PRESS CONFERENCE
Maran Laja, Saw David Tharckabaw, & Khun Okker
The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)

The speech and Q & A will be in English

The Democratization of Myanmar (Burma) and Achieving Peace with Ethnic Minorities

The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a coalition of Burma's eleven anti-government armed ethnic minorities, was established in February 2010 in order to achieve peace between the Burmese government and all minority groups, which means to bring into being a democratic, federated nation that guarantees the rights of minorities.

In Burma, the so-called "democratization" movement is progressing. But considering that more than 30% of Burma's population is made up of ethnic minorities, a just peace settlement between the government and all ethnic minorities is crucial to Burmese normalization.

The UNFC, as a coalition of eleven anti-government armed ethnic minorities, stands ready to engage in peace talks with the government. The talks, however, must be carried out in a format that assures both fairness and effectiveness

For this purpose, the UNFC will dispatch a special envoy group of three Central Executive Committee members to Tokyo from April 25 to take an intermediary role in the peace talks as a third party.

After the series of negotiations with the Japanese Government, Maran Laja, Central Executive Committee Member, UNFC / General Secretary, Kachin Independent Organization, Saw David Tharckabaw, Vice President, UNFC / Vice Chairman, Karen National Union and Khun Okker Joint Secretary, UNFC / Chairman, PaO National Liberation Organization will have the press conference at FCCJ to announce its peace talks policy and the results of negotiations with Japan

Saw David Tharckabaw, Vice President, UNFC

Khun Okker Joint Secretary, UNFC

Maran Laja, Central Executive Committee Member, UNFC