A purported Rakhine national-level political dialogue which was not officially permitted by the Myanmar government was held in Mae Sot, Thailand and attended by nearly 90 delegates.
This dialogue was led and organized by Arakan National Council (ANC) which is a member organization of United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) from June 8 to 12.
ANC General Secretary Tun Zaw told RiA, “We held this meeting with the intention of complementing the formal process with this informal process. So we will carry forward the results from this meeting to the next step.”
This political dialogue meeting was attended by almost all Rakhine organizations namely Arakan Liberation Party/Arakan Liberation Army (ALP/ALA), Arakan National Council (ANC), Rakhine National Party (RNP), Rakhine Patriotic Party, ethnic Rakhine tribes of Mro, Khami, Dainet and other political parties KNDP, MNDP and MNP except United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) and political party Arakan League for Democracy (ALD).
The organizing committee of this political dialogue meeting said that 81 delegates of Legal Aid groups, CSOs on natural resources and environmental affairs, CBOs of human rights and 7 observers attended the meeting.
ANC General Secretary Tun Zaw said that the delegates agreed to change the name of ‘Rakhine State’ to ‘Rakhine Nation’ at this meeting as they believed it would mean establishing the Federal Democratic Union by constituting independent Nations at their free will.
“We are currently in the form of bogus union in the current status. We want to build a genuine federal union. In our understanding, genuine federal union means constituted by independent nations of diverse ethnic nationalities. Our Rakhine Nation will be in this federal union. Union means building with constituents of independent nations,” ANC General Secretary Tun Zaw said.