Karenni Action Project

Who are the Karenni?

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22,000 people from Karenni state in eastern Burma languish in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, among a total of 142,000 Burmese refugees, mostly of ethnic minorities, in Thai border camps that have now existed for twenty years. Others are among the 92,500 internally displaced persons in Karenni state and 650,000 internally displaced people in Eastern Burma alone.

The Karenni are an ethnic minority from eastern Burma who have spent more than fifty years engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Burmese government, struggling for the independence and self-determination they historically enjoyed. During this time, Karenni civilians and villagers have repeatedly and continue to be subjected to large scale atrocities, human rights abuses and persecution by the Burmese state military forces.

Karenni state is an area situated between Thailand and Burma. Covering an area of 4,582 sq. miles, it is approximately the same size as Hawaii. The land in Karenni state is rich in tin, wolfram, teak, gold and precious stones and the indigenous Karenni people who inhabit it are made up of 12 subgroups. The largest of these groups is the Kayah and perhaps the most well-known is the Kayan, sometimes referred to as 'Long Necks'. Other Karenni groups include the Peku and the Kayaw.

The oppression of the Karenni people by the Burmese military has accelerated since 1988, when people throughout Burma and the surrounding ethnic minority regions demanded democracy. Intent on maintaining control over resource rich Karenni state and annihilating Karenni culture and people, government military forces have systematically destroyed hundreds of Karenni villages and large areas of natural resources. Where this occurs men, women and children from the villages are sent to military camps controlled and operated by the regime and often subjected to forced labour without adequate access to food, water and other necessities.

non-state armed groups in karenni

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The civil war in Karenni state began as a bi-partisan struggle between the government and separatist groups but later disintegrated into a multi-faceted struggle and a situation of generalised violence although despite factional fighting, most of the conflict still occurs between the separatist opposition and the Burmese government and groups allied to it. In 1978, a faction of the KNPP broke away and formed the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF), over an ideological split on the issue of receiving assistance from the Communist Party of Burma. This split became violent and weakened opportunities for unified resistance against the central government. There are currently various other splinter groups operational in Karenni state, split on ideological, separatist and political issues, including the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP), the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Shan State Nationalities Liberation Organisation (SSNLO). The KNPP remains the primary force in Karenni fighting for self-determination for the state and is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation.

conflict with the Burmese government

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The history of post-independence Burma is rife with conflict and protracted civil war between the central government and various armed groups. The war has been essentially ideological; historically between the socialist state and communist resistance; more recently between military rule and democratic opposition. Distinct from the democratic struggle, although recently somewhat converging with it, is that of the Karenni and other ethnic groups who have been fighting for self-determination and independence from the Burmese government since 1948.

Historically Karenni consisted of three states recognised as independent by their neighbours. To this effect, in 1875, the Imperial British and Burmese governments signed an agreement that the Karenni states were to be under the control of neither the British nor the Burmese. Burma was held by the British under colonial rule as a province of India between 1824 and 1948. During the colonial period Karenni was divided up into administrative areas governed by ‘Saophyas’ who had extensive control and departmental offices in their territories and did not pay tribute to the British monarchy, which had no institutional presence in the area. Between the 1840s and 1889, competition over teak and other resources produced conflict between various parties – Karenni, Burmese, British, Shan and Thai.

In 1947 the leaders of some ethnic minority areas that had previously been independent signed the Panglong Agreement allowing for accession of their territories to the Burmese states. Although Karenni leaders did not sign the agreement, on January 4, 1948, when Burma attained independence from British rule and the Union of Burma was created as an independent republic with a democratic parliament, Karenni State was incorporated into the Union of Burma. Many Karenni resisted and as a result military administration was imposed on the state. In 1957 the separatist opposition formed a new political organisation with a military wing, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP).

Democratic rule in Burma ended in a 1962 coup d’etat led by General Ne Win. Ne Win ruled the country for twenty-six years as Chairman of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), administering the ‘Burmese Way to Socialism’ with Marxist and Buddhist influences. The BSPP brought in a series of harsh reforms and oppressive treatment, particularly of ethnic minority groups, crushing the separatist cause, denying the ethnic minority states any effective means of political participation and forcing the resistance movement underground. In 1988, a massive student-led uprising protesting economic mismanagement and political oppression, sparked by the appointment of General Sein Lwin of the security police as BSPP chairman, was violently repressed by the state but paved the way in 1990 for the first free elections held in Burma for nearly 30 years. Karenni groups took part in the 1988 uprising and two Karenni parties each won two seats in the 1990 elections.

The elections yielded a landslide victory to the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, but the victory was denied by the military junta who refused to hand over power, dismantled the BSPP and seized direct control of the country. Neither of the Karenni parties had run on a separatist platform and both intended to represent the interests of Karenni within the national system but when the military junta seized control the parties were deregistered and former MPs were imprisoned or fled into exile. The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) replaced the BSPP in 1988 headed by General Saw Maung. In 1997 SLORC was replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) but this was essentially a renaming as the leadership did not alter.

After decades of low intensity fighting between state forces and rebel groups along the border, General Khin Nyunt invited the groups to discussions to negotiate ceasefire agreements in 1993, and seventeen ceasefire agreements were negotiated between SLORC and various splinter groups during the 1990s, including a short-lived one between SLORC and the KNPP in 1995. This agreement broke down after several months partly over KNPP claiming SLORC had breached the agreement by continuing its attacks and SLORC anger over KNPP log exports to Thailand. Following the breakdown of the KNPP ceasefire there has been a massive increase in conflict in Karenni state and large-scale forced relocation of villages by the Tatmadaw (Burmese state military forces).

about karenni state

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The Karenni are an indigenous ethnic minority from Karenni state in Burma who have been engaged in ongoing civil war with the Burmese government since 1948, when Burma gained independence from Britain and Karenni state was forcibly incorporated into the independent Union of Burmese states. There is no definitive classification of the subgroups of the population native to Karenni, but they have been divided in an anthropological study into the Kekhu, the Bre, the Kayah, the Yangtalai, the Geba, the Zayein, and the Paku. Historically they were considered a sub-tribe of the neighbouring Karen, whom they are related to linguistically. The population includes Burmese and members of other ethnic minorities and others who have settled in Karenni state. Other ethnic Karenni reside or are internally displaced in other states in Burma, or are refugees or illegal immigrants living in Thailand and elsewhere.

In 1998 Karenni state had a population of 207,357 and a sparse, mostly rural, population density. Due to internal conflict, inaccessibility, mountainous terrain and a sparse population and resources, it is lagging in terms of economic development and infrastructure and is considered one of the poorest areas in Burma. There are seven townships - Loikaw, Demawso, Pruso, Pasuang, Bawlake, Meh Set and Shadaw. Land ownership is fragmented and a significant proportion of the population is landless. There is some wet paddy farming close to the rivers but most crop farming, predominantly of rice and maize, is upland shifting paddy cultivation, which has lower yields than wet paddy. The largest natural resource is teak forest; long extracted and traded and critical historically to power relations and the development of conflict in the area. There is a history of cross-border trading, logging, and mining with Thailand.

Karenni state suffers from chronic water shortages and upland villages are dependant on rain fed agriculture. There are two main rivers – the Salween and the Pon. In 1967 Mobye dam was constructed on the Balu Chaung River, a tributary of the Salween, on the border of Karenni and Shan states to divert water to the Lawpita hydroelectric power plant outside of Loikaw, which supplies over 20% of Burma’s electricity. Due to inaccessibility and ongoing conflict, Karenni is behind in terms of human development, with the lowest literacy rates in the country, just ten high schools in the state and many children in remote areas having little or no access to education at all. The overall health situation is poor, communicable diseases such as malaria are widespread and many people lack access to health services, particularly outside of the main towns.