By SOE THAN LYNN | FRONTIER
NAY PYI TAW — National League for Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has urged the convening of a 21st century Panglong Conference within the next two months to help broker an end to longstanding ethnic conflict in the country.
Joining the latest peace negotiations in Myanmar’s capital on Wednesday, her first appearance since the new government was sworn in at the end of March, Suu Kyi told government and ethnic representatives that securing a lasting peace was one of the new administration’s top priorities.
“We need sustainable peace in our country. There are many citizens of ours suffering each day due to the lack of peace,” she told the committee meeting at Nay Pyi Taw’s Horizon Lake View Hotel.
Suu Kyi used a speech to the Joint Monitoring Committee to invoke the historical memory of the Panglong Conference, a meeting held in Shan State in 1947 and attended by her father, independence hero General Aung San, who negotiated an agreement for a multi-ethnic and unified Myanmar upon the withdrawal of the British colonial administration.
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She added that both the government and ethnic armed groups would need to compromise in order to secure a durable political settlement.
“I always urge, when you do a job, there is give and take. It can be more productive if every one of us considers what we can give. It will be more difficult if you consider what you can take.”
