Ethnic leaders joining The Lady to meet Clinton tomorrow

Shan Herald 

According to Shan sources in Rangoon, the schedule for visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet the Shans at their community temple tomorrow has been changed to a joint meeting at Aung San Suu Kyi’s home.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walks from airplane upon arrival in Naypyitaw (Photo: Saul Loeb/AP)

The meeting will be at 08:30 and joined by U Win Tin, the National League for Democracy’s elder, and 4 other representatives from the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP). The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) will be represented by Sai Saw Aung, an executive member of its secretariat.

The venue will then move to Beithano (Vishnu) Art Gallery.

Asked what message the SNLD has for Mrs Clinton, Sai Lake, Spokesperson for the party, said Sai Saw Aung is expected to deliver a 3 point memo:

• Despite cosmetic changes, most of the political prisoners are yet to be released including the SNLD leader Hkun Tun Oo
• The people in the countryside, especially in the border states, are still reeling under civil war and human rights violations
• More and more youth are involved in drug abuse

“Military and legal actions and crop substitution programs are not sufficient to do away with the problem,” said Sai Lake. “We need a non-military (meaning political) solution.”

The Thein Sein government, in the meanwhile, has been holding peace talks with several ethnic armed movements. So far, it has signed new ceasefire agreements with 3 of them: the United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which has surprised no one, as none of them are known to be politically active