Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) leader Hkun Htun Oo has returned to Kengtung yesterday, following a 3-day visit to Mongla, 80 km away on the Sino-Burmese border, according to sources in Kengtung.

Hkun Htun Oo, leading a 7 men delegation, which included General Secretary Sai Nood aka Sai Nyunt Lwin and Spokesman Sai Lake, and accompanied by 2 representatives from Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA). Sai Zoe, Liaison officer, Kengtung, and Sai Lu, liaison officer, Tachilek, arrived in Mongla on Friday, 7 December.

The group held a meeting with Sai Leun, Chairman, Mongla-based National Democratic Alliance Army, and Lt-Gen Hso Ten, patron, Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) and Maj-Gen Kherh Tai, Vice Chairman, SSPP/SSA, on Saturday, 8 December.

Details of the meeting are yet to be disclosed. However, the SNLD, known by its tiger head emblem, declared last month, following Shan conference in Rangoon, 26-28 November, that it was planning a conference with all movements in Shan State, both Shan and non-Shan.

The plan has already been approved by U Aung Min, Vice Chairman # 2, Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC), according to SNLD sources.

Hso Ten and Kherh Tai had undertaken the job of reporting on the meeting in Mongla to Wa leaders in Panghsang, another 5 hours drive north along the Sino-Burmese border, they said. So far, the United Wa State Army (UWSA) has not expressed much interest in forging relations with any groups other than the NDAA and the SSPP/SSA.

“But it knows it has to depend on politically-oriented groups to help pull itself out of the drug mess,” one SSPP/SSA officer told SHAN. “It can never hope to do it alone.”