Proposal for Forming an Ethnic Nationalities United Front

Submitted to the Ethnic Nationalities Seminar , Minnesota , United States of America

By

Monland Restoration Council

(August 12-15, 2006)

Introduction

  We, the Monland Restoration Council (MRC) thank you for the opportunity to submit our proposal for forming a united front of ethnic nationalities of Burma at this seminar.

It is time for all of us to come together and speak with one voice. It is time for us to show our unity in fighting our common enemy, the Burmese military regime.  Since all of ethnic nationalities are under the oppression of the chauvinist Burmese military junta, we believe we have a common goal to fight against the Burmese regime to regain our rights to live in peace, freedom, and democracy.  It is important that we all make clear and agree upon our common goals. Otherwise, there would be misunderstanding among us as well as confusing for others who want to support our causes.

For all ethnic nationalities to work together toward our common goals, we need to build trust and unity among us. In talking about unity, we mean a true unity that will lead us to accomplish our common tasks. Otherwise, our efforts would not bear any fruits.  Therefore, we would like to urge all representatives attending this Seminar to find a way to gain a true unity among us.

Forming an Ethnic Nationalities Organization of Burma in North America .

  As we all know, Burma is lack of equal rights for all ethnic nationalities. Because of no equal rights between Burman and non-Burman, Burma has been in civil war for more than five decades. Once, General Aung San said, "If Burman gets one kyat so does non Burman." If his words were realized, there would not have been civil war in Burma . The successive Burmese military regimes have imposed Burmanization policy on our non-Burman ethnic nationalities and committed various human rights violations against our ethnic peoples.  Therefore, we must work together to bring these policies and practices to an end. In other words, we need to form a united ethnic nationalities organization to fight  our common enemy. Unified ethnic nationalities' organizations have already been formed in Thailand-Burma border areas as well as inside Burma .  While the Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) was formed at the Thailand-Burma border, the United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD) was formed inside Burma . These two organizations have been working hard for the cause of ethnic nationalities.  In order to effectively support their efforts and take our parts in the struggle for freedom and democracy, we believe that all ethnic nationalities of Burma in North America should form a united front. Therefore, we have proposed a basic framework of the organization below.

Our belief

We believe in non-violence path in our struggle for human rights, democracy, and self-determination rights in Burma . The peace in the country can be achieved only when democracy and ethnic nationalities rights are restored.  

  Our Goals

1. To achieve and maintain unity among all ethnic nationalities

2. To establish a genuine democratic federal union that guarantees equal rights for all ethnic nationalities.

  Short-term objectives

1. To register the organization to the U.S. or Canadian government as a non-profit  

    organization

2. To open a website to publish the activities of the ethnic nationalities in North America  

3. To open an office in the US or Canada

4. To appoint ethnic nationalities representatives to the UN.

Long-term objectives

1. To abolish military rules in Burma
2. To establish a genuine democratic federal union
3. To strengthen unity among ethnic nationalities
4. To find solutions to problems that may occur among ethnic nationalities.

Forming a working committee

In order to achieve the above stated goals and objectives, we should form a working committee. The committee members should be selected based on nationality rather than organization.             For example, only five representatives (maximum) from each ethnic nationality should be allowed to serve on the committee regardless of the numbers of different organizations formed by each nationality.

Conclusion

We believe that we can end the Burmese military junta chauvinism only by the strength of unity. We will definitely achieve our goals and will be able to bring long lasting peace and stability in Burma if we are united.

Therefore, let’s build the unity among us.

Monland Restoration Council  ( USA ).