Karen man at Thaksin's give-away party

Politics

Karen man at Thaksin's give-away party

The Karen National Union's representative for Europe and East Timor was caught off guard in Bangkok on Sunday, 29 August, attending a top brass wedding ceremony hosted by Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"I'm here to attend a purely social event," Saw Sarky told S.H.A.N. "I don't aim to discuss political matters here, because I don't think this is a proper forum or occasion."

The wedding, co-hosted by the newly independent Democratic Republic of East Timor's prime minister Mari Alkatiri, was between Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta's son Moubere Lorosa'e de Silva-Horta and Soraya Simsiri from Thailand.

"There are people who say Thailand is losing its daughter to a foreign country," Thaksin was heard quipping, "overlooking the plain fact that it is winning a son and an ally instead."

Among the 500-guests at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel were Thai generals who had commanded peace-keeping forces in East Timor and Gen Sanan Kajonklam who heads the Thai-East Timor Cultural and Economic Cooperation Association.

Concerning the off-and-on going peace talks with Rangoon, Saw Sarky remains outwardly positive. "Our talks are progressing, but input and support from third parties will always be a positive step as a lot of hard work is still necessary to finalize an effective, balanced and 100% implementable ceasefire agreement that attends to the complexities and sheer size of the terrain. This is not instant coffee. It must be built on solid basis in order to be lasting and effective."

Meanwhile another Karen source, in response to S.H.A.N. enquiry, says the KNU leadership, during its "informal" meeting with Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt's envoy, Col San Pwint, on 28 August in Maesod, had called for a neutral country as a venue for future peace talks and a formal ceasefire agreement, among others.

"We have already been engaged in more than 300 clashes since the gentleman's agreement to stop the fighting was reached in December," he added.

Karen representative Saw Sarky (right) with East Timor's prime minister and wife, 29 August 2004

The KNU has taken up arms against Rangoon since 1949. Its current president Saw Ba Thin Sein also chairs the Ethnic Nationalities Council, a policy making body set up by the National Democratic Front and United Nationalities League for Democracy in 2001.