Executive Summary: "The new nominally civilian government is making serious efforts to achieve peace in Myanmar after more than 60 years of civil war. Peace is critical for ending human suffering and achieving stability; a precondition for overcoming poverty, ensuring long term development and protecting human rights. Most importantly, peace is essential for implementing a stable democracy. In 2015, Myanmar will become a full member of the ASEAN community in which it is responsible to meet the standards outlined in the ASEAN charter. Although all sides want the confl ict to end, achieving peace is no easy task. The protracted civil war in Myanmar is complicated not only by the sheer number of ethnic armed groups who are competing for regional and domestic interests, but also from the lack of trust and misunderstandings resulting from poor communication and transparency on all sides. Therefore it is crucial to carefully monitor the peace process to improve understanding and clarity necessary for establishing lasting peace. This book serves as a reference guide for media outlets and stakeholders involved in the peace process. It provides an overall picture of the problems resulting from the ongoing confl icts, identifi es the root causes that need to be addressed and maps out the entire structure of the peace plan. By identifying all the key actors, their interests and activities for peace, it becomes possible to make sense of the complicated relationships, as well as points of convergence and confl ict related to their activities. In this sense, the information compiled in this book will help readers locate actors and events that form the larger picture to understand how they are interconnected in the peace process. By both clarifying and tracking the developments, this book has identifi ed some important issues that need to be addressed. One of these includes transparency; confusion and contradicting information about all of the activities is hindering the peace process. Transparency is not only key to effective policy planning and implementation, but also for overcoming distrust and building confi dence between the various actors. An immediate end to the confl icts in Kachin and northern Shan state is also crucial to prevent the crisis from further spiraling out of control. At present there is a divergence between the government and ethnic road map to peace. A political settlement that details power sharing, fair distribution of natural resources and an alternative to the government?s Border Guard Force (BGF) scheme that could unify all ethnic armed groups within the Union would help to bridge this current gap. Burma News International (BNI) is a unique alliance of 11 independent media organizations, 9 of which represent different ethnic groups from Myanmar. BNI?s bases of operation include Yangon and many of the countries bordering with Myanmar. Our members? extensive networks provided the means to an end to access all of the detailed information about the various viii Deciphering Myanmar?s Peace Process ethnic armed groups, community groups and the government that is compiled in this book. As Myanmar undergoes one of the most signifi cant political transformations in the country?s history, BNI will continue to monitor and advocate for both media freedom and transparency leading towards democracy and sustainable peace."