The Karen National Union (KNU) has expelled its former leader Saw Mutu Say Poe and another senior member for repeatedly defying its policy by attending junta events.
Former chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe and ex-Dooplaya District chairman Saw Shwe Moung were ousted following a ruling by the group’s central executive committee in late October, according to KNU spokesman Padoh Saw Taw Nee. The move came after the two men joined last month’s junta ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
The KNU, which withdrew from the agreement along with other major ethnic armed organizations after the 2021 military coup, boycotted the anniversary event. The group is Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organization and a key opponent of the junta.
“Though not re-elected at our last congress, the two men remained members and were still obliged to follow KNU policies. Instead, they repeatedly violated them. That is why we finally took action,” the spokesman told The Irrawaddy.
Mutu Say Poe was appointed KNU chairman in 2012 at the group’s 15th congress. He stepped down in March 2023, two months after receiving an honorary title from junta chief Min Aung Hlaing. He and Saw Shwe Moung also held a private meeting with the coup leader in Naypyitaw in September that year.
His political stance has long drawn criticism. In May 2021, just months after the coup and a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters, Mutu Say Poe signed a statement describing the military takeover as a “political problem” that should not be solved with weapons. The remark was widely condemned by pro-democracy forces.
The former KNU chief delivered a speech at the NCA anniversary event in Naypyitaw on Oct. 15, a decade after he signed the ceasefire agreement in 2015.
The spokesman said their actions undermined the KNU’s rejection of the 2021 military takeover. “By staging the coup, they [Myanmar military] completely destroyed the peace process and the NCA itself. This has been raised repeatedly in internal discussions that included [Mutu Say Poe and Shwe Moung]. But they failed to follow our policy, and we need to act decisively.”
Ethnic Karen observers note that some former KNU leaders maintain ties with the junta and are also involved in cyber-scam operations along the Thai-Myanmar border.
