General Ner Dah Bo Mya, the head of the Karen National Defence Organisation told Karen News that armed conflict this month in Burma is linked to plans to build hydropower dams on the Salween River. In an exclusive interview General Ner Dah explains to Karen News why he has placed his troops are on high alert.
General Ner Dah said that fighting between the government’s militia, the Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) has sent warning signals to the Karen armed groups that the government is planning to reinforce its military in the region.
“The current situation that we have in our area right now is that we have to be alert because there is fighting between the BGF and the DKBA. We have to be alert because we can see that the Burmese [army] are reinforcing their military in most of their base camps that are also close to our base camps.”
General Ner Dah said that his organization is aware that the government intends to clamp down on any opposition to its plans to build ‘development projects’ in Karen State.
He said they had received information that the BGF offensives against the DKBA were happening because the government had received funding for the dam project and wanted to clear DKBA positions from the area in order to start the project, even though most Karen people oppose it.
He said: “Karen civilians don’t support the dam hydropower project because most people feel that it will only support the military government and the people will not be benefit from the mega project that [is] related to the dam.”
According to General Ner Dah the ceasefire and peace talks between the government and the Karen have reached a stalemate and are stalled because the government’s main focus is on seizing Karen resources and land rather than engaging with them in a genuine political dialogue.
He said: “The government is only pushing for what they want and they don’t compromise. All they want is to control ethnic territory, to control our resources, to take over and to put everybody under their control. That’s a problem because all the ethnic groups want to maintain their identity, their culture and to have self-determination. They want to have their autonomous state that is controlled by the Karen people not by the Burmese people. That’s why it is related to the peace process.”
General Ner Dah was blunt in his assessment of the current peace negotiations.
He said: “I am not very optimistic about it.”
