Shan state-East border guard force formed in Myanmar
Shan state-East border guard force formed in Myanmar
YANGON (Xinhua) — An ethnic border guard force representing Myanmar’s Shan state-East has been formed by the government under its command, according to the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar Wednesday.
The Shan state-East Special Region-4 (Mongla) is an area where National Democratic Alliance Force, one of the 17 former anti- government ethnic armed groups, was resettled after it returned to the government’s legal fold in June 1989.
The Shan state-East border guard force stands the fourth of its kind transformed from ethnic peace groups by the government after New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) in Kachin State Special Region- 1 and Kayinni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF) in Kayah State Special Region-2 on Nov. 10 and the Kokang Army in Shan State (North) Special Region-1 in the northeast of the country on Dec. 4 last year.
A ceremony was held in Tachilek, Shan state-East on Tuesday to mark the transformation to the frontier forces, attended by Lieutenant-General Ye Myint, of the Ministry of Defense and Chairman of Shan State-East Peace and Development Council and Commander of Triangle Region Command Major-General Kyaw Phyo as well as other local senior military officers and local inhabitants totalling about 1,400, the report said.
Transformation of ethnic peace groups into frontier forces is being carried out by the government in accordance with the 2008 new state constitution which prescribes that all the armed forces in the union shall be under the command of the Defense Services in the light of upcoming general election this year.
The NDA-K, led by Sakhone Ting Ying, ceased fire with the government in December 1989, while the KNPLF in May 1994 and The Kokang ethnic army in March 1989.
Since the present government came to power in late 1988, 17 anti-government major ethnic armed groups and over 20 small groups were claimed to have returned to the legal fold by signing respective ceasefire agreements with the government.
Some of the armed groups were resettled with special regions with arms retained, conditionally enjoying self-administration.
Under the government’s fifth step of its seven-step roadmap announced in 2003, a multi-party democracy general election is to be held this year to produce parliament representatives and form a new “civilian” government to which the state power is said to be transferred.
Editor: Xiong Tong
English.news.cn 2010-05-19 11:21:36
News Related Posts
Short URL: http://www.siamdailynews.com/?p=32660
Posted by Siam Daily News
on Jun 15 2010. Filed under Asia.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
