SCEF holds first formal talks with Arakan Army; Myanmar diaspora to block regime bid for seat at UN
SCEF holds first formal talks with Arakan Army leadership
The Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF)–Myanmar’s premier resistance coalition—announced on Sunday that it held formal talks with one of the country’s most powerful ethnic armed groups, the Arakan Army (AA), and its leader Commander-in-Chief Twan Mrat Naing, on July 23.
This marks the first publicly disclosed formal meeting between the SCEF and the AA. “At a time when the military is attempting to launch offensives across the country using local militias, it is important for revolutionary forces to unite,” a political analyst in Arakan State told DVB on condition of anonymity.
The meeting was led by rotating SCEF Chairperson Khu Oo Reh, who is from the Interim Executive Council (IEC) in Karenni State, and Prime Minister Mahn Win Khaing Than from the National Unity Government (NUG). Thousands of residents living in AA-controlled territory are struggling from a military blockade. Read more on our website
Myanmar diaspora to block regime bid for seat at UN
Members of the diaspora from Burma in the U.S. told DVB that “Retain Our U.N. Ambassador, H.E. U Kyaw Moe Tun for Myanmar” will be the name of the campaign to ensure that Kyaw Moe Tun retains his seat as Burma’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. at the upcoming 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in September, but it awaits approval from other global pro-democracy groups on Aug. 1.
Khin Thiri Nandar Soe, a prominent pro-democracy activist in the U.S., told DVB that organizers will take the campaign to cities across the country to stop a representative of the regime in Naypyidaw from replacing Kyaw Moe Tun at the U.N. She added that rallies will begin in August and end in September, culminating in a final “Day of Action” outside the U.N. headquarters in New York City on Sept. 19.
The nine-member U.N. Credentials Committee will decide whether Kyaw Moe Tun will maintain his post or be replaced at the UNGA, scheduled Sept. 8–22. Kyaw Moe Tun, a critic of the regime since the 2021 coup, was appointed as Permanent Representative to the U.N. in October 2020 under the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration before it was ousted in the 2021 coup.
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