Majority of KNU leaders want peace,

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Majority of KNU leaders want peace, official says

 .c Kyodo News Service    

YANGON, April 20 (Kyodo) - A majority of the leaders of the rebel Karen
National Union (KNU) want peace, KNU Central Executive Committee member Phado
Aung San said Monday. 

Phado Aung San, former KNU forestry minister and right-hand man of rebel
leader Gen. Bo Mya, made the remark at a press conference in Yangon. 

Phado Aung San said he, 70 rebel soldiers and 143 family members entered
Myanmar from a Thai refugee camp April 7 to ''exchange weapons for peace.'' 

''I want my colleagues (in the jungle) to understand that we are not
capitulating...We have been received by the government and people like their
family members since we crossed into our homeland. 

''Both our ranks and the people want peace. We are abandoning the weapons
which are a deterrent to peace, while three battalions of government troops
are looking after our security,'' he said. 

The returnees were formally received at a ceremony last Friday by government
leaders, led by Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, secretary of the ruling junta, the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC). 

The SPDC allotted 500 acres of land for a new village for the returnees, and
provided necessary assistance for their immediate needs. 

Phado Aung San expressed his satisfaction and surprise at the warm welcome and
thanked the government for its help. He asked the government to accord similar
assistance to the other KNU members and to the members of the All-Burma
Students Democratic Front rebel group. 

Col.Thein Swe, speaking on behalf of the government, stated that Senior Gen.
Than Shwe, the SPDC chairman, had March 27 invited those remaining in the
jungles to return. 

Phado Aung San expressed his belief that many KNU members and refugees in
Thailand will return to Myanmar. He asked the Thai government to help the
refugees return. He said the KNU and the lower level Thai officials at the
refugee camps are hampering the return of the refugees to Myanmar. 

Asked about the situation in the KNU leadership, Phado Aung San said, ''A
majority of the leaders want peace. Those, including Bo Mya, who have property
and assets in Thailand will not return to Myanmar. Some of them have already
sent their families to Thailand. It will be difficult for Bo Mya to carry on
the leadership of the KNU.'' 

He said that although the KNU claims to have 20,000-30,000 soldiers, the
group's actual strength is ''only about 1,000.'' 

Asked about relations between the KNU and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), he said, ''The NLD supported the
KNU Meitharawhta Declartion of January 1997, and the KNU supports the NLD
activities. This mutual support obviously shows the link between the two
organizations.'' 

AP-NY-04-20-98 0515EDT