"After more than half a century of struggle and nearly a decade of major setbacks, the Karen National Union remains defiant in the face of calls to lay down its arms. By Aung Zaw After 53 years of resistance against Rangoon, the aging leadership of the Karen National Union (KNU) is nothing if not defiant. Arguably weaker now than at any other point in its half-century-long struggle, the KNU and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), have faced numerous setbacks in the past decade. But asked about the prospects of the KNU entering the dubious embrace of Rangoon?s "legal fold", Padoh Mahn Sha, the KNU?s general secretary, did not mince words: "Surrender is out of the question," he told The Irrawaddy recently..."