The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), a community-based organization that represents 49,000 Karen women across Burma, has criticized the decision by the Karen National Union to withdraw from the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) last month.
Naw K’nyaw Paw, secretary of the KWO, said the KNU would do itself more harm politically if it decided to leave the UNFC completely.
“It is political suicide if the KNU completely stops working with the UNFC,” K’nyaw Paw said, adding that there was confusion in the Karen community as to why the decision had been made by the KNU. “We do not understand why the KNU would suspend working with the UNFC at this critical time and what motivations were behind the decision. The KNU have been leading the struggle for equal rights for many decades so we fail to see why some of the current leaders do not want to work with the UNFC any more.”
The KNU stated that it had suspended its membership from the UNFC in protest after their proposal to reform the internal structure of the UNFC had been rejected by most of the alliance members. The KNU has expressed frustration at what they see is a top-down leadership model in the alliance, which is chaired by the Kachin Independence Organization.
Naw K’nyaw Paw, however, questioned the KNU’s rationale for withdrawing its membership. “The reasons the KNU gave to justify their suspension are not convincing – we think that there were many ways the KNU could have found ways to resolve their differences with other ethnic alliance members within the UNFC without taking this decision. We do not see the UNFC interfering with KNU sovereignty as the KNU claimed, and the ethnic alliance never did that to any of the individual alliance members. In fact, the individual members in the alliance continued to make internal decisions and exercise internal sovereignty.”
The KNU’s decision has proven to be a decisive one, with analysts and community leaders stating support for the decision, arguing the UNFC was too top-down and under the influence of the KIO, while others have voiced concern that it will weaken the effort of ethnic armed organizations to attain equal rights and peace.
Naw K’nyaw Paw warned that the KNU’s decision compromised the push for peace and equal rights. “Right now is a critical time for ethnic groups to be working together, with a united and strong voice to strengthen our alliance. For the sake of gaining our political objectives and equal rights as ethnic minorities, we disagree with the KNU leaving the UNFC and we urge them to rejoin it as soon as possible.”
The independent human rights organization, the Karen Human Rights Group, has continued to document human rights abuses in Karen State in spite of the 2012 KNU preliminary ceasefire agreement with the Burma government. In a report released this year, KHRG documented wide-scale land confiscation by government or government linked companies that uprooted the lives of locals.
Naw K’nyaw Paw also said the KWO was monitoring ongoing abuses in Karen State and that the KNU should take the ongoing abuses as a lesson of dealing with the government as a separate body without the backing of an ethnic alliance. “Even with the ceasefire, the Burma Army has been strengthening their military outposts in the Karen territory and has been perpetrating human rights abuses against Karen people, including land confiscation. So if we take this example, then we can see that the Burma government likes to deal separately with each ethnic armed group so as to weaken us. This strategy of divide and rule is clearly still in practice by the President U Thein Sein administration.”
In an interview with Karen News last week, the General Secretary of the KNU, Padoh Kwe Htoo Win, cautioned that the decision did not herald that the KNU was abandoning its work with fellow ethnic originations. “This [suspension] will not affect our collaboration with ethnic groups. For example, our KNU will work with ethnic groups as individual organizations. The KNU will also work with other political organizations and armed groups that are not members of the UNFC. The KNU will also work with community based organizations. These collaborations are not restricted by being a member of the UNFC. Therefore, this will not affect our overall political goal.”
Naw K’ynaw Paw, however, warned that the KNU’s decision could lead to the ongoing suffering of Karen people. “The KNU has not completely abandoned the UNFC yet, and Karen civil society groups, Karen people in Burma and all over the world, have urged the KNU to rejoin the UNFC. We hope the KNU Standing Committee members will decide to rejoin the UNFC other we do not believe that the KNU alone can achieve peace for the Karen people in Burma. The long-term conflict in Burma will not be solved if the KNU go ahead alone. In this case the so-called peace will only benefit individuals and will be only a peace in paper, and Karen people will continue to suffer.”
