[Myanmar] Fifteen of Burma’s Ethnic Groups to Form Unified Party

Fifteen ethnic groups in Burma will establish an alliance ahead of the country’s 2015 general elections, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday. The new Federated Union Party (FUP) hopes to “get on the same political level as the [military-backed] Union Solidarity and Development Party [uSDP] and [Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition] National League for Democracy [NLD],†RFA quoted the general secretary of the Rakhine Nationality Development Party (RNDP) as saying. The 15 groups are all members of the Nationalities Brotherhood Federation (NBF), but the FUP will not include some of Burma’s major ethnic groups, such as the Kachin and Karen.