Karen National Union - Overview

Overview

The representative of the organization in the United Kingdom is Nant Bwa Bwa Phan.

The KNU was dominated for three decades by its longtime leader Bo Mya, who was president from 1976–2000. The KNU was for many years able to fund its activities by controlling black market trade across the border with Thailand, and through local taxation. After the failed 8888 Uprising of the Burmese people in 1988, the Burmese military government turned to China for help in consolidating its power. Various economic concessions were offered to China in exchange for weapons. The Burmese Army was massively expanded and began to offer deals to groups fighting the government. The groups were offered the choice of cooperating with the military junta or being destroyed.

In 1994, a group of Buddhist soldiers in the KNLA, citing discrimination by the KNU's overwhelmingly Christian leadership against the Buddhist Karen majority, broke away and established the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). They were led by a monk widely thought to be an agent of the Burmese dictatorship. The DKBA quickly agreed to a ceasefire with the Burmese army and was granted business concessions at the expense of their former KNU overlords. The KNU and DKBA have since been in regular fighting, with the DKBA actively supported by the Burmese army.

The KNU's effectiveness was severely diminished after the fall of its headquarters at Manerplaw, near the Thai border, in 1995.

Padoh Mahn Sha La Phan, the secretary-general of the union was shot dead in his home in Mae Sot, Thailand, on 14 February 2008, possibly by soldiers of the DKBA.

Since then, the KNU and KNLA have continued to fight the Burma state military (Tatmadaw) by forming guerrilla units and basing themselves in temporary jungle camps on the Thai-Burmese border. Following its principle of no surrender, the KNU continues despite a precarious state of existence. Nonetheless, their fight continues to garner the sympathy of people around the world since the KNU has been fighting for the Karen people, one of the many ethnic nationalities of Burma that are experiencing ethnic cleansing under the military regime's Four Cuts campaigns (Pyat Lay Pyat), a strategy where intelligence, finances, food and recruits are eliminated through a scorched-earth policy.

Several attempts have been made to conclude a form of peace with Burma's military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), but with little success. The 2004 peace talks yielded only an informal ceasefire which the regime used to reinforce their frontline troops. Analysts realized this was a ruse, and sure enough, offensives against KNU held areas have resumed in earnest.

The Karen conflict is the longest internal war in the world, having been waged since 31 January 1949. The KNU wants a political settlement and supports a federal Burma.

Following the assassination of Padoh Mahn Sha elections were held and the current Secretary General of the KNU is Naw Zipporrah Sein. She was formerly head of the Karen Women's Organisation.

In March 2012, a senior political leader of KNU, Phado Mahn Nyein Maung, was found guilty of high treason under the Illegal Association Act, for his involvement with the Karen rebellion and sentenced to 20 years. He was freed soon afterward and sent back to Thailand.