Statement of KNLA General Headquart

[Simon_Po@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Statement of KNLA General Headquarters

                                         STATEMENT OF KNLA GENERAL
HEADQUARTERS

                                                                             
                                        July 3, 1997


* As the SLORC unilaterally abrogated talks with the KNU and launched a major
military offensive against the KNU and the Karen people in February 1997,
many clashes have been taking place, ever since. In the ferocious offensive,
the SLORC has been employing its military divisions
101/11/22/33/44/55/66/77/88/99 and the area garrison units against the KNLA
6th Bde. in Kaw-Ka-Reik and Moulmein districts, 4th Bde. in Tanessarim
division, 7th Bde. in Pa-an district, 5th Bde. in Pa-pun district, 1st Bde.
in Thaton district, 3rd Bde. in Nyaung Lay Bin district, and 2nd Bde. in
Toungoo and Pyin Ma Na districts.

* Lt.Gen. Tin Oo himself commands this especially savage offensive. Though
the commander of 16th Bn., Thu Mu Heh, and a few followers surrenderd to the
enemy, the remaining KNLA commanders and troops have successfully countered,
with full patriotism, the SLORC 's brutal offensive.

* In resisting the barbarous offensive of the SLORC, troops of the alliance
forces such as the ABSDF, PLF, ABMU & etc. have joined hands with the KNLA.
During the period from February 11 to June 30, 1997, 380 major and minor
clahses had taken place. Land mine attacks were staged 221 times. There were
584 dead and 544 wounded on the SLORC side, while troops of the KNU and the
alliance forces suffered 26 dead and 22 wounded.

* As the KNLA avoided positional warfare and employed mainly the mobile,
guerrilla and mine warfare, it has managed to stage a large number of
small-scale clashes. As a result, it has managed to minimize its casualty,
while inflicting heavy casualty on the enemy and, at the same time, prevented
waste of ammunition.

* In the present military offensive, the SLORC troops have committed, on a
wide scale, atrocities and human rights violations such as execution,
torture, forced labor, looting of valuables, burning the villages and food
supplies, forced relocation, deliberately killing the live-stock & etc. of
the Karen people. These atrocities are much worse than the massacres of the
Karen people by the BIA during the Japanese occupation, and they will go down
in the annuals of Karen history as the most horrible bloodshed, attacks and
destruction.

* Instead of resolving the political problems by political means, if the
SLORC continues its barbaric offensive against the KNU and the Karen people
in the present manner, the KNU and the KNLA will have no alternative but to
continue to resist and counter, in self-defense, the military offensive of
the SLORC.


Abbreviatiosns: KNLA = Karen National liberation Army (Military wing of Karen
resistance); SLORC = state law and Order Restoration Council (Military
dictatorship of Burma); KNU = Karen National Union (Political wing of Karen
resistance); Bde. = Brigade; ABSDF = All Burma Students' Democratic Front;
PLF = People's Liberation Front; ABMU = All Burma Muslim Union
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