A five-day Union Peace Conference (UPC) underway at Nay Pyi Taw, capital of Myanmar, entered fourth day on Friday with representatives from seven stakeholder groups discussing five topics. In today’s session, questions raised on the third day were replied to and individual presentations were made.
Representatives from the respective stakeholder groups prepared papers for submission on the final day of the conference.
Three representatives each will be chosen for the submission of papers on each of the agenda items to the conference, Myanmar News Agency quoted its sources as saying on Friday.
Stakeholder groups of the government and the Parliament are set to send two representatives each while the Tatmadaw, ethnic armed organisations and political parties are set to choose three for the submission of papers.
One representative each is set to represent stakeholder groups of ethnic minorities and other invitees.
It may be mentioned that NSCN (K), the only group that did not sign Nation-wide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), is attending the conference an observer.
Myanmar government, which signed the NCA with only eight out of over 20 ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) on October 15, 2015, also invited the EAOs which did not sign NCA to also attend the UPC, but only to audit the event as observers rather than as participants.
U Htun Zaw, general secretary (1) of United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) an alliance of EAOs founded in 2011, said: “In our UNFC, there are nine [non-signatory] ethnic armed groups.
But these groups won’t attend. This is because there won’t be anything special accomplished by the groups joining the conference; we will only be present there as special guests. We won’t get the chance to take part in the discussion and decision-making.”
Suu Kyi should clarify stance on peace process
A key signatory to a ceasefire brokered by outgoing President Thein Sein with some of Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups has expressed concern over lack of clarity from Aung San Suu Kyi and called on her to keep the team that struck the deal intact.
“We need to see the policy that she (Suu Kyi) will apply. We haven’t seen yet how she will apply a policy, so it is difficult to predict how she will run the peace process,” Lieutenant General Yawd Serk, chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), told Reuters on Thursday night.
Monday, April 13, 2026