Karen Martyrs’ Day Marked by Calls for Unity

As Karen people around the world observed Karen Martyrs’ Day on Tuesday, leaders of Burma’s largest and longest-running ethnic resistance movement called for unity among their people.

David Htaw, a spokesperson for the Karen National Union (KNU), used the occasion, which commemorates the assassination of KNU founding president Saw Ba U Gyi and eight of his colleagues 58 years ago, to highlight the dangers of disunity.

“If we look at the assassinations of our President Ba U Gyi and our General Secretary Padoh Mahn Sha, we can see that they were the result of plots by the Burmese government and some opportunists to divide our Karen people,” he said.

Mahn Sha was shot to death at his home in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on February 14, 2008. His murder by two Karen gunmen, believed to have been sent by a breakaway group that has joined forces with Burma’s military regime, shocked the Karen community.

David Htaw also pointed to the formation of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)—the largest Karen splinter group—in 1995 as further evidence of the Burmese regime’s divide-and-rule tactics. Continue

'We will continue our struggle': KNU

Despite of many fallen heroes and leaders, the Karen National Union, an ethnic armed rebel group, on Tuesday vowed to continue their struggle for self-determination in the path laid down by martyrs and follow the role model of their leaders.

KNU, one of the longest running insurgents of Burma, reiterated their unwavering stand on the 58th Karen Martyrs' Day ceremony held on Tuesday at a location they called Kawthoolay, or Karen land, along the Thai-Burmese border.

The ceremony was graced by several of the KNU leaders including Saw Tamalabaw, Chairman of the KNU's armed wing - Karen National Liberation Army - Chief-of-Staff Maj. Gen. Mutu Saypho and KNU's Joint- General Secretary (1) Pado David Tharkapaw. Continue

Remembering our heroes and rethinking the revolution

August 12th is a solemn day in the history of the Karen people. On this day we mourn the deaths of our national heroes, or martyrs if you will, and remember their sacrifices. It has been almost 60 years since the glorious Karen armed resistance commenced in 1949, and our dead heroes – San C. Poe, Saw Pay Thar, Synedy Loo Ne, Saw Ba U Gyi, Saw San Kay, Mahn Ba Zan,  Skaw Ler Taw, Gen. Bo Mya and countless others – have indeed persisted in our collective memory. The persistence of our memories for them, however, may not be in exactly the way they anticipated. Continue