The Longest Fight
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Friday, March 29, 2024
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The Longest Fight


By Shah Paung and Harry Priestley/Pu Bo Mya Plaw, Karen State MARCH, 2006 - VOLUME 14 NO.3


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(Page 2 of 3)

“We need to try for political dialogue,” he says. “To get [that] we need pressure—both internal and international—and we need unity and strength. With no unity, there is no strength.”

 

 

The division between the movement’s political and military wings often blurs. In January 2004, Bo Mya, then commanding officer of the KNLA and vice-chairman of the KNU, led a 21-man delegation to Rangoon for talks with the Burmese junta. He returned with a ceasefire of sorts, a “gentlemen’s agreement,” whereby government troops would desist from military operations in Karen-controlled territory. The reality is that government troops are still active in Karen territory and while both sides avoid conflict in certain areas, skirmishes are common elsewhere.

 

More recently, in December 2005, a group of KNLA representatives from Brigade 7 and former KNU executive committee member Mahn Nyein Maung went to Bangkok to hold ceasefire talks with the Burmese government’s military attach? to Thailand, Col Tin Soe. The central KNU committee had not sanctioned the meeting, and rumors were rife that Brigade 7 was going to break away and seal an independent truce with the junta.

 

No such agreement was made, and Brigade 7 returned to the fold. But while prominent KNLA officers dismiss the meeting as a mere charade, or “delaying tactics, to avoid fighting,” for others, the Bangkok visit reopened some painful wounds.

 

The meeting was orchestrated by Pastor Timothy, a humanitarian worker who is reviled by many in the KNU’s top echelon for his criticism of their leadership and his continued work with the breakaway Karen group the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army. The DKBA broke away from the KNU in 1995 following a dispute over bias towards Christians, and was promptly assimilated by government forces.

 

The DKBA’s inside knowledge allowed the Tatmadaw (armed forces) to breach the KNU base camp at Manerplaw, thus forcing the Karen to retreat into the jungle. The withdrawal from Manerplaw radically altered the way the KNU could operate, and it turned to guerilla tactics as opposed to the positional warfare previously employed.

 

“The big fights do not happen any more,” says Ner Dah Mya. “Now we only fight for five minutes then withdraw.”

 

On his return from Rangoon in 2004, Bo Mya was rushed to Bangkok and hospitalized with a foot injury, which was exacerbated by his chronic diabetes. Now unable to walk, and requiring constant medical attention, the general’s position is tenuous, with many leaders wanting him to step back from official duties and take a sinecure.



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