Several armed ethnic groups that have signed ceasefire deals with Burma’s military government are reconsidering their participation in the constitution drafting National Convention because of the military shakeup in Rangoon yesterday, said ethnic leaders on Wednesday.

The National Convention, which began in May and adjourned indefinitely in July, is one of seven points laid out in Burma?s road map for political reform, which was announced by then Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt on August 30, 2003.

But with Khin Nyunt dumped as prime minister yesterday, several ceasefire groups are reviewing their decisions to attend the convention – if it reconvenes.

Khin Nyunt is also the architect of most of the government’s ceasefire agreements, reached with about 17 ethnic armed groups since 1989.

“Our decision [to attend the convention] is still just fifty-fifty” said a spokesperson for the New Democratic Army-Kachin, or NDA-K, by telephone from Kachin State, requesting anonymity. The NDA-K agreed to stop fighting
the government in December 1989. “So we can’t say exactly at the moment if we will attend the convention.”

A spokesperson, who wished not to be named, from the New Mon State Party, or NMSP, which agreed to a ceasefire in June 1995, expressed reservations over the purge of government officers associated with the Office of the
Chief of Military Intelligence. “In principle, we must attend the
convention, but if the political situation doesn’t improve we may not attend.”

The General Secretary of the Kachin Independence Organization, or KIO, was more optimistic that the convention would move forward, no matter who is Burma’s prime minister.

“Even though he [Gen Khin Nyunt] was suspended from his post, we did not make a ceasefire agreement with him alone,” said Col Gunhtang Gam Shawng by telephone from the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina.

A 16-member delegation from the Karen National Union, Burma’s oldest and largest ethnic insurgency group, was in Rangoon for ceasefire negotiations when the government purge occurred. They were briefly detained at the government guesthouse where they were staying last night, news agencies reported.

Mahn Sha, the KNU’s general secretary, however, denied that the delegation had been detained. “The KNU met with the junta and informally discussed the ceasefire,” he said by telephone from Mae Sot this afternoon. “This is [the government's] internal problem and we are considering what effects these events will have on the future of the country.”

Other KNU sources said today that the delegates left the Burmese capital Tuesday afternoon and that they will spend the night in the Karen State capital of Pa-an, before returning to their headquarters tomorrow.

The delegation left on Monday from their headquarters near Mae Sot, a Thai town on Burma border, and were scheduled to stay for 10 days to complete the fourth round of ceasefire talks, which began late last year.