Myanmar drafts dialogue framework under 10 points

Myanmar was drafting a framework for political dialogue between the government and ethnic armed groups under 10 points at the Myanmar Peace Centre here, an official report said on Sunday.

The 10 points were being discussed at a four-day meeting of a special dialogue framework drafting committee of the tripartite Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) which began on Friday, Xinhua reported.

The points include the framework's basic principles, representation and participation of stakeholders in political dialogue, a decision making method, management of political dialogue, signing of union agreement and the implementation process, said the Myanmar Peace Centre.

The drafting committee meeting is set to run till next Tuesday.

The UPDJC involves more than a dozen each representatives from the government, ethnic armed groups and political parties.

The framework is expected to be set up by December 14 in accordance with the timeline of the ceasefire term and the first round of formal dialogue targets to start before January 14, 2016.

Prior to the formation of the tripartite UPDJC, a union-level Joint Cease fire Monitoring Committee (JCMC) was also formed in order to implement the Nationwide Cease fire Accord (NCA) signed by the government and eight ethnic armed groups on October 15.

Under the NCA, the two sides agreed on some post-ceasefire steps for adherence by both sides and the unfinished peace process includes bringing in seven non-ceasefire-signatory groups to complete the truce signing process.

The two sides were set to draw up a political framework within 60 days after the formal NCA signing and start a political dialogue within 90 days.