7/31/2019 KNU Presidend Speech on 62nd Martyr Day Eng Lang

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OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEIwww.karennationalunion.net

KNU President Saw Tamla Baws Address on 62nd

Anniversary of

Martyrs DayAugust 12, 2012

Respected KNU Leaders, Comrades from the KNLA and the Entire Karen

People,Today, August 12, 2012 is the 62

ndAnniversary of Martyrs Day, on which we

commemorate President Saw Ba U Gyi and the many Karen comrades, who had

sacrificed their lives in the struggle for the entire Karen peoples rights to self-

determination and national equality. On this historic anniversary, I would like to

address all the Karen people, officers and men of the Karen National Liberation Army

(KNLA), while commemorating the Karen martyrs.

Firstly, I would like to say that the objective of our commemoration and

honoring the martyrs, who had struggled for justice and freedom, is for us to

remember them and follow the path they have paved with their lives, blood, sweat and

tears. While we are shouldering the unfinished duties of the martyrs, we must all work

together for the new generations to inherit and uphold the traditions, ideals and

convictions of the martyrs.

Though the Karen peoples revolutionary resistance has been 65 years long,

we have not reached the goal we desire, and we are still within the state of national

liberation movement. We have learnt bitter lessons a number times in our national

liberation movement because of the sowing of divisions and discords, by various

wicked and deceitful means, by the successive military dictatorships, which practiced

Burman chauvinism (racism). If we do not learn to take lessons from the bitter

experiences, it is certain that we will again inherit dreadful situations. In the history ofour national liberation movement, while there have been many martyrs the Karen

people can be proud of, there have been many despicable opportunists also.

Opportunism and tokenism cannot uplift either the interest of our people or an

individuals quality and progress but cause only regression. For that reason, all the

Karen people, by eliminating opportunism and tokenism within themselves, must

march on to victory with the spirit of the martyrs, revolutionary vigilance and political

alertness, and smashing every enemys activity, which will subject our Karen people

to serfdom.

7/31/2019 KNU Presidend Speech on 62nd Martyr Day Eng Lang

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Regarding the current political situation, I would like to say that though the

current government, which came to power through 2010 elections in accordance with

the 2008 constitution, has been saying, to sooth our ears, that it is carrying out reforms

and building peace with the armed ethnic nationalities, there is no indication that it

has the willingness to hold genuine political dialogue. In my analysis, I find that to

raise interest and change the views of the international community of it, thegovernment is engaged only in superficial and apparent activities of peace building

with emphasis only on business matters, and without any political essence. There is

no dispute that the peace aspired to by the Karen people and the one the government

in power wants to give are as different as heaven and earth. As it is the understanding

and hypothesis of the Karen National Union (KNU) that the war between the ethnic

nationalities and the ruling government is based on politics, it has always opened the

door for the resolution of political problems by political means. Though it has

accepted and met with the ruling government, which has made the overture for

political negotiation, the KNU is under the feeling that it has arrived in a killing field

of great danger. It is in a situation where a false step could lead to total loss.

Accordingly, I would like to urge the entire Karen people to work together with the

KNU, so that there would be no mistake in every phase of the political dialogue. Atthe same time, I would like to inform U Thein Sein government that if it desires to

establish genuine peace with the ethnic nationalities and proceed to a modern,

developed, and democratic new State, it will be achieved only through transparent and

politically meaningful negotiation. Otherwise, the civil war, which has impoverished

the country, will go on.

Victory of the Karen peoples revolutionary resistance, yearned for by the

Karen people, will be achieved only by leadership of the KNU, participation by every

Karen in the movement and marching on by upholding the Four Principles of Saw Ba

U Gyi, which state that (1) Surrender is out of the question; (2) We shall retain our

arms; (3) Recognition of Karen State must be complete; and (4) We shall decide our

own destiny.

Finally, in conclusion, I would like to say that let us march on to victory by

cooperating together with the other fellow oppressed ethnic nationality forces and

forces fighting for democracy, as the goal of the Karen peoples revolutionary

resistance is the establishment of a genuine Democratic Federal Union.

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