The head of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed organization (EAO) vowed Thursday to continue the armed struggle against Myanmar’s junta until it falls.
Karen National Union (KNU) chairman Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win said armed struggle was the only path to free the country from military dictatorship, as he delivered a speech to mark Karen New Year.
The coup in 2021 showed the military had absolutely no desire to establish a federal democracy in Myanmar, the KNU chief said.
The army overthrew a democratically elected government because it feared losing its grip on power during construction of a federal democratic union, he added.
The coup had halted all political dialogue and sparked a popular uprising when the military cracked down brutally on peaceful protestors, forcing the youth to take up arms to resist dictatorship.
Three years later, the military is suffering difficulties on all fronts as casualties surge and morale deteriorates amid a wave of defeats, the chairman added, citing mass surrenders by junta troops to revolutionary forces.
The junta was retaliating with indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, terrorizing the populace with increasingly barbaric methods of warfare, he said.
“Please be aware that the people are losing hope because they don’t know how long they will have to face these challenges,” Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win said.
“I sympathize with the people in their plight. Despite this situation, we aim not only to overthrow the military dictatorship, but also to root out all dictatorships and chauvinism. No other path [beside armed struggle] is available to achieve this goal.”
He encouraged all ethnic groups, including the Karen people, to understand the current situation and join in solidarity for the revolution.
The KNU has been fighting to oust the military regime alongside other EAO’s since the February 2021 coup. It is also supporting local armed resistance groups that emerged nationwide following the putsch.
In response, the junta has been conducting indiscriminate air and artillery strikes inside KNU territory, killing civilians and destroying schools, hospitals and religious buildings.
The KNU has fought over 10,000 battles with junta troops on its territory in the past three years, its spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee told The Irrawaddy recently.
He also expressed gratification over the Northern Alliance’s 1027 offensive, which has taken around 30 towns and over 400 junta outposts since launching last October.
The spokesperson said he expects 2024 to mark the turning point in Myanmar’s revolution and urged ethnic groups that had not yet joined the revolution to take up arms against the dictatorship.
Embattled junta chief Min Aung Hlaing offered a Karen New Year message of his own, pleading with ethnic people to minimize fighting and unrest in their regions to “ensure peace and prosperity of the Union”.
The parallel civilian National Unity Government also sent a New Year message, vowing to help establish a new federal democratic union with full equality and self-determination for the Karen people.
