Active armed resistance still needed

Active armed resistance still needed, says Karen leader

Politics

Coinciding with recent Thailand's defense minister saying he had ordered the Third Army to give the Karen and Shan rebels "a hard time" to make them go to the negotiating table with Rangoon, a Karen National Union central committee member countered yesterday by arguing that the role of armed opposition in order to bring Rangoon to peace talks should not be put down lightly. 

"Military and internal political resistance, along with international diplomacy, must be pursued by the KNU and its allies to bring the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council, as the Burmese leadership is known) to the negotiation table," wrote Saw Saky, Karen representative for EU, in his report: SPDC abandoned planned offensive on KNLA amid heavy casualties. 

KNLA is the acronym of Karen National Liberation Army, the KNU's armed wing. 

The report claims that since 1 January until 28 February, the Burmese army had lost 68 dead and wounded, including a colonel and a captain in the area of Walay Kee alone. According to the KNLA's monthly battle news, Rangoon suffered 27 dead and 90 wounded in February on other fronts that include districts of Thaton, Toungoo, Mergui, Tavoy, Papun and Pa-an. "(The campaign was) called off after suffering spiraling losses without having been able to take up position for a final assault." 

The KNU and its allies, the Shan State Army, Karenni National Progress Party, Chin National Front and Arakan Liberation Party, announced their readiness to talk to Rangoon on 25 February. 

An official letter, signed by representatives from all five groups, was also reportedly sent to Prime Minister Thaksin Shanawatra, who had offered to act as a mediator on 10 February, upon his return from Rangoon. 

"We are preparing for war because we want to talk peace," warlord Khun Sa once said echoing a famous adage by an ancient Chinese sage, "An army should always ready but never be used", before his Mong Tai Army, once regarded as the strongest armed opposition movement, shattered to pieces in 1995 following mutiny by discontented commanders who opposed his high-handed practices.