Ex-NLD MPs sent an open letter to General Than Shwe

DVB (August 19,2003)

Twenty MPs dismissed from NLD party sent open letter to SPDC Chairman Sr Gen Than Shwe to form interim government.

The letter, dated 7 August, contained seven points and the main point is to form an interim government as soon as possible.

The letter suggested those that should be in the interim government are persons selected by the military government, political party representatives from the CRPP (Committee Representing People's Parliament), and ethnic national leaders who signed ceasefire agreements.

All political parties should be allowed to be members of the CRPP, urges the letter.

Moreover the military and the CRPP should jointly find means to allow all armed groups that have not signed cease-fire agreements to participate in the interim administration, the letter suggested.

The letter also proposed that the three tasks of the interim government should be
- to release all the political prisoners immediately
- to grant amnesty for all the atrocities committed by the military government in the past 15 years, and
- to convene a peoples' assembly based on the results of the 1990 elections.

The letter was posted to SPDC Chairman Sr Gen Than Shwe and copies were also sent to National League for Democracy (NLD), Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), National Unity Party (NUP), and the other seven legally-standing political parties.

A representative from an ethnic national party told the DVB that it hasn’t received the letter and it is assumed that it was confiscated by the postal authority but the contents of the letter were informed to them by phone.

The signatories to the letter on behalf of the expelled 20 NLD MPs :
- Daw Khin Aye Myint, the MP of Yankin Township, Rangoon Division
- U Kyi Win the MP of No.1, Mingaladon Township, Rangoon Division
- U Tin Tun Maung the MP of No.2 Mingladon Township in Rangoon
- U Than Tun, the MP of No.2, Daydayae Township in Irrawaddy Division
- U Tin Win the MP of No.2, Kyaiklat Township, Irrawaddy Division
- U Tun Shwe the MP of No.2, Moenyo Township, Pegu Division.

We have reported that a meeting was held at Daw Khin Win Myint’s house on the 1st of August to discuss this matter, but it was not known then that the MPs were going to send a letter thus but it was rumoured that the MPs were having a meeting for anti-Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD activities.

The observers on Burmese politics are surprised by the MPs’ change of tactic from being anti-Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD to anti-military government.

The observers are at the same time puzzled by the exclusion of the demands for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the enquiry into Dipeyin incident.

On the other hand, they are also questioning the timing of the MPs’ action as the letter comes out almost at the same time as that of Thailand’s road map proposal.