KNU urges regime to step back from politics, hand power to civilian government

By DMG 15 Oct 2021

DMG Newsroom
15 October 2021, Yangon

The Karen National Union (KNU) on October 15 issued a statement marking the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, in which it called for the regime council to transfer power to a federal government to end political conflicts that have been occurring for more than seven decades.

It has been six years that the KNU has sought via the NCA path to solve the long-term political crisis that successive governments have been unable to tackle successfully, the ethnic armed group and NCA signatory said in its statement.

However, all paths to solve the political crisis were blocked after the military seized power on February 1, 2021, returning the country to a time before 2010 and creating conditions worse than the conditions pre-2010, Pado Saw Tar Do Mu, general secretary of the KNU, told DMG.

“I want to say the military should be free from politics. The country cannot be released from the circle of the coup. It happened in 1962, 1988 and 2021, according to the history of Myanmar. Such an issue occurred because of the military,” he said.

As a consequence of the military, people throughout Myanmar are facing social and economic difficulties and the country is verging on collapse, the KNU said in its statement.

The KNU called for six points in the statement to end the country’s worsening situation, including urging the regime council to officially announce a commitment to create a federal democratic nation and to withdraw its involvement in politics to save the dignity of the Tatmadaw.

“There will be a bridge between the people and military officers who want reforms when the regime council boldly announces that it will go with a civilian government. Thereby, we can step forward to a path based on federalism that we want through international mediation,” said Pado Saw Tar Do Mu.

The KNU has seven brigades, and is one of the country’s oldest and most influential ethnic armed groups. It signed the NCA in 2015 under the U Thein Sein government, but fierce fighting has occurred between regime forces and the KNU after the latter announced that it did not accept the coup and would stand with the people of Myanmar in opposition to the military takeover.

It has been nearly nine months since the coup, and popular resistance to the regime remains strong in many parts of the country.

Between February 1 and October 14, at least 1,171 people were killed by security forces and 8,918 people were arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).