indian model. Ethnic people’s view Ethnic people want self-determination within the federal union, with as little interference as possible from the Union government, said Pado Saw Kwal Htoo Win, vice president of the Karen National Union (KNU). He argued that allowing the word “constitution” only at the union-level, and not on the state level, was a restriction on self-determination. “The word constitution is related to self-determination,” he said. “It is concerned with state sovereignty. If it just uses “state law,” it means we don’t get full self-determination.” According to ethnic people, the current geopolitical division gives ethnic Bamar an unfair advantage in both houses of the parliament. They said the country’s seven regions – Bago, Magwe, Tanintharyi, Mandalay, Yangon, Sagaing and Ayeyarwady – are dominated by the ethnic Bamar, who comprise 69 percent of the population. On the other hand, the country’s seven states – Mon, Kayah, Shan, Kayin, Kachin, Rakhine and Chin – are dominated by the major ethnic groups. U Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, said “Ethnic people want to be free from the central government’s control, but the Tatmadaw is worried that the country would shatter if they get their demand for full self-determination.” The middle ground After the Tatmadaw seized power in 1962, ethnic armed groups sprouted up across the country to fight for independence. Most of the ethnic armed groups that have signed the Page 3 of 30 NCA, which the military requires before they can join the national peace process, have shifted their goal to self-determination. In her speech at the fourth Panglong conference, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the peace process is weighed down by distrust caused by over 70 years of fighting. “It’s because of the worries of both sides,” she said. “You can clearly see the doubt and lack of trust.” She said that although the Union Accord Part III had failed to guarantee the self- determination of ethnic people, it was able to make progress toward a multi-party democracy and a federal system, with decentralisation of authority, budget and taxes. “The accord laid down the principles that the ethnic people have been wanting for many years but had never realised,” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said. In her closing statement at the conference, she urged the negotiators to continue talking until there was more trust between them. “I urge our organisations to keep trying to find ways to move the peace process forward regardless of the problems we face after 2020,” she said. The journey to a democratic federation is long, the State Counsellor said. “The only requirement of the peace process is to keep discussing, despite the worries and doubts caused by our history.” - Translated https://www.mmtimes.com/news/baby-steps-democratic-federal-union.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Villagers Demand Justice For Army’s Killing of Civilian By SENG PHOO - August 29, 2020 Photo by Kyautme Youth More than 10000 local people protested the Burma Army in Kyaukme northern Shan State on 10 July 2020 Residents of Kyaukme Township are demanding justice for the killing of a civilian shot dead by the Burma Army at the end of June when soldiers opened fire into a village in northern Shan State. A female civilian was also injured and soldiers beat another person several days before the killing, who required medical treatment for his injuries. Following a demonstration by about ten-thousand civilians in the town of Kyaukme to protest the attacks on villagers, the North-Eastern Military Command and Kyaukme Township general administration officer opened an investigation on July 15 into the shooting death of Lone Hsu in the village of Pan Kyan, located in Hai Kwee village-tract.

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