August 13rd, 2021
Karen revolution will fully achieve success if the Karen people trustfully keep on walking the path and goal set by the Karen leaders, said Lt-Gen Saw Baw Kyaw Heh, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), at a talk to mark the 71st Anniversary Karen Martyrs’ Day held on August 12nd.
“Take a look at the situations throughout the revolutionary period, those involved in the Karen revolution have had low trust in the path and goal set by the Karen leaders. That’s why, the revolutionary period takes more than 70 years,” he added.
“It is a suitable condition for all of us at a time when our enemy encounters unstable conditions caused by the military coup. We need to amend our path if we are on the wrong path. We should go to the liberation destination which is the only path, he continued.
The Karen National Union (KNU) has long been constantly talking about the building of a genuine federal democratic union and solving the political problems by political means. In 2012, the KNU started engaging in the peace talk with the quasi-civilian government led by U Thein Sein. But there emerged disagreements between the Karen leaders.
The KNU signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015 in the presence of international witnesses. There was a disagreement between the leaders who don’t want to go ahead under the 2008 Constitution and the leaders who prefer the political dialogues through the NCA in order to achieve the desired political goal.
Since the military coup on February 1st, the peace processes under the NCA path have stalled. But the military council said it would continue sticking to the NCA path. Although the KNU has objected to the military coup, the KNU President and top leaders issued their personal statements, a few months after the coup, saying that they would continue to stick to the NCA path.
These statements came out at a time when the fighting between the military council’s troops and the KNU intensified in some KNU-controlled areas after the coup. It shows that they wanted to hold a political dialogue.
In his message sent to the ceremony to mark the 71st Anniversary Karen Martyrs’ Day, KNU President General Mutu Sae Poe said: “So long as there is no political will for dialogue to resolve political problems, it is impossible to place our hope on political dialogues. For that reason, we have to act in defense of our land, and the lives, homes and properties of our people while keeping the door open for political dialogue.”
There were the calls for the immediate resignation of the CEC members including KNU President Mutu Sae Poe due to the lack of trust in them.
The ceremonies to mark the 71st Anniversary Karen Martyrs’ Day were held in the KNU-controlled areas, Karen State, other regions and foreign countries.
The Karen Martyrs’ Day marks the death of the KNU’s First President Saw Ba U Gyi, Maj-Gen Sai Kay and soldiers, who were killed by the Burma Army on August 12th, 1950.
Sent by the KIC.