Sao Hkun Hom
Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Dated: 17th April 2005
Good Morning Ladies & Gentlemen, my fellow citizens of the Federated Shan States,
As our country The Federated Shan States is now a Sovereign Nation-State, my duty as a responsible Minister of Foreign Affairs is to declare that, as from today, all Shan people living in all corners of the globe are no longer second class citizens. Your act of holding a foreign passport or IDs will not be considered as an act of disloyalty to the country. Provided you are not subjected to criminal offence, you will be entitled to dual citizenship.
You are now welcome back home and serve your country. I urge all of you to return, as HRH Sao Hso and I did, to your new and free motherland to help rebuild our impoverished nation that was once a proud country of our King Chao Surkhanfa the Great.
First and foremost, let it be known that our Shan Government of the Federated Shan States shall seek help from all friendly nations for full recognition of our sovereign state. This will include registration for UN Membership.
Our strong candidacy to UN will be backed up by our :
• Eight million population • 65,000 square miles of well defined territory • Distinct cultural diversity, history & languages • A self-sustainable economy and • Potential human resources.
Along with these undertakings, it goes without saying that the conduct of our foreign policy will basically include, but not necessary limited to, as follows:
• We will respect fundamenal human rights and universal brotherhood that are enshrined in UN Treaties and Geneva Conventions. • We will conduct in trade and commerce based on the principles of “free market economy”.
As such, we will review all existing commercial treaties and trade practices in terms of each individual merit so as not to cause harm to our Shan people and the Shan Nation-State.
• As the Federated Shan States is endowed with rich natural resources, we will allow these to be exploited with due respect to be given to materials and environmental conservation on a long term basis.
• We earnestly direct our appeal also to all friendly nations to sponsor UN Peacekeepers and Experts to help us conduct transparent and fair elections leading to the formation of a long lasting democratic country.
• To this end we reserve the right to ask for help from friendly nations to enforce immediate halt of all hostilities in our country and the withdrawal of all foreign troops from our soil.
• We will make The Federated Shan States a drug free zone . We suspect there is a collusion between the Burmese military regime and a foreign element in plotting a character assassination on one of our Shan military commanders; a diversion tactics used to cover up a sanctuary given to drug barons who are on the “wanted list” internationally.
• A word of advice to all foreigners!! Shan State is now a war zone. Please stay away as we cannot guarantee your safety for sometime to come.
• Finally, we also appeal to the UN to send experts to conduct forensic studies on the extent of the genocide and the ongoing human right voilations by the Burmese military regime against our innocent and defenseless Shan people.
The examples of such atrocities that will be presented on this occasion is just a tip of the iceberg . They were prepared for inspection by UN Envoy Mr. Pinheiro, but he was not allowed in by the military regime.
