August 6: New Mon State Party, an ethnic ceasefire group which attended the National Convention in Burma, has criticised the Convention for lack of level playing field.

NMSP Secretary General Naing Han Tha told the BBC Burmese Service that the delegates for elected representatives and ethnic groups were outnumbered by those handpicked by the military government.

‘Talking about situation of eligible delegates- some organisations, which should have been there, are not there- and the truly representative ethnic delegates and elected representatives are minority but the delegates representing the military government are the majority at the National
Convention, and I think it is somehow lack of fairness’, says Naing Han Tha.

Talking about situation of eligible delegates- some organisations, which should have been there, are not there- and the truly representative ethnic delegates and elected representatives are minority group but the delegates
representing the military government are the majority at the National Convention, and I think it is somehow lack of fairness.

Naing Han Tha also said their proposals for a genuine (federal) union were rejected by the convention convening authorities.

‘The proposals rejected by the Convention Convening authorities are mainly symbolic features of a federal union and a guarantee for rightful powers and jurisdictions for the states. Rejecting these proposals is not very good for us, it is a little bit of deviation from forming a (federal) union’, Naing Han Tha says in a BBC interview.

Thirteen ethnic groups collectively submitted a proposal which asked for self-determination in their respective regions during the National Convention which had started in May 2004.

The National Convention has taken a break since 9 July and the official reason for the recess is to give some time for the Convention Convening authorities to compile the various proposals and write up the principles based on majority.

New Mon State Party is the largest Mon armed group, which had been fighting self-determination for Mon people in Burma for many decades.

It has reached cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military government in 1995.