To Hopeland and Back, the 24th trip
Day Three. Sunday, 11 December 2016
When you are fighting, you focus on who’s
wrong
But when you are making peace, you focus on what’s
wrong
Anonymous
Today, the main items of the meeting are as follows:
·
Better coordination among the signatories’ work bodies: PPST, CT, (EAOS)
JMC, (EAOS) UPDJC
·
Strategic review
·
Joint Coordination Body (JCB) for Peace Process Funding
·
Next EAOS summit
For the first item, a TOR
drafting had been formed which met on 3-4 December and drew up the attached
structure. It is approved by the meeting.
For the second item, a strategy drafting committee
is formed that is to meet on 17-19 December. Here, some of the participants’
views may be of interest:
·
The government, or rather the military, is better prepared. A White
Paper was issued in December 2015. The Podesta Group, the lobbying firm
co-founded by former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff, has been engaged. Its job,
according to Reason.com is to make “Ugly regimes look good.”
·
Nobody should be worried about the EAOS’s ultimate goal. It has already
been set by the NCA, Article 1a:
“Establish a union based on
the principles of democracy and federalism in accordance with the outcomes of
political dialogue and in the spirit of Panglong, that fully guarantees
democratic rights, national equality and the right to self-determination on the
basis of liberty, equality and justice while upholding the principles of
non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation
of national sovereignty.”
For the third item, the following nominees are
approved by the meeting:
Padoh Kwe Htoo Win KNU
Hkun Okker PNLO
Sai Laeng RCSS
Salai Thla Hei CNF
Yebaw Myo Win ABSDF
(as advisor)
For the 4th item, the organizers have to
be careful about the timing:
·
Most of January will be spent on national level political dialogue (ND)
·
31 January is the 68th anniversary of the Karen Revolution
·
7 February is the 70th anniversary of Shan National Day/Shan
State Day
·
12 February is the 20th anniversary of Panglong, and may
mark the beginning of the UPC#3 aka 21 CP#2.
The meeting also discusses the following topics:
·
To open an EAOS office in Chiangmai
·
To provide assistance to member of EAOs who are detained by government
authorities
·
To issue a statement urging government and non-signatories to engage
more in jaw-jawing than war-warring
The last chore of the day for me then is an
interview by the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppasala
University, Sweden.
The rest of the evening I spent packing my things
although there aren’t much to pack, except for the documents I have accumulated
during the past three days.
Tags: Opinion
