Myanmar official media stresses existence of single armed forces in country

Myanmar official media stresses existence of single armed forces in country
www.chinaview. cn 2009-09-18 11:43:14

YANGON, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar official media stressed on Friday that there shall be a single Tatmadaw (armed forces) in the country to stand in accordance with the new state constitution approved in May last year.

The 2008 new state constitution prescribes that all the armed forces in the union shall be under the command of the Defense Services.

"If standing in rivalry that is against the constitution, doing illegal livelihood, poppy farming, production of narcotic drugs and illegal import and export of goods are rife, that will greatly harm the interest of the whole country and the people," said a Friday's report on the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"The Tatmadaw government is pursuing its strategies with the sharp determination that the nation's economy must be strong by the time when it hands over power to the civilian government to be formed under the constitution, " said the report.

It said "when these strategies are all realized, the Union of Myanmar will become a land bridge country where not only local people but also a large number of people from the neighboring countries engage trade activities."

It also urged the people to do their bit in the process of building the "land bridge" to make sure that all the pillars of the bridge are strong.

Noting that Myanmar is home to over 100 ethnic minorities, the report said "it gives first priority to consolidated unity among national brethren in the national interest according to the geopolitics, " adding that the government focuses on equitable improvement of the socio-economic life of all the national brethren.




The government has initiated a program for ethnic armed groups, which have cease fired and returned to the legal fold, to be formed into frontier forces under the control of the Commander-in- chief of the Defense Services.

However, the report said although many ethnic peace groups have returned to the legal fold, they have not surrendered their arms due to various reasons.

The leaders of the peace groups are urged to form political parties and stand for 2010 election.

After the present government took over the power of state on Sept. 18, 1988, 17 anti-government ethnic armed groups and over 20small ones returned to the legal fold one after another.

Of the 17 peace groups which cease fired with the government, some were allowed to retain arms, conditionally enjoying self-administration with special regions designated for them since then.

Under the government's fifth step of its seven-step roadmap announced in 2003, a multi-party democracy general election is to be held in 2010 in accordance with the 2008 new state constitution to produce parliament representatives and form a new civilian government to which the state power is to be handed over.