Karen Women Urge KNU To Rejoin UNFC

A Karen women’s group based inside Burma urged the Karen National Union (KNU) to rejoin the ethnic alliance, as its recent action to suspend its membership risks dividing support within the Karen political community and derailing unity in the ethnic nationalities.

The Karen Women Union issued a statement last week that raised issues over the decision by the KNU to temporarily suspend its membership with the United Nationalities Federal Council.

Naw Ohn Hla, a spokeswoman from KWU spoke to Karen News about their reason for issuing a public statement.

“We see that it [the suspension] is in contradiction to KNU policies. The decision also seems to be influenced by individuals, groups and personal attitudes. Therefore, we put out our position statement to voice our concern to KNU over this action.”

The KWU’s statement highlights five key points that the KNU ignored and by doing so defied its own policies laid down at its 15th Congress. The KNU – by suspending its membership with UNFC, an ethnic alliance formed to establish a federal union – has effectively divided the strength of the ethnic push for national equality and its call for rights to self-determination.

The KWU statement said that it realized that the suspension decision is not that of entire KNU organization, but that it was the position of some of the delegation leaders.

The KWU statement stressed it is concerned by the KNU action as it could affect the unity of the KNU and its cooperation with all other ethnic nationalities. The KWU statement recommended that the KNU rejoin the ethnic bloc and demonstrate its unity.

The Karen Women’s Union (KWU) was founded by Naw Ohn Hla and was established in April this year in Yangon with the aim to support Karen national affairs.

Mahn Htein Win Sein, chairman of Pantanaw Township Karen Literacy and Culture committee also voiced his concerns on the issue. Mahn Htein Win Sein told Karen News that the Karen people could not go their own way by trying to separately establish equality and rights for self-determination. These issues related to all ethnic nationalities in Burma. Peace will not be achieved without the equality and unity of all the ethnic nationalities.

Speaking to Karen News, Mahn Htein Win Sein said. “As many as 95% of Karen nationalities [in our region] accepted the KNU as the mother organization that leads Karen politics. The KNU need to listen to the voices of our Karen people. We only learned that there was a press conference held at the border region – that is not good enough. We want to say that the opinions of all Karen need to be heard and considered.”

The KNU suspended its membership of the UNFC during the 1st Congress of the ethnic alliance organized on August 25 in Chaing Mai, Thailand. KNU delegates who attended the Congress had submitted a nine point proposal recommending the ethnic bloc change its structure and policies on August 30. After the KNU’s proposal was not discussed and rejected by the majority of the alliance members, the KNU submitted its letter of suspension as an alliance member. The KNU will hold a central executive committee meeting to make the decision for its further involvement with the ethnic alliance.