The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) is planning to form a new administration team to unite ethnic groups in the state and its surrounding regions, the party’s vice secretary Aung San Myint has said.
The new team will bring together the Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC), which was formed in the wake of last year’s coup to unite local political forces, with ethnic armed organisations in the area.
“We are planning to form an administration team with the ethnic armed organisations in the area, their administration departments and the KSCC’s administration team after writing an interim plan,” said Aung San Myint.
“The government mechanisms of ethnic revolutionary forces have been in existence for 70 years,” he added. “We are not planning to form a government mechanism for each of the groups, but instead we are going to negotiate with all the involved parties to integrate all of their government mechanisms into a single mechanism of the KSCC.”
The KNPP criticised the underground National Unity Government (NUG) for announcing plans on April 24 to reform its administrative processes without properly consulting ethnic groups.
The KSCC includes the Kayah State Democratic Party (KYSDP), the Kayan National Party (KNP), the National League for Democracy (NLD), five ethnic armed organisations, and the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force, an armed group formed after the coup.
Groups operating under the NUG and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) have not joined the KSCC.
The military council’s governance mechanisms in Karenni State are failing and only the KSCC is serving the public, said Aung San Myint.
“People need to know what’s actually happening here. Towns and villages were destroyed in Karenni, entire townships and villages have been emptied out and the civilians are staying at IDP camps,” he said.
“These IDP camps are inside our territories and we are providing food, shelter and security for the public at the moment,” he added.
The new administration team will cover all of Karenni territory, which includes several regions of southern Shan and northern Karen states and areas around Naypyitaw, he added. The team would only be an interim organisation, he said.
“We need to have accountability and transparency in order to call ourselves a government,” he said. “It is impossible to form a complete government amidst all the battles that have been going on.”
Lwin Ko Latt, the NUG’s minister of home affairs, did not return calls from Myanmar Now seeking comment.
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