By ANTONY / KANTARAWADDY TIMES
On its recent 42ndanniversary commemoration, the Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF) said that ceasefires have not brought peace to Karenni State.
“We have to look at the 2008 Constitution when we talk about peace in our Karenni State. Our people want peace. Fighting between brothers means no peace,” Markuei Chit Tun, secretary of the KNPLF, told Kantaraaddy.
He said that that after multiple Karenni armed organizations, including the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) signed bilateral ceasefire agreements with the government, “people felt that they would get peace in our state.”
“For us, we feel that our Karenni State has yet to get genuine peace,” Markuei Chit Tun said.
The KNPLF held its 42ndanniversary commemoration in Pareh Doh village in Kaykaw village tract in Hpruso Township. Representatives from the KNPP and the Karenni National Peace and Development Party, as well as locals, attended the event.The KNPLF split from the KNPP in 2009 and become a military-allied border guard force (BGF).
Markuei Chit Tun said that his organization now has a “good relationship” with other armed groups in Karenni State, including the KNPP, and that they consider themselves pro-democracy.
“In the past, we had clashes in this area. Now we don’t have any clashes in this area. We are practicing peace and democratic principles. We are working together with the people,” Rabee, the deputy administrative leader of the Payae area, told Kantarawaddy Times.
The KNPLF has said that it would join a federal army in a future federal democratic Union in Burma.
The KNPLF was formed in 1978, and signed a ceasefire with the government in 1994, before becoming a BGF 15 years later. KNPLF soldiers are active in eight townships as a BGF.