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tPeace Conference Offered Myanmar Great Promise, but Huge Obstacles Remain
Joshua Kurlantzick
Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016
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Myanmar's foreign minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, during the Union Peace Conference—21st Century Panglong, Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Sept. 3, 2016 (AP photo by Aung Shine Oo).
Over the past week, Myanmar held its eagerly awaited national peace conference in Naypyidaw, with hundreds of the country’s ethnic armed groups gathering in the capital alongside the government, parliament, the powerful military and political parties. The conference was a centerpiece of the agenda of the new administration led by the once-opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). It was designed to be a kind of sequel to the Panglong Conference held in Myanmar in 1947, when NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, independence hero Aung San, presided over the last meeting that brought together the country’s numerous factions and rebels.
At the 1947 Panglong talks, many ethnic minority groups agreed to participate in the newly independent state, but a formal and durable peace was not achieved. Aung San was soon murdered, and Myanmar weathered about 15 years of shaky democracy before a military takeover in 1962. After 1962, the armed forces crushed the idea of a sustainable, federal democracy, which seemed a natural fit for such an ethnically and religiously diverse country. As a result, civil wars raged between ethnic insurgent groups and the central government. ...
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That's a long way to go.. it will be held every six month....
Myanmar girls score gold in Taiwan
Though it has been a long time coming, Myanmar finally brought home gold.
Aye Thitsar Myint will bring home the medal from the 9th Asian Wushu Championships, held from September 1 to 5 in Taipei, Taiwan.
The sport, a Chinese martial art that combines performative and combat styles, has been active in Myanmar since the 2000s. And though the country has performed well in the SEA Games wushu competitions – winning three gold medals in 2015 – Myanmar has never managed to place in the China competitions.
This year was different. Aye Thitsar Myint – who won her gold in the female nan dao category – also won a silver in the female dual performance event with countrywoman Myat Thet Su Wai Phyo. Aye Thitsar Myint won a bronze medal in the female nan chun event as well, making her a triple medallist in this year’s championships.
“I will bring gold, silver and bronze from this Asian competition,” she wrote in a post on Facebook. “I want to say thanks to my trainers, the Wushu Federation and my teammate as well.”
She added that she’ll be ready for the upcoming SEA Games in Malaysia, to be played in August 2017.
Aye Thitsar Myint is not alone – she was joined on the trip to Taipei with her doubles partner Myat Thet Su Wai Phyo as well as Nyein Chan Ko Ko and Sandy Oo. Together, the four competitors fought in nine events, and though two emerged with medals, two more finished with nothing to show for their fights.
Sandy Oo, a wushu star, surprised her fans by failing to place in any of her events. She attributed her poor performance to illness, and said the cough medicine she usually would have used was banned.
“I did my best in this competition but my health was compromised about two weeks ahead of the tournament,” she said in an interview with The Myanmar Times. “I kept coughing throughout the tournament, and I couldn’t use my cough medicine because it has ingredients included on anti-doping lists.”
She added that she’ll be in better form for next year’s SEA Games. So should everyone, after training with the other national wushu athletes in Nay Pyi Taw’s gold camp – with an imported Chinese coach.
They may improve upon their last showing, when they finished fourth with three golds, three silvers and one bronze.