NCCT and UPWC Meet at Myanmar Peace Center, Rangoon

 The Ethnic Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) led by Deputy Leader-1 of NCCT and KNU General Secretary P’doh Saw Kwe Htoo Win and the government’s Union Peace-Making Working Committee (UPWC) led by Minister of the President’s Office of Burma/Myanmar and Vice-Chairman of UPWC Minister U Aung Min, successfully completed another round of negotiations on the Nationwide Ceasefire Draft Document from 21-23 May 2014 at the Myanmar Peace Center, Rangoon.

During the meeting, NCCT and UPWC continued to negotiate on the seven chapters of the Nationwide Ceasefire Draft Document. They openly discussed and negotiated resulting in the second single text draft document of the Nationwide Ceasefire at the end of the 3 days.

Hluttaw representative U Thein Zaw said “We are building understanding and empathy, and learning about each other’s situation by negotiating the texts related to the Nationwide Ceasefire document. By gaining understanding and building trust with each other, this is a positive image for Burma’s future”.

Additionally, P’doh Saw Kwe Htoo Win said “As the ceasefire negotiations have taken time the suspicions of the people on the Peace Process is a weight on both of us, therefore we must strive to fulfill the will of the people”.

NCCT does not have a full mandate to negotiate on policy levels, however they were able to negotiate some of the wording and content that had stalled the document. Now NCCT will submit the agreed second draft and an analysis paper to their respective leaders. The ethnic leaders will then decide on the content and policy level before NCCT and UPWC meet again.

Both sides agreed to another meeting in June 2014 at MPC, Rangoon.