Cracks Showing in KNU Leadership Cracks Showing in KNU Leadership By Shah Paung December 27, 2005 The Irrawaddy The Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, is currently holding meetings in the liberated area of Burma’s Karen State to address differences among leaders on the political objectives of the opposition group. The agenda is expected to focus in part on a secret meeting that took place in Bangkok in early December between the Burmese ambassador to Thailand and KNU officials from Brigade 7, the governing administrative body that controls Pa-an District in Karen State. “A group of six officials met with the junta ambassador to Thailand, Col Tin Soe, on December 7 at a hotel in Bangkok,” said a top KNU official, who asked not to be named. According to the official, the group of six included former KNU Executive Committee member Mahn Nyein Maung, KNU members Maj Bo Yin Nu and Mort Tho; head of KNLA Battalion 101 Lt Col Paw Doh; and Ler Moo, the son-in-law of Brigade 7 Commander Brig-Gen Htin Maung. The group was led by Pastor Timothy, a humanitarian worker who had participated in previous ceasefire meetings between the Karen and the Burmese junta in 2003, and who was later dismissed by the KNU’s Foreign Affairs department last June for actions inconsistent with the group’s administrative principles. In the months following his dismissal, Pastor Timothy met with Lt Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of KNU leader Gen Bo Mya, and Brig-Gen Htin Maung about a meeting with Burmese officials. On October 30, they brought the idea to other officials from Brigade 7 and made plans to contact the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. The delegation from Brigade 7 sought two concessions from the Burmese government: to meet regularly until a peace agreement could be reached and to provide Brigade 7 with contracts to develop land in Pa-an District. Junta officials reportedly agreed to give their answer in early January 2006, and a second meeting was scheduled for February. Pastor Timothy has denied that any meeting took place. “It is untrue information,” he told The Irrawaddy by phone. Sources close to the KNU, however, suggest that Pastor Timothy and Lt-Col Ner Dah Mya were unhappy about not being re-elected to the KNU Central Committee this year, and therefore tried to organize peace talks with the junta on their own. Brig-Gen Htin Maung did not attend an annual meeting of the KNU leadership, held earlier this month, after top leaders requested that he explain his involvement in the secret Bangkok meeting. “We told him to explain the meeting at the Congress to avoid any misunderstanding between Brigade 7 and the KNU leaders,” said one of the group’s officials. Brig-Gen Htin Maung did not address the Congress, and it remains unclear to what extent his relationship with other KNU leaders has been affected. A statement issued by the Karen National Unity Seminar this month, however, might give some indication. “The Seminar decided to urge the entire Karen people to condemn all activities that would divide and destroy the KNU and the revolutionary resistance of the Karen people.” ~