Briefs

 

The six-party talks will materialise before the 2015 general elections, said Union parliament speaker Thura Shwe Mann. 

He told reporters that the talks would be hosted as soon as the necessary framework has been coordinated. He insisted that President Thein Sein welcomed the talks, despite some disagreements on the detail. 

Parliament voted to hold the negotiation late last year. 

 

 

NLD forms central election committee 

National League for Democracy (NLD) has formed a central committee tasked to lead the party toward victory in the upcoming election.

NLD patron Tin Oo will chair the committee. Maung Maung Oo, a central executive committee member, will serve as secretary.

“We already formed the central committee for winning elections. Its first meeting has not been held yet. It is too early to say when it will be,” Secretary Maung Maung Oo said.

The party won 392 of 492 parliamentary seats in the 1990 general election, whose results were not recognised.  It participated in the 2012 by-elections and won 43 of 45 seats. The party did not win any seat in Shan State.  

 

 

Kachin teachers not killed by local youth: Police 

Police officers and the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) have denied a report published by the Tomorrow Weekly journal that the perpetrator of the rape and murder of two Kachin teachers is a young man from the village where the crimes occurred.

The journal said 10 civilians underwent DNA tests and that the DNA of Mar Tee, who lived near the slain teachers’ house, matches the DNA of the murderer. 

The journal reported that Mar Tee is now on the run and is alleged to be hiding with Kachin Independence Army Unit 36. The journal did not cite any specific sources for this claim. 

The head of the Muse District Police Force flatly denied the news. 

KBC member Zaung Yar also dismissed the report, quoting police officials as saying that no information about DNA results was released. 

In a recent interview with state-run Myanmar Radio and Television, Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Ko Ko said hair samples and blood-stained clothes of the two slain teachers had been sent to a lab. He added that two of the local suspects whose DNA was tested fled and are assumed to hiding in KIA-control areas. 

Maran Lu Ra and Hkawn Nan Tsin, two young female teachers volunteering with the KBC were raped and killed in Kaungkhar village, Pan Sai Township, Muse District, in northern Shan State on the night of January 19.