Facing fierce resistance against his regime in Karen State, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is turning to a divide-and-conquer strategy by asking the former chairman of the country’s oldest ethnic armed organization— the Karen National Union (KNU)—to lead ethnic Karen people towards what he calls “peace.”
However, when Mutu Say Poe, a former KNU chairman, met Min Aung Hlaing on Monday, he drew sharp criticism from Karen communities over “peace talks” with the junta boss who asked the 90-year-old to intervene in the war “as the head of ethnic Karen people desirous of peace in Karen State.”
The meeting occurred after Mutu Say Poe attended an event to mark the eighth anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in Naypyitaw on Sunday. The event was boycotted by the KNU.
Junta media have reported that Min Aung Hlaing asked Mutu Say Poe to be the leader of ethnic Karen people who want to see peace in Karen State, stressing the need for peace and stability to improve infrastructure and raise the living standards of people in Karen State.
In August, residents of Phapya Village in Kyarinseikkyi Township presented awards to Saw Mutu Say Poe and Padoh Saw Shwe Moung–a former KNU district-level chairman–for “their honesty, humility, kindheartedness, and for their sacrifices along the course of Karen revolution, and peace efforts,” Karen media Karen Information Center reported.
However, when they and another former KNU official met Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw on September 30, the KNU was quick to say the the three did not represent it.
It described that meeting as an attempt to sow discord within the KNU and create confusion among the KNU and its allies fighting to end military rule and build a federal, democratic union.
The KNU has two armed wings: the Karen National Liberation Army and the Karen National Defense Organization. It signed the NCA in October 2015, but the group’s leadership announced in August that it was no longer part of the agreement, which it said was rendered void by the 2021 coup.
Since the coup, the KNU has provided shelter to thousands of anti-regime activists, including politicians, lawmakers, striking government staff and artists fleeing arrest by the junta.
The ethnic group has also provided military training to several thousand anti-regime youth activists who have gone on to become members of People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) under the civilian National Unity Government.
The KNU has been fighting the military junta alongside the PDFs not only in Karen and Mon states, but also in Tanintharyi and Bago regions.
