Police were deployed at Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar on September 1, 2017 (Source: AFP/VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Myanmar government on February 11 declared two ethnic armed groups to be non-terrorist organisations, according to the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
This means the two groups, namely the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU), were removed from the list of unlawful organisations in Myanmar.
The declaration came when the government is scheduled to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) with the two armed groups in Nay Pyi Taw on February 13.
As members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), the NMSP and LDU will be the first two armed groups to sign the NCA with the incumbent government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), bringing the total of such signatories to 10 since the first signing on October 15, 2015.
Myanmar’s incumbent government has held the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference twice in August 2016 and May 2017.
At the second conference, the government and ethnic armed groups agreed on 37 principles for future peaceful dialogues.-VNA
VNA
