Mon Youth Called For Greater Support For Ethnic Struggle

Mon Youth Called For Greater Support For Ethnic Struggle

By NETWORK MEDIA GROUP (NMG)
Monday, December 30, 2019

The organizing committee for the annual Mon Youth Day celebration has urged Mon youth to support the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), the armed wing of the New Mon State Party.

The committee released a statement on the eighth Mon Youth Day on December 28, outlining how the NMSP has been “bullied” due to its small size by the Burma Army and its affiliated Border Guard Forces (BGFs).

“If the NMSP doesn’t have enough strength, we will be bullied,” Min Nyan Seik Raman, a member of the organizing committee, told NMG. “Our youth need to participate in [Mon] national defense. It’s time for our youth to take responsibility.”

Min Nyan Seik Raman “urged all Mon youth who are at least 18 years old to join the MNLA and serve the national causes.”

Earlier in December, clashes between the MNLA and the Burma Army and the Karen BGF at Three Pagodas Pass led to hundreds of refugees fleeing to Thailand and the loss of an MNLA base. Mon youth described the incident as a Tatmadaw violation of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, to which the NMSP is a signatory.

Mon monks, representatives of NMSP, and representatives of Mon Unity Party (MUP) attended the Mon Youth Day celebration in Chrongu village in Mon State’s Kyaikmayaw Township.

“We want Mon youth to participate in Mon politics with unity. Currently, many Mon youth are playing a leading role in Mon youth movements,” Nai Win Hla, who is in charge of NMSP’s domestic affairs department, told NMG.

The vice chairperson of the Mon State parliament, the Mon State natural resources and environmental minister Dr. Min Kyi Win, and more than 20,000 youth from Mon and Karen states and Tanintharyi, Bago and Yangon regions also joined the event.