July 15, 2006
Gen Bo Mya, head of the KNU Defense Department, meets briefly with a junta delegation led by Col Myat Htun Oo from Military Affairs Security in the Thai-Burmese border town Mae Sot, which says that the government wants to hold “soldier-to-soldier” talks.
June 28, 2006
KNLA’s Col Ner Dah Mya, son of Gen Bo Mya, meets Burmese military attach? Col Tin Soe at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok to pass on the junta’s invitation to the ailing Karen leader to receive medical treatment in Rangoon. He offers the Karen general 300,000 baht (about US $8,000) for travel and expenses. The offer is declined.
May 5, 2005
A KNU delegation, led by Col Htoo Htoo Lay, the group’s joint-secretary, and David Taw, head of the foreign affairs committee, meet a Burmese military government delegation led by Lt-Col Myat Htun Oo from Military Affairs Security—formerly known as the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence—for ceasefire talks in Myawaddy, opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot.
March 14, 2005
A 13-member KNU delegation, led by Joint-Secretary Col Htoo Htoo Lay, begins talks with Maj-Gen Thura Myint Aung of Burma’s Southeast Command and other junta officials in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State. The two-day session brings no result.
October 18, 2004
A 16-member KNU team, led by Joint-Secretary Col Htoo Htoo Lay, leaves for ceasefire talks with the junta in Rangoon. Their scheduled week-long meeting with military officials, including Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein, Col San Pwint and Lt-Col Thein Han, is cut short by the purge of Burmese intelligence chief and prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt.
February 23, 2004
A 12-member KNU delegation, led by Joint-Secretary Col Htoo Htoo Lay and foreign affairs chief David Taw, holds peace talks with Burmese government officials, including Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein and Col San Pwint of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence.
Just hours before the start of the talks in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State, soldiers from the KNU’s Third Brigade attack a Burma Army outpost in Donzayit village in Pegu Division. The three-day meeting produces no formal ceasefire agreement.
January 22, 2004
A 20-member KNU delegation concludes its visit to Rangoon by reaching an informal ceasefire agreement with the junta. No official agreement is signed.
January 20, 2004
Khin Nyunt meets with Gen Bo Mya and hosts a dinner party for the Karen delegation at the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel. The occasion marks the Karen general’s 77th birthday.
January 15, 2004
Twenty Karen officials, led by Gen Bo Mya, arrive in Rangoon for talks with top junta leaders, including Gen Khin Nyunt, to discuss an official ceasefire agreement.
December 3, 2003
A five-member KNU delegation, including Lt-Col Soe Soe, a KNU liaison officer, flies to Rangoon to meet Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt and Karen community leaders. Upon their return on December 8, Gen Bo Mya announces that the KNU has verbally agreed to a ceasefire with the government.
November 22, 2003
KNU leaders meet Col San Pwint, a spokesperson for Burma’s Ministry of Defense, in Mae Sot, Thailand, near the Burmese border. San Pwint says the Burmese military government is open to dialogue with the KNU without conditions.
November 22, 1996
A two-day meeting between KNU delegates, led by Gen Tarmalar Baw, and Burma Army representatives, led by Brig-Gen Aung Thein and Col Kyaw Win, is held in Moulmein, Mon State.
July 4, 1996
KNU delegates, led by Gen Tamalar Baw, hold talks with Secretary 1 Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt in Rangoon.
June 6, 1996
A two-day meeting between KNU delegates, led by Chief-of-Staff Gen Tarmalar Baw, and Burma Army representatives, led by Deputy Commander of the Southeast Command Brig-Gen Aung Thein and Deputy Director of Defense Services Intelligence Col Kyaw Win, is held in Moulmein, Mon State.
February 22, 1996
KNU delegates, led by Padoh Mahn Sha, vice secretary 1, meet the junta’s Secretary 1 Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt for peace talks in Rangoon.
February 15, 1996
A two-day meeting between KNU representatives, led by vice secretary 1 Padoh Mahn Sha, and Burma Army representatives, led by Col Thein Swe, a department head of the Ministry of Defense’s Office of Strategic Studies, is held in Moulmein, Mon State.
December 21, 1995
KNU delegates, led by Mahn Stila, meet with Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, secretary 1 of the ruling junta, at the first top-level peace talks in Rangoon.
December 14, 1995
A six-day meeting between KNU representatives, led by Central Committee Member Mahn Stila, and Burma Army representatives, led by Deputy Director of Defense Services Intelligence Col Kyaw Win and Deputy Commander of the Southeast Command Col Aung Thein, is held in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State.
April 23, 1993
Gen Bo Mya, Chairman of the Karen National Union, sends an open letter to Snr-Gen Than Shwe, chairman of Burma’s ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council, demanding that a countrywide ceasefire be declared and all political prisoners be released as conditions for holding peace talks.
UPDATED IN JULY 2006
