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ARTICLE: Solving the KNU (KAREN NAT
- Subject: ARTICLE: Solving the KNU (KAREN NAT
- From: mg_myanmar@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 05:27:00
Subject: ARTICLE: Solving the KNU (KAREN NATIONAL UNION) Problem
SOURCE : Information Sheet No.B-1130(I) 3rd November 1999
MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE, YANGON
Special Feature
This office is presenting an article from Myanmar News Bulletin
(9/99)entitled "Solving the KNU (Karen National Union) Problem" published by
the Embassy of the Union of Myanmar, London for your information.
"Solving the KNU (KAREN NATIONAL UNION) Problem"
The KNU is an armed separatist movement representing small fraction of
the Kayin nationality of the Union of Myanmar. Their strength numbers a few
thousands only, but are heavily armed and have been fighting unsuccessfully
for separation from the Union for nearly 50 years and at one time controlled
large territories within the Union. At this moment the KNU is the only group
out of 18 armed insurgencies to remain belligerent while other 17 groups have
returned to the legal fold a few years ago and are now making socio-economic
progress in their own states. This belligerence is in fact, mainly
responsible for the existence of the highly publicised "refugee" camps along
the Thai-Myanmar border. The so-called "refugees" camps along the
Thai-Myanmar border in remote border parts of the Kayin State are often used
as base-camps by the KNU for staging attacks on major townships and villages
in Kayin State proper with highly disruptive and destructive consequences for
many years. Even last month, the group of heavily armed terrorists that
occupied the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok finally demanded to be returned
to an area on the Thai-Myanmar border under control of the KNU. These
"refugees" have not been classified as such by Thai authorities who
regarded them as politically displaced persons who are resisting
repatriation back to Myanmar or to safer areas within Thai territory.
It is alleged that the civilians in these camps are being used as
human shields which is the main reason of the KNU leadership
for not permitting their repatriation in either direction.
However, some positive developments began to occur when in 1998 some senior
KNU leaders and many of their followers also embraced the exchange of arm for
peace programme offered by the Government, and are continuing to do so in
smaller groups. Furthermore for the first time, in June 1999, Amnesty
International officially documented KNU atrocities, against civilian in
Myanmar, including of murder and torture which have been going on for much of
their 50 year old military campaign, and well known to the people within
Myanmar. The KNU with little or no support from most of the Kayin people and
having lost all their base camps within the Union, recently stepped up their
propaganda campaign of accusing the Union security forces of atrocities by
outright fabrication of bizarre stories including death-squads and
anti-Christian military activities in order to mobilise sympathy in Christian
countries of the west. These baseless allegations have never been supported
by leaders of the Christian Churches in Myanmar, but are unfortunately been
spread by some supporters of the KNU in some Western countries including
Britain.
At a recent public lecture in London, entitled " CHRISTIANITY AND FREEDOM
OF RELIGION IN BURMA " the Anglican Primate and Archbishop
of Myanmar reaffirmed the freedom of worship that currently exists in all
his dioceses within the Union.
It must be remembered that a post world war II, Britain based group
called " Friends of Hill Peoples of Burma" (Guardian Weekly, London, July 27,
1997) not only conceived and created the KNU but also stage-managed the
assassination of General Aung San, Myanmar's independence leader. The
residual elements of these " Friends" seem to be trying to wage a political
campaign in Britain to support and save the KNU who continue to rapidly lose
much of their foot soldiers, military officers and families who can see with
their own eyes that their old KNU comrades are now enjoying their new-found
peace in their homelands with their security and welfare assured by the
Government.
The Embassy of the Union of Myanmar in London calls on these "Friends" of
the KNU in Britain to assist the politically displaced Kayins (Karens) by
stopping their political campaign based on unfounded allegation and allowing
them to reunite with the overwhelming majority of their nationality in the
Union, thus ending the hostilities. The so-called Kayin-Bamar hostilities
have been based on unfortunate historical incidents mostly caused by the
divisive strategies of the old colonial masters who exploited these negative
events of by-gone days in winning over the loyalty of some Kayins in their 40
year long campaign (1842-1884) to conquer the then Kingdom of Myanmar as
their loyal allies during the second world war. It is no coincidence that all
allegations of atrocities such as the ones currently propagated by the KNU
have completely ceased from among all former insurgent groups in Myanmar now
living peacefully in their homelands, including the Kachin Independent
Organization whose leadership are also Christians. It would be a cruel and
historical blunder to prop-up this last remaining major insurgency of Myanmar
with the hope of resurrecting the long-dead "Karenistan" concept , as it will
only prolong the agony of the innocent "Karen" civilians. At this point of
time the world has too many humanitarian crises for the international
community to cope with and it is high time for reason to prevail over old
sentiments and emotional feelings for the "loyal allies of the colonial
past" . There should be no doubt that all nationalities within the Union of
Myanmar are now united and will never allow the break up of the Union under
any circumstance in the future. The small percentage of Kayins still
lingering beyond our borders must also realize that they also belong to the
Union with the rest of their compatriots and are welcome to return to the
"family" on similar terms anytime-the sooner the better for all concerned .
*******************
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Mg Myanmar
A Myanmar citizen who loves Myanmar
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