A major rebel group in eastern Burma on Sunday called on other insurgent factions to unify their ranks against the junta, three months after the coup to overthrow civilian head of government Aung San Suu Kyi.
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This call from the Karen National Union (KNU), one of Burma’s main rebel factions, comes as this group is engaged in fighting with the military.
In an open letter, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the armed wing of the KNU calls on all fighters of the Karen ethnic group to unify their ranks, regardless of their political affiliation.
“Never has there been such an opportunity in more than 70 years of revolution. Take advantage and fight the Burmese military dictatorship, ”said Lieutenant General Baw Kyaw Heh.
His message is addressed to other rebel groups in Karen State, the Karen Democratic Buddhist Army and the KNU / KNLA Peace Council, which grew out of a split from the KNU. The two groups have remained silent since the February 1 coup, when the KNU is very vocal against the junta.
State media claimed last week that representatives of these two groups had met separately with the junta to discuss the “peace process”.
The thousands-strong KNU seized last week in the southeast of the country, near the border with Thailand, an army base that responded with airstrikes.
It provides shelter in the territory it controls at least 2,000 coup opponents who fled repression.
Burma, made up of 135 ethnic groups, has twenty conflicts in which, sometimes since the country’s independence in 1948, the Burmese army and rebel factions clash.
Tensions between the military and some of the many ethnic groups, which now control a third of the country’s territory, have intensified since the February 1 putsch.