Burmese army targets 11 officers from a Karen splinter group for arrest

2009 November 23
Weng Mon
Arrest orders have been issued for 11 officers of a Karen splinter group, by the Burmese army. The 11 officers are accused of profiting from the illegal sales of drugs.

According to sources close to the Karen National Union / Karen National Liberation Army – Peace Council (KNU/KNLA-PC), officers from three of their offices, including the location in Three Pagodas Pass that opened recently in 2009, are targeted for arrest.

Maj Gen Htain Maung (Htay Maung), chairman of the KNU/KNLA-PC was contacted by the Burmese military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and informed that members of the KNU/KNLA-PC were involved in drug sales. According to the same sources, Maj Gen Htain Maung informed the SPDC that they could arrest the officers if they were able to catch them.

This is apparently first time members of the KNU/KNLA-PC have been accused by the Burmese government of being connected to drug sales.

The 11 officers had been stationed at offices in Three Pagoda Pass, Myawaddy in Karen State and Kaw Thaung, Tenasserim Division, were they had been accused of being involved in drug sales. The officers have since been missing and office staffs didn’t know where they located, said sources close staff from KNU/KNLA-PC at Three Pagodas Pass.

The same sources have reported that currently most KNU/KNLA-PC offices are without officers. Maj Gen Htain Maung was dismissed from the KNU on January 30th, 2007 after traveling to negotiate an unwritten peace deal with the SPDC without consent of the KNU Executive Committee. As the Karen Human Rights Group noted in a news bulletin in July 2008, the KNU/KNLA-PC benefited significantly from the verbal peace accord with both gifts of land and permission to remain armed.

In a statement released October 20th, 2009, the KNU/KNLA-PC formally rejected an offer by the SPDC to become a Border Guard Force (BGF), after SPDC Lt Gen Ye Myint and Lt Gen Khin Zaw, met with KNU/KNLA-PC Maj Gen Htain Maung to discuss the offer.

The KNU/KNLA-PC is currently based out of Htotkawkoe village in Kawkareik Township, and currently fields 8 battalions, plus 1 “Special Battalion”.