Daniel Pedersen

Don Talenywun

Moei River, Mae Sot, Thailand

Thai military and police photographed participants a peaceful march to protest charges laid against Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by Burma’s ruling military junta on Sunday afternoon.

The small, vocal gathering marched perhaps 200m on Thai soil from the Moei River past the Immigration office alongside the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge.

In front of rows of songtaews awaiting passengers, a short speech was delivered and then the cluster of protesters dispersed.

Thai soldiers hung back from the main group, photographing them from a distance of 60-70m.

Thai police were closer, some blatantly photographing the marchers, many of whom were foreigners.

There were about 75 people marching, a few carried signs.

ENDS

Mae Sot, Thailand

May 1, 2009

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) today released a report to mark the anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma a year ago. The report highlights the cases of 21 volunteers who are currently facing between 2 and 35 years in prison for their efforts to assist in the aftermath of the cyclone, including gathering dead bodies and burying them.

At least eight of the volunteers had been in hiding since their participation in September 2007’s Saffron Revolution, but came out of hiding to co-ordinate relief efforts after the cyclone devastated the Irrawaddy Delta. Five of the volunteers are former political prisoners, who have already spent many years in jail.

AAPP Secretary Tate Naing said, “Their punishment is completely unacceptable. Their ‘crimes’ were to help people and tell the truth about the situation. We call on ASEAN and UN to press the military regime to release the Cyclone Nargis volunteers – and all political prisoners – immediately.”

The organisation renewed its calls for support for its campaign petition Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now!

“Political prisoners – including Cyclone Nargis volunteers – must not be forgotten. Ordinary people everywhere can sign the petition,” added Tate Naing.

The campaign aims to collect 888,888 petition signatures before 24 May. This is the date that the military junta claims that Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest, despite the fact that the United Nations has recently declared that this consecutive sixth year of house arrest contravenes the regime’s own laws. The petition can be signed at www.fbppn.net

ENDS

Download reports

AAPP Cyclone Nargis anniversary report [449 KB]

Cyclone Nargis list of 21 people arrested [27.9 KB]

Cyclone Nargis list of volunteers still in prison [17 KB]

AAPP

For more information, please contact:

Tate Naing at +66-(0)81-2878751

Bo Kyi at +66-(0)81-3248935

Notes to editors:

1. The campaign is led by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and Forum for Democracy in Burma.
2. 199 organizations worldwide have endorsed the campaign. For the full list, please click here

OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

May 17, 2009

1. The US citizen, John W. Yettaw, who swam across Inya Lake and entered Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s (Daw Suu) residence, is clearly a mentally unbalanced person. He should have been sent to a mental hospital for treatment and the security for Daw Suu should have been enhanced. Instead, the SPDC military dictatorship is accusing Daw Suu of protecting a criminal and preparing to subject her to a criminal trial, in the notorious Insein Jail.
2. For her activism to free the people of Burma from tyrannical and arbitrary rule, for winning the Nobel Peace laureate for her peace effort and for leading her party to win a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, Daw Suu has been unlawfully detained by the dictatorship, time and again, for 11 of the past 19 years. It is clear that the vengeful and hate-laden SPDC dictators are plotting to further extend the detention of her beyond the 2010 elections, they are preparing to hold.
3. Obviously, the SPDC is using the incident as an opportunity to cause even more harm to Daw Suu, similar to the attack on her and her entourage, at Depeyin. It is clear that under influence of the perverted ideology of total control, the SPDC dictators have no sense yet for national reconciliation, peace and justice.
4. We, the KNU, strongly condemn this vengeful and confrontational act by the SPDC dictatorship against the people’s leader, Daw Suu, and call upon it to release her and all the political prisoners immediately.
5. It is our perception that the dictatorship has been emboldened to the extent of committing crimes tantamount to crimes against humanity, time and again, by the policy of appeasement and pseudo-national reconciliation process promoted by some wooly-headed Burma experts, INGOs and opportunist groups.
6. In conclusion, we call upon justice and peace loving leaders of the world to concertedly push the SPDC military dictatorship onto the right tract of meaningful dialogue, with leaders of democratic and ethnic forces, for genuine national reconciliation, lasting peace and progress.

The Executive Committee
Karen National Union

ENDS

Statement on 33rd anniversary of NDF foundation

The ethnic national leaders have established the NDF with the aim of realizing the noble objectives of equality, self-determination and the establishment of federal union of Burma based on democracy. They have been struggling on for more than 3 decades and the 33rd Anniversary of foundation of the NDF falls on today, May 10, 2009. We, the NDF, always pay great respect and place on record the sacrifice of lives and limbs made by many heroic members of ethnic populations, resistance leaders and comrades in the course of 33 years of struggle.

In spite of pressure by the ethnic, democratic and international forces for dialogue and change through peaceful means, the SPDC military clique continues to perpetrate heinous crimes of using large scale military offensives against the innocent ethnic civilians, sowing dissension among us by various means, giving long prison terms to political, human rights and humanitarian activists, and siphoning off aid given to Cyclone Nargis victims.

We will never accept attempt by the SPDC military clique to hold election in 2010 based on the 2008 constitution, which was drafted and adopted by force in order to perpetuate the rule of evil fascist military dictatorship. On the other hand, we will continue to struggle on with higher momentum definitely, in accordance with programs, laid down at the NDF 7th Congress, of opposing the 2008 constitution and the military clique’s elections, consolidating ethnic unity and national reconciliation, and raising momentum of the just war of resistance.

It is especially necessary for us to note that the SPDC military clique is trying to disarm nefariously the ceasefire groups by pressuring them to reduce their armed strength and transform into border police force, even when there is still no political guarantee for the rights of the ethnic nationalities.

We will support politically the “Shwegondaing Statement” issued by the NLD recently as it contains a process in which the two sides can participate for finding solutions to the problems. We again call on the SPDC military clique to establish nationwide ceasefire, to unconditionally release all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo and Khun Tun Oo, and to enter into dialogue with all political forces of the country.

In conclusion, we solemnly issue this statement and make a pledge, on the occasion of the 33rd Anniversary of the foundation of NDF, to struggle on in unity with other revolutionary and democratic forces, until the fruit of national democratic revolution is gained.

 

“Victory through Alliance”

 

The Central Executive Committee

National Democratic Front

May 10, 2009

Media contact

Chairman: (66) 087 207 9296

General Secretary: (66) 086 206 4045

ENDS

The conspiracy to entrench military rule continues

May 08, 2009, Yangon

The following is a release from the Institute for Political Analysis and Documentation. The text remain exactly as it was issued. The Institute for Political Analysis and Documentation is an independent research and training centre. IPAD promotes democracy, and accountable governance in Burma through a range of initiatives including political analysis, human rights assessments, and grassroots training initiatives.

Burma’s military government has no intention of democratizing, as evident by the manner in which they conducted the constitutional referendum, said the Institute for Political Analysis and Documentation (IPAD), in a report marking the event’s one year anniversary. The report is available in English and Burmese. The 62-page report, “No Real Choice: An Assessment of Burma’s 2008 Referendum,” proves the military adopted the constitution through fraudulent and coercive means.

Based on the observations of monitors deployed throughout Kachin State and northern Shan State, extensive interviews with voters and polling station officials, and voting statistics that the government classified as ‘top secret’, the report provides the most comprehensive analysis of the constitutional referendum to date.

“The May 10, 2008 constitutional referendum was a complete sham,” said IPAD’s director Borazi. “The SPDC celebrated the referendum as an exercise in democracy, promising it would be free and fair according to international standards. They betrayed this promise. Citizens need to be aware of that grave breach in trust.”

“The voting statistics clearly show that the government cheated, that is why they kept them secret,” said Borazi.

“The government claims perfect voter turnout in some of Burma’s most remote and sparsely-populated areas. We monitored many of these stations and know that turnout was marginal. Officials also cancelled thousands of ballots to skew the results.”

“Senior military officials worked hand-in-hand with the government, and the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), to fraudulently ratify the constitution. In so doing, they systematically denied voters’ basic rights and freedoms. It was a conspiracy that reached to the highest levels of government.”

The widespread and systematic nature of abuses shows the government’s contempt for the will of the people,” said Borazi. The referendum was not intended to measure citizens’ consent to be governed under the constitution. It was an exercise to entrench military rule regardless of public sentiment.

Lockdown for the Elections

“No Real Choice” was written to inform citizens about their rights as voters, and to make explicit the manner in which the government cheated in the 2008 referendum,” said Borazi.

“Please circulate it widely in Burma. It is a primer for citizens to inform themselves about the minimum standards for a free and fair electoral process. It highlights the ways in which the SPDC cheated and can be used to forecast how they will do it again in 2010.”

“Although the elections loom, the government has not issued an election law or allowed citizens to form political parties. However, the USDA is working relentlessly to transform itself into a political party by aggressively recruiting organizers since January 2009,” say IPAD field staff.

“These early preparations will give the USDA a huge advantage. Other political parties will be forced to scramble at the last minute in order to organize.”

“The military will try to win by any and all means,” said Borazi.

“Since January, military intelligence officials have been openly compiling dossiers on community leaders, social workers, and political dissidents. Military officials are working closely with state, district, and township administrative officers, immigration, the fire department, and the USDA, intensifying surveillance down to the ward and quarter level. They are doing this openly to intimidate people and to single out anyone who may upset their victory. We expect a wave of arrests to follow if citizens openly express dissent.”

A Roadmap to Disaster

The constitution, and indeed the entire ‘Road Map to Democracy’ will institutionalize a system of rule in which the people are bound to resent the military and which threatens to further inflame ethnic tensions; this is not good for anyone,” cautioned IPAD’s director.

“The SPDC seems absolutely oblivious to the damage they doing to the country,” said Borazi.

“The constitutional drafting process was neither inclusive, nor consultative, and was particularly unreceptive to the concerns of non-Burman nationalities, comprising between forty to sixty percent of the country’s population. The military repeatedly ignored submissions made by National Convention delegates requesting a decentralized federal system of government, and advocating constitutional protections for non-Burman nationalities’ linguistic and cultural rights.”

“By denying citizens a voice in government and making dissent illegal, the constitution is a recipe for disaster,” warned IPAD’s director.

“The government leaves citizens with few choices. They can be silent or they can protest openly. When they are silent, corruption and bad governance thrive. When they protest, they are arrested or shot.”

“Expect things to become very tense,” warned IPAD’s director. Without a political dialogue, negotiation, and compromise, how can the military build trust? In fact, they can’t. The citizens of Burma don’t trust the SPDC, and everything they do is further evidence that trusting them is foolish.”

“The people of Burma have to work together to demand and secure a representative government that guarantees our basic human rights. This is our national duty,” said Borazi.

However, we also expect the international community to support our struggle for justice.

We appreciate the stance of Western governments and hope they will intensify their efforts.

However, China, Japan, the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India, and South Korea, should be doing much more to support the people of Burma. Those governments, and businessmen from these countries, should be deeply ashamed of the military, economic and political support that they provide to the SPDC.

ENDS

IPAD referendum Burmese version [797 KB]

IPAD referendum English version [1328 KB]

IPAD press release [121 KB]

Burma

October, 2000

WE travelled in a dugout canoe through the rapids of the Moei River that marks the border of Thailand and Burma.

Thick jungle shrouded the banks and all eyes scanned for Burmese troops.

In the slow, barely manoeuvreable canoe we were sitting ducks had a soldier decided to take a pot shot at us.

And we knew they were out there somewhere.

The canoe was laden down with dry food and canned fish.

On arrival at a KNLA base camp I spotted a child squatting near a small fire.

He was just 10 years old, his name was Pa Law Meh, and two months earlier he had watched, terrified, as Burmese State Peace and Development troops kicked his father to death because he refused to give them one of his chickens.

As SPDC troops killed his father in Yaw Bo village, in central Karen state, they screamed at his family members that they were nothing more than animals and deserved to die.

Now the Karen child is going to be a soldier and kill Burmese troops.

He made his way to a unit of Battalion 202 of the Karen National Liberation Army’s Fifth Brigade.

Pa Law Meh hates the Burmese and his childhood has ended.

His family does not know where his is, only that he has been gone for more than a month.

He says he will not return home, he is not afraid of being shot and that KNLA soldiers are very brave.

Pa Law Meh will soon be handed a gun, the newest generation of soldier in a long line of freedom fighters.

ENDS

OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

April 25, 2009

The UN Secretary General’s report regarding children and armed conflict, under the title of “Developments in Myanmar” in Agenda Item 60 (a), at the General Assembly Sixty-third Session mentioned ‘one case of a child recruited by the Karen National Union (KNU)’. In clarification of the matter, we, the KNU would like to say as follows.

1. In years gone by, the KNU had allowed those who had attained the age of 16 years to join the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). However, in the year 2003, KNU issued directives to the KNLA not to recruit persons, who had not attained the age of 18 years.
2. Since 2003, the KNU has not only banned the use of child soldiers, under the age of 18, but has also strengthened the ban by instructing the KNLA officers at all levels to follow the directive precisely and to verify and enforce the ban.
3. On a number of occasions, we have affirmed our readiness to cooperate with human rights and UN or UN affiliated organizations. The KNU and the KNLA, always welcome their monitoring and verification in the field. In addition, we have signed the “Deeds of Commitment” on March 4, 2007 to cease the recruitment and use of children in armed forces.
4. The mention in UNSG’s current report of discovery of ‘one case of a child recruited by the Karen National Union (KNU)’ is probably a case of mistaken identity. However, we will launch an investigation and publish our findings, as soon as possible. The KNU and KNLA are resolved to prevent the use of child soldiers and violations of child rights.
5. We invite the UN country team and other relevant organizations to come to our areas for monitoring and verification purposes, and to assist our programs for child protection, prevention of the use of children in armed conflict and reintegration of the victims into civil society, including provision of education and healthcare to them. In conclusion, we reaffirm our commitment to adhere to the international conventions against the use of child soldiers and call upon the SPDC military regime not to limit access to our areas by the UN country team and other organizations working against the use of children in armed conflict.

ENDS

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sod

April 13, 2009

A secret plan to hatch reconciliation talks between splinter groups of Burma’s Karen people is gaining momentum.

The Norwegian government has been approached to host talks between the Karen National Union, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council.

The DKBA and the Peace Council have joined forces with Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.

The DKBA’s split with the KNU in 1994 lead to the fall of the KNU’s jungle stronghold of Mannerplaw in early 1995, home to myriad opposition groups from various ethnic minorities and considered a nursery of dissent by Burma’s military junta.

The KNU/KNLA Peace Council split in early 2007 further weakened the Karen resistance, which has fought against successive Burman-dominated military regimes since 1949.

The KNU is now considered to be at its weakest since formation more than 60 years ago.

The potential bid to reconcile these groups comes at a time when Thailand has proposed itself as a potential mediator of peace to preside over talks between the KNU and Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.

Sources within the Karen movement have confirmed a low-key visit by Norwegian officials is planned soon.

The first step, said the source, would be a “sounding-out” process of all parties individually, to establish the likelihood of success.

The visit will be unofficial.

A reunified Karen front is not in the SPDC’s interests, barring the unlikely abandonment of key principles by which the KNU has abided for more than six decades.

Current KNU vice president David Thackrabaw, the organisation’s late secretary-general Pado Mahn Sha and KNA Colonel Nerdah Mya have all lamented to this correspondent the division of the Karen “revolution”.

“They [the SPDC] always work on a divide and rule system,” said Colonel Nerdah.

“They are very smart, they work to make the Karen fight among themselves.”

While dubious about the prospects for such agreement between disparate Karen factions, describing them as “possibly unrealistic”, David Thackrabaw believes there is great disenchantment within the DKBA.

“They were told by the SPDC in 1994 that if they helped take Mannerplaw they would be the rulers of Karen State,” said Mr Thackrabaw.

“Has this happened? No, it has not. They know they’ve been lied to.”

Mr Thackrabaw said some of the very senior DKBA commanders had become accustomed to substantial wealth distributed among very few and that they now considered themselves “elite”.

He said DKBA soldiers were welcome to re-join forces with the KNU and that “they should bring their weapons”.

The fact that the SPDC has already swayed some sections of the Karen community will not have been lost on Thailand.

That the DKBA and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council switched sides more than 10 years apart means SPDC resolve to split the Karen movement is gradually paying dividends.

This fact will not have been lost on neighbouring countries signing lucrative trade deals hand over fist with the ruling generals.

That Thailand would present itself as a potential peacemaker when it has already signed memorandums of understanding with Burma’s junta on projects as diverse as hydro electricity-generating dams, deep sea ports and contract farming in border regions has left some observers questioning Thailand’s real motives.

One foreign NGO worker lamented the fact so many neighbouring countries were looking for cross-border deals.

“The more and more you hear about Burma, the more you realise it’s not a logical government, it’s just a paranoid junta that doesn’t base any of its decision-making on economic rationality, social welfare or even good policy on resource development.

“It’s madness, I can’t even find any terms to describe it, I mean, then again, you’re still getting governments cutting trade deals with these guys.

“Thailand’s becoming a little, well I wouldn’t say dependent, but I mean, the dams and electricity, the resources, the gas . . .

“Economics is definitely the rationale, the common denominator, so I mean there’s complicity in this human suffering in my mind.

“Of course governments have to retain relations on one side and try the slap on the wrist on the other, but I mean this is beyond a joke.

“It is a disgrace, I mean it’s sad,” he said.

The lying game

Colonel Nerdah believes the DKBA knows it is being lied to.

“It is a deception by the SPDC,” he said.

“In the beginning they [the SPDC] came up with misinformation, false information and they spread it through the community and we were late to counter it. Then we had a misunderstanding between the Christian groups and the Buddhist groups. Everyone was betrayed by the SPDC.

“We still have a lot of Buddhists with us, fighting hand-in-hand, so there’s nothing wrong between the Buddhists and the Christians, the SPDC used the name DKBA just for show.

“But the DKBA is completely under the control of the SPDC. The DKBA take their orders from the SPDC.”

Colonel Nerdah said the reason the DKBA had held together as a fighting force was a complex issue, as deception often demanded.

“Sometimes it’s business opportunities [why the DKBA allies itself with the SPDC].

“And some people have families on the inside – if they come back here it’s not easy if you don’t want to live in the refugee camps.

“Better to live inside – and sometimes they pretend to be DKBA, they work for the DKBA, but not wholeheartedly.

“Some people are really working for the DKBA. But there are two types of people, they work because they don’t want to come into the refugee camps, because DKBA dominates the whole area – well they dominate with the SPDC troops – but they work basically for their living, but not because they want to get involved.

“Some want to get involved because of business interests and the benefits.

“You have to know that this is not a division.

“Those who are working with the SPDC, they are SPDC soldiers, but then they’ve come up with a different name and that has confused the international community into thinking that the Karens are fighting each other.

“But those who are trapped inside and cannot come out, they have to work for the Burmese government, which in this case is called the DKBA.

“But actually some people still have a heart for the Karen struggle, but for many different reasons they have to work for the DKBA and sometimes they have to listen to the orders of the DKBA and the SPDC.”

Nerdah said there was no confusion among young men about the alleged religious divisions in Karen society – he said he didn’t think young men fought with the DKBA just because they were Buddhist.

“No I think they know very well [there are no true divisions], after 10 years of fighting with the DKBA, but I also think they know very well that they are trapped and it’s not easy to come back because they have their families inside.

“The SPDC keeps records of all the families of DKBA soldiers, where they go to school, where they live inside.

“In fact if they were to come back [to the KNLA] they would have to bring their entire family, otherwise the family would be put in jail and it would be very bad for the family, there would be all kinds of torturing.

“So some people, even though they want to come back, they are just sitting back to wait and see whether they should come back or not.

“I think after 10 years of fighting most people can differentiate between what is right and what is wrong.

“And they know one day the SPDC will disarm them and they cannot carry on.”

Colonel Nerdah said the decisions the SPDC was forcing upon DKBA soldiers hinged on the very foundations of Karen society and the SPDC knew that very well.

If the men wanted to keep their families in their homeland then they had to fight with the DKBA.

If they fought with the DKBA then the SPDC had their number and gave them their orders and the only way to keep their families safe was to continue fighting with the DKBA.

And that meant attacking their KNLA brethren.

Colonel Nerdah said once again, it all came back to family for the Karen, and that fact was being cynically manipulated by the SPDC.

“It’s a great dilemma for those who are stuck, they know if they leave they will be killed, their families will be killed, but then also it is not easy for them to stay for a long time because they know one day the Burmese will squeeze them again.

“If we can get rid of the SPDC everyone can come together.

“They are using their iron hands to control everybody ‘If you don’t listen to me, I will kill you, so you want to listen’, that is the rule they are playing by.

“Get rid of the SPDC, it is easy, very easy, to talk to the DKBA, we are brothers we can talk, they’re not scared, they have nothing to be scared of, then they can come back,” said the Colonel.

These sentiments were echoed by Myat Thu, an ethnic Burman who fought with All Burma Students’ Democratic Front alongside the KNLA after the 1988 student uprising in Rangoon.

“You see any Burmese who joins the army, they have families they must leave behind and that makes it very difficult to believe that any uprising would be significant, it makes it very difficult for soldiers to deny their orders [when their families are left vulnerable].

“That’s a problem, in fact that’s the main problem.”

He said the DKBA were under no illusions about what they were fighting for.

“I think they know, I think they know very well [that they are being used]. They own their lives now and they have to make a decision, I think they know very well about the situation. They also suffer.”

ENDS

March 16, 2009

One of the late General Bo Mya’s sons, Tay Lay Mya, has been excommunicated by the Karen National Union.

The former commander of a company attached to the Karen National Liberation Army’s Sixth Battalion was expulsed because of unauthorised peace negotiations with Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.

“I am yet to see any official communication, but the decision was taken about a month ago, as soon as we had confirmed he had been to Rangoon,” said KNU vice president, David Thackrabaw.

Tay Lay’s first visit to Rangoon, and reportedly Naypidaw, occurred in December last year.

At the time, just days before his departure, Tay Lay told this correspondent the meeting had been delayed because of the People’s Alliance for Democracy seizure of Bangkok International Airport.

A delegation of senior Thai generals, international observers from Australia and the United Kingdom and Tay Lay was waiting for the earliest opportunity to fly to Rangoon, he said.

Tay Lay said the Thai generals and the SPDC wanted border tensions eased to clear the way for lucrative trade deals.

The delegation included former KNLA Brigadier-General Htin Maung and allegedly the controversial “Pastor Timothy”, both considered traitors by the KNU.

In January 2007 former KNLA Seventh Brigade commander Htin Maung split to create the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army – Peace Council.

The SPDC has since asked Htin Maung to provide border security around Three Pagodas Pass – feeding into Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok – in exchange for a cut of revenues from tax “gates” between the neighbouring countries.

Some observers consider the late General Bo Mya to have pioneered the way for such deals with “gentleman’s” peace agreements with the SPDC.

Tay Lay’s attitude would seem to confirm this theory.

The late general’s youngest son specifically referred to meetings between his father and the SPDC.

“They [the SPDC] want to deal with Bo Mya’s family because the KNU is considered weak,” he said.

Htin Maung was one of Bo Mya’s cousins.

“But the Burmese knew Bo Mya was a man of his word and held huge respect among Karen people and if he said something would happen, it happened,” said Tay Lay on November 29, 2008.

“The last time my father met with them, they agreed to give back parcels of land in Seventh, Fourth and Fifth Brigade areas.”

He said the latest round of talks related to ceasefires in Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Brigade regions in return for parcels of land.

But David Thackrabaw was insistent Tay Lay’s actions had nothing to do with disenchantment with the KNU, but rather were motivated by his personal financial position.

Tay Lay’s wife was recently seriously ill and he was struggling to pay her hospital bill, forcing him to ask anyone that might come to his assistance for cash.

Asked how he thought the KNU would react to his meeting, Tay Lay said he didn’t think they would be “very happy”, which could go down as one of last year’s great understatements.

But he was unrelenting in his criticisms of the KNU, perhaps looking to disguise his family’s predicament.

He said he was confident he was charting the right course for the future survival of his people, victims of a campaign of genocide.

“I don’t care, the KNU must improve,” he said.

“When we are fighting the KNU doesn’t help, all the leaders live in Thailand and are happy to stay there. They are old men,” he said.

“But people can’t stay in their villages and are fleeing to Thailand and then end up in a third country [as a result of rapid international relocation programmes transplanting refugee camp populations from Thailand to various parts of the globe].

“This we have to stop,” said Tay Lay.

But these comments came from an exhausted man, who just weeks earlier had been at the wheel of his pickup every day, ferrying KNLA soldiers, food and arms to hotspots along the border, taking sleep when he could.

In his wife’s absence he nursed his son, a mere toddler, on many of the trips.

To then turn around and negotiate with the enemy seems erratic behaviour.

The most recent conversation this correspondent had with Tay Lay was last week, when he said he believed Htin Maung had chosen the right path.

“We must talk, some brigades, all they want to do is fight, but we are weak, we cannot just fight, yes there is a time for fighting, but there is also a time for talking,” he said in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

Tay Lay then said he intended to return to talks with the SPDC.

Mention of this discussion raised David Thackrabaw’s eyebrows.

“He’s not still driving around and being seen in Mae Sot is he?” asked the KNU vice president.

“He shouldn’t stay here, he has to leave, [his continued presence] would constitute a corrupting influence for the others,” he said.

He said the only reason more severe punishment had not been meted out to Tay Lay was the deep respect the KNU leadership had for his mother Naw Lar Poe, Bo Mya’s widow.

“We don’t want to upset her, but his mother will have to deal with her son’s problem,” said David Thackrabaw.

Such an attitude is indicative of the compassion with which even war is approached by the greater Karen family and the respect the late Bo Mya commands, even in death.

Naw Lar Poe’s deep and unbending commitment to her people was the only reason Tay Lay “hasn’t been shot”, said David Thackrabaw.

ENDS

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sot, Umphang, Thailand

May, 2008

The Karen National Union chairman Saw Ba Thin Sein has died at 82.

He had fought for independence for the Karen people since 1949.

His funeral was on Sunday, at a fortified camp inside Burma, defended against soldiers of the State Peace and Development Council, the ruling Burmese military regime.

Among the people who attended the funeral to pay tribute to a man who had spent his life in pursuit of unity were leaders of the disparate ethnic nationalities who populate Burma.

Khin Araung, the vice president of the United Party of Arakan, an ethnic minority whose people sprawl along the Bangladeshi border in refugee camps, spoke highly of Ba Thin, explaining that he had been a figure of unity in a sea of discontent.

“This is a great loss, but we must gather strength from a great man’s death,” he said.

“All of the countries surrounding Burma have refugees,” he said.

“Bangladesh is very poor, but still they have refugees.”

People flee across Burma’s borders to whichever country is closest.

Even Laos, which along with Burma shares United Nations Least Developed Country status, has refugees.

Aik Lone, a senior representative of the Lahu people, said he believed the people of Burma could see change in the future.

He said Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 100,000 people, had exposed the ruling generals’ ruthlessness to the world and perhaps could be the required catalyst for change in a country that was at the end of British colonisation one of Southeast Asia’s richest.

“I think this is an ending for the SPDC,” he said.

Each and every one of the ethnic leaders at Ba Thin’s funeral spoke of unity, of the desperate need to unite against an oppressive regime that has sought only to enrich its privileged elite.

They said differences that had crippled past attempts to dislodge the SPDC must now be put aside.

The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Burma is appalling.

In Karen state alone, which borders Thailand, there are as many as 300,000 internally displaced people on any given day.

These people are fleeing men with guns who can take control of their lives in a single moment of anger.

There are more than 100,000 people living in refugee camps scattered along the Thai border.

The people who populate these raggedy camps, struck of bamboo and leaves, are the lucky ones.

They know SPDC soldiers will not storm their home when they go to sleep at night because Thai soldiers are watching over them.

Thailand has been a good friend to the Karen for many years, since 1984 when refugees came flooding across its borders after particularly brutal military offensives, it has managed camps to protect a dislocated populace.

But Thailand is a developing country.

And developing countries are hungry for energy that will power their economies.

Burma is blessed with natural gas reserves in the Andaman Sea.

The Gulf of Thailand is not.

And so to continue developing, Thailand must do business with Burma’s ruling military regime.

They would probably prefer they did not have to.

ENDS

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sariang, Thailand

May 2008

I am slotted in the back of a one-tonne pick-up truck with 12 soldiers of the Karen National Liberation Army.

It is impossibly hot.

Then it begins to rain.

So we are doing 120km/h and we are all drenched and laughing at our predicament.

There is no room to move, everyone is uncomfortable and the road is steaming from the deluge.

The mountains around us are steaming.

We have just left the funeral of the Karen National Union chairman Pado Ba Thin Sein.

There were two foreigners there, the photographer I am working with and myself.

The pickup is lurching all over the road, there is no right side of the road.

The man behind the wheel is Ner Dah, the son of the late General Bo Mya, a former Karen National Union chairman himself.

About six hundred kilometres by road, two river crossings and reduction to a sweating mess twice over, Ner Dah delivers me back to where I began the day as night closes in on us.

The Thai military have not arrested me, Ner Dah was concerned about that, so we have had a win.

I was pushed into the front of the pickup’s tray and surrounded by good soldiers.

At some checkpoints the Thais didn’t even see me, all they could see was legs.

At the edge of the funeral Saw Aung Win Shwe laments what life has dealt him as a refugee.

“My mother died six years ago, but of course I could not go to the funeral,” he tells me.

He is an expatriate Burmese who would be arrested, tortured and then killed if he were to return to his homeland.

He fled as a student in 1988.

We talk a little about his mum and he accepts it as a fact of his life that he could not witness her funeral rites.

I am at a loss.

How do I explain that people in the West will never grasp the concept that his own government would have refused him the right to attend his mother’s funeral?

It beggars belief, but it is a fact in today’s Burma that the military is waging war against its own people.

When the international community lines up to provide aid in the event of a tremendous natural disaster the junta rejects them.

The 12 men I share the pickup with are all living on the verge of their country and are part of the last organised group that has not signed a peace deal with the current embodiment of Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.

Fighting has become a way of life for them, they laugh as they do it.

Everyone at the funeral asks me what I think the “international community” will do now, as the junta’s hatred for its people has obviously been laid bare.

How would I know?

The international community does not have a phone number – I can’t call to check.

But as the only foreign reporter among perhaps 10,000 Burmese they want to know what I think.

All I can do is explain that what you are dealing with is a hotch-potch of vested interests all vying against one another to make the most money.

At least someone has found a plastic sheet to keep the rain off us as we hurtle down the road.

ENDS

Mae Sot, Thailand

GENERAL Bo Mya, the commander of the KNLA, hates the Burmese.

The 74-year-old has been integral to the Karen struggle since it was decided to take up arms and fight for an independent homeland.

He believes any country that actively engages with the Burmese junta is directly supporting its campaign of genocide against Burmese ethnic minorities.

He carries a walking stick much of the time, and always has a large hunting knife tucked into a scabbard on his belt.

At one point as we speak he rips the knife from its sheath and fingers it in front of his face: “If I could, I would kill every one of them [Burmese soldiers] alone and with my hands.

“They [countries actively engaging in Burma] are simply killing people, people are dying and the drugs keep coming.

“The country is poor, but the military is not, the country is poor because the SPDC refuses to stop fighting,” he said.

“Serious sanctions by the international community can certainly help, already the Burmese have accumulated debts that they cannot pay.”

The general is the Defence and Foreign Affairs Minister of the Karen National Union, the government of which the KNLA constitutes the armed forces.

He believes military defeat of the Burmese junta’s troops is quite possible and he intends to be the tactician behind the task.

I questioned the general about generally quoted numbers of KNLA troops, about 3000, to which the General replied simply: “You must go and meet some of our men”.

That marked an abrupt end to our interview, but meant immediate approval to travel inside Burma clandestinely to meet a brigade of soldiers handpicked by the General.

We were, within two weeks, the first journalists to the meet KNLA’s Sixth Brigade Battalion 202.

‘The fighting may be long, hard and cruel, but we are prepared for all eventualities. To die fighting is better than to live as a slave. But we firmly believe that we shall survive and be victorious, for our cause is just and righteous, and surely any tyranny so despised as the Burmese regime must one day fall.’

From a Karen National Union propaganda handout.

ENDS

Burma

COMMANDER Saw Charles, 61, presides over battalion 202.

He has been fighting against Burmese troops since 1957, has been wounded twice, and still carries shell fragments embedded in his skull.

He established this river camp in May 2000.

Battalion 201, commanded by Ner Dah, and 202 have been specially formed; members have been hand picked by the upper echelon of the KNLA command, each soldier personally approved by General Bo Mya.

Spread out along the river there are more than 350 of Saw Charles’ troops, they operate in bands of about 10.

They live in what is described as a “free fire zone”.

The thousands of villagers that once lived in the area have been forcibly relocated to a northern region of Karen state along the Salween River, hundreds of kilometres away, they were escorted by SPDC and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) troops – a breakaway faction of the KNLA.

The DKBA has signed a peace deal on behalf of the Karen people.

With the general populace displaced, SPDC and DKBA troops consider anyone moving through the area to be a member of the rebel army.

It is through this free fire zone that 10-year-old Pa Law Meh walked, picking his way through each army’s mine fields to reach the commander’s base.

The stories of the soldiers who live in this camp are peppered with the same horrific tales.

Most have witnessed their father’s death at the hands of Burmese troops, all have lost members of their families and all see no other way to help their people than to take up arms.

As the ageing KNLA commanders plan their next offensive deep into Karen state they pore over British maps that date back to the 1920s, they have great difficulty with the English language yet can identify various peaks and valleys with their intimate knowledge of the landscape.

SPDC troops are stationed less than one kilometre away and at night their changing of perimeter guards, sounded by clacking bamboo cups together, can be heard resonating through the mountains.

Commander Saw Charles answers only to Bo Mya.

Of the 202 battalion’s hierarchy, next in line are Ohn Khla, 41, and chief officer Hla Ma Ku, 51.

Land mine use is extensive by all sides fighting in this protracted conflict.

Ohn Khla laments the fact the KNLA’s mines last only about three months underground, while the SPDC’s last about a year, perhaps many more.

The mines the KNLA guerillas use are made in the camp and are powerful enough to blow off a person’s foot.

“We don’t want to kill them, just slow them down a little,” says Ohn Khla, smiling.

But there are drawbacks to land mine use, the only KNLA casualty from this unit in six months occurred when a soldier stepped on one of the KNLA’s own mines.

He lost his foot and is now in Thailand.

The guerilla tactics adopted by the KNLA have been effective, Battalion 202 commanders claimed they had killed more than 30 SPDC soldiers in October and November of 2000.

“But you would not believe it, just last week they requested a cease-fire, via the Thai troops across the river,” says Commander Saw Charles.

“I apologised, and explained that only the general could agree to such a thing,” he said.

The Karen state is a militarised zone, when villagers are asked from what region they hail, they inevitably reply as to which KNLA region, from first to seventh brigade, they originate from.

General Bo Mya is widely regarded as having united the various Karen military factions to form the KNLA.

But he was unable to stop one small breakaway faction of between 300 and 400 soldiers that had dire consequences for his army.

In 1994 the group, which was to become known as the DKBA (the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army), defected and began working with the Burmese junta.

The defection was an absolute disaster for the KNLA, which maintained what was generally considered an impenetrable headquarters at Mannerplaw, surrounded by river and cliffs and protected by substantial mine fields that blanketed the one land entrance.

DKBA defectors lead SPDC troops through the minefields and Mannerplaw fell in 1995.

With it went the KNLA’s halcyon days, days of gem mining and logging operations – they had even managed to make a documentary about the Salween River “The Dead River”.

“The DKBA are nothing more than bandits, they are generally uneducated and know nothing of the politics of the situation in Karen state,” says Saw Charles.

“They are soldiers for no reason.”

Most of the defectors were under Saw Charles’ command, they were members of his old battalion, the 104th.

But many DKBA soldiers have since returned to the Karen fold.

Saw Thee Maw is one of those soldiers, he returned to the KNLA because he says he witnessed too many atrocities at the hands of DKBA soldiers.

Saw Thee Maw has a message for the world: “When I was 15 the DKBA said if I did not join them they would kill me, but then I realised that the DKBA was controlled by the SPDC and they hated the Karen people and treated us like animals.

“And so I have begun to fight with the KNLA, because I want my country’s freedom.”

ENDS