More than 170 anti-junta resistance groups from Sagaing Region have agreed to organize an inclusive and integrated political body to lead the region in military and political affairs, following a two-day conference held this week.
The first Sagaing Regional Forum, which was held on May 30 and 31, was attended by 173 of over 200 people’s resistance groups in Sagaing Region, along with 31 observers.
The forum discussed the political, military, administrative, and general sectors. The general sector includes people’s strikes against the junta, the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), resource issues, rescue efforts, and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Attendees also discussed forming a consultative council or body for Sagaing that would be integrated and comprise all the political and armed resistance stakeholders who are fighting against the military dictatorship in the region, according to a statement released after the conference.
Participants said the forum is a first step toward creating an integrated political body in Sagaing, namely the Sagaing Region Consultative Council, in accordance with the Federal Democracy Charter drafted by the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC)—an alliance of pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed organizations.
“The consultative council or body shall lead the region in the bid to end military dictatorship and all different types of dictatorship, and for the region to have self-determination and self-administration, then to participate in the attempt to build a federal democracy system in the country,” the Sagaing Forum statement reads.
Ko Nway Oo, the spokesperson of the Civilian Defense & Security Organization of Myaung (CDSOM), said most of the various organizations and actors on the ground want to see a consultative council for Sagaing Region established.
He explained that if representatives and actors from all the various sectors could get together and collectively organize such a council, it could help bring about self-determination for the region in the future.
“And, not only that, we would be able to organize better military operations against the junta and other tasks, whether it’s supporting and protecting the local residents, or the IDPs or CDM participants, with common agreements,” Ko Nway Oo, who also served as the spokesperson of the forum, explained.
Interim consultative councils have already been created in other areas, states and regions, including the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC), Karenni State Consultative Council (KSCC), Mon State Federal Council (MSFC), Ta’ang Political Consultative Council (TPCC), Ayeyarwady Federal Council and Pa-O National Federal Council (PNFC).
In a formal message to the forum, the Karen National Union (KNU) urged revolutionary and resistance stakeholders in Sagaing to use the forum to hold a step-by-step discussion that would lead to the establishment of Sagaing Region as a federal unit in the future.
“The KNU expects Sagaing Region to be able to comprise a federal unit in the process of building a new Federal Union,” the KNU said in a letter to the forum.
The organizers of the forum said they hope to hold a second round of the forum as soon as possible, as not all stakeholders were able to attend the first round.
The forum received encouraging letters from the National Unity Government (NUG), NUCC, and dozens of other political and revolutionary bodies, including ethnic armed groups.
