The Karen National League, as a non-armed Karen organization, seeks to uplift the lot of the Karen people and bring about the rule of law and true democracy to Burma. It engages in any and all lawful activities incidental to the foregoing purposes.

Karen National League (KNL) Voices Strong Support for Dr. Thaung Htun's Statement
August 5, 1998

Karen National League (KNL), an organization composed of several Karen student and youth groups, is quick to support the statement made by Dr. Thaung Htun, United Nations Representative for the N.C.G.U.B, at one of the U.N Sessions of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations on July 31, 1998.

In his statement, a rebuttal to the Statement by Burma military regime?s representative U Lin Myaing, Dr. Thaung Htun said, "the regime's record is full of accounts of arbitrary arrests, torture, summary execution, abuses of women, forced labor including porterage for military, forced relocations, confiscation of lands, looting of properties and burning of villages in non-Burman ethnic areas."

"Dr. Thaung Htun's statement sharply mirrors the realities that the indigenous peoples of Burma have to face today," said Saw Kapi, a spokesman and responsible person for the Political Affairs Department of KNL. In the meantime, he stressed that KNL is determined to fully cooperate with all the democratic groups that are working to achieve the self-determination of all ethnic nationalities and a genuine federal union of Burma.

Saw Kapi also added that, "we [KNL] support the statement of N.C.G.U.B's United Nations Representative because it reveals reality and is indeed a call for lasting national unity." [The N.C.G.U.B. is the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma constituted by Members of Parliament democratically elected in 1990.]

Released by: Communication and Information Division P.O Box 320 518 San Francisco, CA 94132 U.S.A. Email: KNLcomm@aol.com

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