Shan National Day 2020

The 7th February is a special day for Shan people as it marks the day that they started working towards self-autonomy. However the 7th February 2020 is even more momentous as, for the first time, the celebration was attended by high ranking officials from the Myanmar Government.

Read the article below and fill the ten gaps with verbs in a PASSIVE TENSE (the verb is given in brackets).

High-ranking Myanmar military generals and government representatives have for the first time traveled to Loi Tai Leng, the headquarters of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) near the Thai border, to attend the 73rd anniversary of the Shan National Day, which 1________ (hold) on Friday 7th February.

The move is unprecedented, marking the first ever attendance by a senior military general and the Union Attorney-General at commemorations of the Shan National Day in rebel-held territory. Attorney-General U Tun Tun Oo is also the vice chairman of the National Reconciliation and Peace Center.

For the past few years, the government’s representation at the Shan National Day commemoration 2_______ (limit) to a few members of the Peace Commission.

The visit to the RCSS-led event is the result of RCSS chairman General Yawd Serk’s one-on-one meetings with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing last month in Naypyitaw. Their talks followed a session of the Joint Ceasefire Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM), considered a gateway to resuming the formal peace process, which 3______ (stop) in 2019.

The RCSS’s armed wing, the Shan State Army, has been fighting against the government for equality and self-determination since the 1960s. In 2012, a bilateral ceasefire 4_____ (agree) between the RCSS and the previous government.

The RCSS signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October 2015 and is currently in peace negotiations and political dialogue with the National League for Democracy government, serving as the leader of the 10 signatories to the NCA.

Shan National Day 5______ (celebrate) since February 1947, when a united Shan State 6_____ (form) by Shan leaders, as well as the Shan saophas (the former ruling hereditary princes) and public. In addition, a Shan national flag and anthem 7_____ (select) at this time.

Gen. Yawd Serk on Thursday stressed that at the 1947 summit, the date of February 7th 8_____ (set) as Shan National Day. It was the day work began toward achieving the Panglong Agreement, which 9______ (sign) on Feb.12—now Myanmar’s Union Day. The pact was signed between some of the country’s ethnic leaders and the Burman representative, the late General Aung San, promising equality in a future independent, federal Burma.

Every year, Shan National Day celebrations 10______ (enjoy) by Shan people across the state and elsewhere in Myanmar.

This year, the RCSS invited government and Tatmadaw representatives, as well as the ethnic armed organizations—regardless of their NCA signatory status—diplomats and international organizations.

Source ( Nyein Nyein, Associate Editor at the English edition of The Irrawaddy). Click here to read the unedited article in The Irrawaddy.

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