Karenni leader

Karenni leader: Form union to achieve freedom

Politics

During an exclusive interview yesterday (12 November), leaders of the Karenni resistance once again called for the formation of a federal union in order "to free the peoples of Burma from oppression." 

The first call was made three months earlier on 9 August, coinciding with the 55th anniversary of the Karenni National Day. 

"The statement had created some misconceptions among other resistance movements and the media alike," Gen Aung Than Lay, the grizzled "Prime Minister" of the Karenni National Government. "Both merely took it for granted we had abandoned our cherished independence stand and had finally come to our senses, as indicated by news reports that appeared." 

"That Karenni was and is an independent country is not an empty wallowing in nostalgia," he insisted. "It is both a historical and legal fact. It is there for us whether or not we take notice of it." 

Karenni and Shan State were granted by the 1947 constitution the right to secede. Both regard its forced termination by the military in 1962 as "the kicking out of the union", in legal effect, of both states, hence the independence stand. 

"However, we have always maintained that we would be happy to become a member state of a genuine federal union", continued Aung Than Lay, who was accompanied by Naing Aung Sein, "Minister" of Information. "We had not 'come to our senses' only lately." 

The significance of the 9 August statement was not that it had "ditched" Independence, as misconstrued by many, they said, "but that we had called for the establishment of a genuine federal union before, and not after, achieving freedom." 

The Karenni leader elaborated, "We had, for fifty years, formed several united fronts, but they were not strong enough to defeat our common enemy. The only way to make our alliances solid and unbeatable, as we had concluded at the 4-6 August meeting of the Karenni National Progressive Party, is to form a federal state." 

The Karenni proposal is to undertake the task in two stages: Formation of a "Federal Council" to draft a federal constitution and the inauguration of the federal union by 2005. 

The response so far had been sparse. "Perhaps the fault lies with our imperfect use of the languages available to us," Naing Aung Sein was apologetic. 

Nevertheless, its allies could expect to hear their proposition again at a meeting scheduled sometime before the end of the year, they guaranteed. 

The Karenni, or Kayah, was recognized as independent by an agreement signed in 1875 between Britain and Mandalay, then Burma's capital. It lies between Shan State in the north, Karen State in the south, Burma "proper" in the west and Thailand in the east.