SSA deplores clashes between DKBA, KNU

http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2528:ssa-deplores-clashes-between-dkba-knu&catid=86:war&Itemid=284

Wednesday, 08 April 2009 18:28 Hseng Khio Fah
Col Yawd Serk, Chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), the political arm of the Shan State Army (SSA) South, said he was distressed to hear about clashes among the same nationality, the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).

“It is not good to take personal problems into the national problems. It brings no benefit to one’s own nationality,” said Col Yawd Serk.

On 6 April, a joint force of Burma Army and DKBA attacked Waleki, a base camp of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of KNU.



He said that the Burma Army is using two strategies to fight the KNU to be weak. One is psychological and the other is actual fighting.

On the other hand, some KNU’s officers and Thai Foreign Ministry’s officials on the same day held a meeting in Bangkok, according to the New Era Journal, 6 April.
Col Yawd Serk

The Burma Army is asking Thailand to help facilitate talks with ethnic resistance movements to join its seven-step roadmap toward national reconciliation when Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya made his two day visit to Burma on 22-23 March.

“It is good that KNU held meeting with Thailand. But I don’t think KNU will benefit on it as we all know the Burma Army is bent on walking the same trail that it is used to,” commented Col Yawd Serk.

To solve the political problems in Burma one must endeavor to solve the root cause of the problems, that is, the Panglong agreement, he said.

“SSA is always ready to hold talks with the Burma Army, but the meeting must be held in the third country and there must be observers. We must build mutual trust first,” he added.

Whoever wants to mediate must know the root cause of the political problems in Burma. The main key to change Burma into a genuine Union is based on the unity of all groups. Without this unity, nobody can help them, he said.

The junta and the SSA had agreed to hold talks on 23 May 2007 but it failed to take place when the Burma Army delegation failed to appear at the venue.