A delegation of representatives from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), is likely to attend the upcoming 21^st Century Panglong Conference, according to senior party officials. The conference is being convened by State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and is expected to be held at the end of August.

Reached for comment the SNLD’s General Secretary, Sai Nyunt Lwin, said that his party wasn't interested in attending a conference that would be run like previous conferences convened by the former military government. Sai Nyunt Lwin, however believes the new National League for Democracy (NLD) led government will act fairly because the NLD, like many ethnic organizations, was oppressed in the past.

The SNLD, which won 40 seats in Shan State in the last year's election, still has some concerns about the way the conference will be held by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s and how inclusive it will be, Sai Nyunt Lwin added. The Burma Forces’ Commander-in-Chief, Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing, told RFA last month that the military will do its best to cooperate with the staging of the 21^st Century Panglong Conference.

The inclusion of ethnic civil society organizations (CSOs) remains an issue for some groups as well. Although the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) has been invited to attend the conference, the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), which is a member organization of the WLB has not been itself invited to a civil society forum that will be held at the same time.

“The WLB, which comprises all Burmese women’s organizations, was invited but SWAN wasn’t invited separately. The WLB will participate in the CSO Conference, which will be held at the same time as the Panglong Conference. We will attend the Panglong Conference as part of AGIPP (Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process). The WLB will attend as a partner of the AGIPP,” said Ying Harn Fah, who serves as a WLB steering committee member and also as a SWAN spokesperson.

Since June 3, representatives from the 21^st Century Panglong Conference Preparatory Sub-Committee have been meeting with ethnic armed groups that did not sign last year's nationwide ceasefire agreement in preparation for including them in the conference. The preparatory sub-committee has so far not been able to meet with the Arakan Army (AA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

BY: Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)