Soon one year NCA: Not all smiles, but not all frowns either
Less than a month from now, the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire
Agreement (NCA) will be one year old. Whether more EAOs (ethnic armed
organizations) will follow suit this year will partly rest on the progress
report by both the government and the 8 EAOs that had affixed their names to
the 7 chapter - 33 articles treaty.
So far there are
no reports about a combined statement by the signatories. But, one of them, the
Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), is already
preparing one.
The following is
a summary from it.
Right after the signing, the Joint Implementation
Coordination Meeting (JICM) was called, as required by the NCA (Article 21 a),
to form the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JMC) that deals with military
matters, and the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) that deals with
political matters. Terms of Reference (ToR) for all three bodies were drafted
and approved.
Other
requirements that had to be fulfilled by the signatories were:
·
Military Code of Conduct (CoC)
within 30 days of the signing (Article11)
·
Framework for Political
Dialogue (FPD) within 60 days of the signing (Article 20b)
·
Political Dialogue (PD) within
90 days of the signing (Article 21 c)
·
Accordingly, the first Union
Peace Conference (UPC) #1 was held, 11-16 January 2016, followed by UPC#2, also
known as 21st Century Panglong, 31 August -3 September 2016
·
Also, as stipulated by Article
26, the NCA was submitted to the Union legislature and ratified without dissent
on 8 December
In addition, the
signatory EAOs retain the right to bear arms and defend their people and areas
(Chapter 3) and are exempted from the notorious Unlawful Association Act (UAA)
which bans people from working with the EAOs (Article 24).
Other than those
enumerated above, the RCSS that had signed 3 bilateral agreements also enjoys
other dues which include:
·
Setting up of liaison offices
in 7 major towns: (Mongton, Tachilek, Kengtung, Mongpan, Kholam, Taunggyi, and
Muse)
·
Freedom to hold public
consultations and meetings with political parties and CSOs
The outcome was
the founding of the Committee for Shan State Unity (CSSU), a joint effort by
two main political parties and two main EAOS of Shan State: Shan Nationalities
Democratic Party (SNDP), Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), Shan
State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) and RCSS/SSA, in 2013.
Its main aim is
to represent the common concerns and wishes of Shan State during the peace
negotiations.
For the people
at the ground level, the immediate blessings are: no more fleeing their
villages, no more forced portering and significant reduction in the number of
rights abuses. “Since the signing, there has been only 5 clashes,” states the
draft. “Which means we still have a lot of work to do before complete ceasefire
is achieved.”
The work
includes demarcation, demining, expansion of network with CSOs, increased
funding, setting up of a joint interim arrangement body which will deal with
matters related to development and security in the EAO areas, such as health,
education, environmental conservation, promotion of ethnic culture, language
and literature, maintenance of rule of law, receiving aid from donor agencies
and eradication of drugs (Article 25).
As to be
expected, there are grievances too:
·
The unwanted fighting with the
Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) since November, which has the potential
to blow up into communal strife
· No economic development
programs being implemented. “The government appears to be worried that if we
become self-supportive, we, like the KIO (Kachin Independence Organization) and
the UWSA (United Wa State Army), would be just as difficult to negotiate,”
comments one of the RCSS top leaders
· Different interpretations of
both bilateral agreements and the NCA. “For example, the Tatmadaw believes all
our troops should regroup and remain inside Homong and Monghta sub-townships,”
explains a commander. “But, according to our understanding, the two said
sub-townships are only for establishing RCSS administrative centers.”
·
Little cooperation between the
two sides against illicit drugs. The two had signed an agreement in October
2012, but so far no implementation,
The result is that there is still a serious lack of trust between
the two sides, which had fought several major campaigns in the past.
The best way to
build trust is to be trustworthy, say experts. But there are other ways too,
like meeting not only formally but also informally. Many of us know the NCA was
signed after 9 formal meetings, but few of us realize they were complemented by
hundreds of informal ones. Taking a cue from that it is likely we may need
thousands of informal meetings before we can sign the Union Accord.
Happy Birthday,
NCA!
Tags: Opinion
