A major member of the United Nationalities Federal Council, the Shan State Progressive Party, has submitted a resignation letter to the council, with the ethnic armed group on Sunday revealing its plans to leave the coalition.

Aung Kyi, the head of the Peace Commission, told DVB that they hoped the ethnic rebel alliance would be “involved in the peace process very soon”.

Aung San Suu Kyi is treating the press in Burma poorly, and that may impede her efforts to democratise the conflict-wrought country.

Legal experts suggest that the case brought against three detained journalists who are being charged under Burma’s Unlawful Associations Act lacks a sound basis upon which to pursue prosecution, given the specifics of the colonial-era legislation’s provisions.

Three journalists arrested in Shan State are likely to be handed over to police “soon,” a senior government official says, as questions mount as to why the men were detained and pressure grows on the military to reveal their whereabouts nearly 48 hours after they were taken into custody.

The move came after UNFC delegates refused to speak to journalists about the conference, and barred media from entering the meeting room.