The Karen National Union, Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed group that has allied itself with the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces and the shadow government made up of opponents of the junta, has rejected peace talks offered by the regime. Myanmar military who rules the country.
The board made the proposal May 9 after a leadership shakeup during May 17.he Congress of the Karen group, which has been engaged in an armed struggle for a federal democracy against the Myanmar military for more than 70 years.
The KNU held the online conference from April 24 to May 4 at its headquarters on the Thai-Myanmar border in the mountainous state of Kayin. The group and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, operate mainly in Kayin and Mon states and Bago and Tanintharyi regions.
KNU leaders decided that the organization and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, would join forces with other armed groups that rebelled against the junta and work for the establishment of a federal democratic system in the country.
During the conference, the KNU appointed several newly elected officials to the organization’s leadership, including Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win, who served as Vice President in the last term, as its new president.
He was deeply involved in previous peace talks between the KNU and successive Myanmar regimes, but after the February 2021 coup that brought the army to power, he was closely associated with and supported the armed resistance, according to sources in the KNU.
As the first ethnic armed group to publicly denounce the coup, the KNU paid a heavy price for its action, suffering heavy airstrikes and ground offensives after the KNLA captured a Myanmar military base and a subsequent escalation of fighting when troops of the junta bombed a site for internally displaced persons. .
The KNLA also increased attacks on junta troops, protected protesters and trained local anti-coup forces.
Six members of the central executive committee were not re-elected, including the KNU chairman, General Saw Mutu Say Poe, who opposed armed resistance against the coup and called for dialogue.
Reject ceasefire
The KNU said it will fight against the military dictatorship and cooperate with other ethnic armed organizations, democratic forces and people who have been fighting for the establishment of a federal democratic union and for democracy, equality and autonomy.
KNU Central Committee member Padoh Saw Thamein Tun told RFA that it was impossible to talk to the Military Administration Council, the regime’s formal name for the junta, in accordance with the nationwide ceasefire agreement, or NCA.
The KNU was one of eight ethnic armed groups that signed the NCA with the national army in 2015, but its legitimacy faltered due to Myanmar military incursions into KNU-controlled areas.
“Now we cannot work under the NCA,” he told Radio Free Asia.
“What is happening now is that (the Bamar ethnic majority) chauvinism and military dictatorship prevail,” he said. “We will fight this and then we will establish a federal democracy.”
After the congress, the junta’s National Solidarity and Peace Negotiation Committee issued a statement criticizing the KNU’s decision, saying it went against the terms of the NCA and would lead to a confrontation. The committee also said that holding talks would be the best way to work towards a long-term peace solution.
KNU spokesman Padoh Saw Kler Say told local media that the union did not accept the military council’s peace offer. RFA was unable to reach him by phone for comment.
The shadow Government of National Unity said it hoped to cooperate with the new KNU leadership to accelerate armed resistance to the junta this year, according to Kyaw Zaw, a spokesman for the president’s office.
“We hope to work together with all ethnic armed groups, including the KNU, to attack the common enemy, the military dictatorship, immediately and speed up cooperation between us to overthrow the military dictatorship,” he said.
There are likely to be fiercer fights
Political and military analysts said the KNU’s rejection of the talks could intensify military offensives in areas it controls.
Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, a group of former Burmese military officers, believes the war will come about because the new KNU leaders are hardliners who have supported armed resistance against the national army.
“They prioritize armed struggle over dialogue,” he said. “If the other side chooses the hard path, the military side will respond in kind.”
Political analyst Ye Tun agreed that the new KNU leaders are more inclined to fight than the old ones.
“Now, we have to say that the path of armed struggle has gained ground,” he said.
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw for FRG Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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