It is beyond the scope of this introduction to scrutinize fully the question of reconciliation (see South, chapter 6 in this vol) And itis difficult to assess if a truth commission, as in South Africa, is an appropriate instrument. Is an international human right tribunal feasible or is it better to use the method of social forgetting and thus silence the sufferings and grievances? These complicated questions were addressed during a seminar in May 2004. It is important that the process of reconciliation is discussed during the tripartite dialogue and becomes a part of a political settlement. Before grievances are aired in such forums, a community of trust must be created and those who suffered must have an experience of relief and securi If this is not the case, narrations of suffering quickly turn into accusations revive distrust and become invitations to new violence. Moreover, what has become apparent from the historical experience briefly outlined above closed ethnic boundaries mixed with ethnicized victim-hood and exclusively constructed claims, runs the risk of emulating colonial ethnicism and thus inhibiting any reconciliation. in terms of language, traditions and religion must be secured constitutionally without necessarily being the foundation ofthe electoral and administrative systems of the federal states, as a universal right of all citizens, in this way maintaining the ethnic diversity as part of civil society while creating a new unity. Some factions of ethnic organizations, formerly involved in armed conflict, seem now to be adapting to a new function as part of an emerging civil society (South, chapter 6 in this volume; South 2003). Assisted by outside mediation such organizations may replace violence and fear with relative trust. Civil society, however, is rarely as sharply separated from the state as often described and imagined in Western societies, but a grey and contested zone (Ferguson and Gupta 2002) In Burma the ethnic organizations belong to this zone and have perhaps gained a little more space for manoeuvring than they had previously. However, there are no common rules and security, only meticulous state surveillance in this space a situation that makes these organizations vulnerable and it is a space of potential violence. A substantial and general demilitarization is necessary for civil organizations to develop. This is another important subject which needs detailed proposals to be taken up in a dialogue.