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Myanmar's 'forgotten people' bear brunt of war
Conflict sheds light on the Karenni, who have sought autonomy for 75 years
MAE HONG SON, Thailand -- Except for striking images of their women, some of whom wear piles of metal coils that appear to stretch their necks, Myanmar's Karenni are a little-known ethnic minority group. But they are waging one of the world's longest insurgencies, a struggle for self-determination with cycles of extreme violence and precarious peace.
Lodged in a remote, rugged border state with a small population and a neglected history, the Karenni -- along with the neighboring Karen minority -- have fought for more than seven decades against Myanmar governments dominated by the country's Bamar ethnic majority and military leaders.
Hopes of autonomy rose in 2015 with the election of a democratic government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, even though her National League for Democracy party was dominated by Bamar members. But the dream of a federal nation, sought by most of Myanmar's numerous minorities, was destroyed on Feb. 1, 2021, when the military overthrew the elected government.
Three months later, fighting erupted in Kayah state, formerly known as Karenni state, which is home to most of the Karenni people in Myanmar. Reports from the battlefields describe attacks by government helicopter gunships and jet fighters -- obtained from Russia and China -- against the rural population, with villages looted and torched and almost daily fighting between Karenni forces and the military.
"They're going after everybody. There is really no safe place," said David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian group working in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
On Dec. 24, 2021, fear spread among the villagers of Mo So as they prepared for Christmas, the year's most festive celebration for the largely Christian Karenni. Then the sound of gunfire swirled around them. More than 40 men, women and children were tortured and shot, with many corpses burned beyond recognition.
The atrocity, known as the Christmas Eve massacre, was perpetrated by soldiers of Myanmar's 108th Light Infantry Battalion. But it is only one of hundreds of acts of brutality against the Karenni.
The campaign of violence since the army seized power in February 2021 has resulted in the highest per capita number of internally displaced persons in the world. Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office, the operations center of Associates to Develop Democratic Burma, a Canadian nonprofit organization, estimates the total at 100,000 people from the Karenni population of 300,000. A recent report by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a U.S.-based human rights group, estimated that women make up 40% of IDPs and children 30%.
The Karenni are not alone. Other minority groups that have taken up arms against the military regime include the Chin, Kachin, Karen and Arakanese as well as Bamar opponents of the coup. Unexpectedly, the Karenni and Chin have proved to be among the toughest fighters, though they are far from the best equipped.
The military regime has been condemned by international human rights organizations and Western governments, which have imposed sanctions. Yet the Karenni have received less attention than other ethnic groups in Myanmar, partly due to their small numbers and their geographic remoteness.
The best known of the Karenni are the Kayan Lahwi subgroup, whose so-called long-necked women have attracted the attention of tourism promoters. Possibly to prevent them from abduction into slavery, or as a mark of beauty, brass coils have traditionally been wrapped around the necks of young girls, the weight pulling the collar bone down and compressing the rib cage, resulting in the appearance of abnormally long necks.
The Kayan Lahwi are one of many groups and subgroups that speak diverse dialects but are collectively known as the Karenni, Kayah or Red Karen. Kayah state, where most Karenni reside, is located along the Thai border in east-central Myanmar, wedged between their more powerful and numerous cousins, the Karen, to the south, and the Shan, Myanmar's most populous ethnic minority, to the north.
In precolonial days, the Karenni were divided into several small states ruled by petty princes. The British, who eventually controlled most of what was once known as Burma, guaranteed the Karenni independence in 1857. But the area came under direct British influence in 1892 after arranging to pay Karenni leaders a stipend.
British influence brought in Baptist and Catholic missionaries, who converted many of the formerly animist and Buddhist population and devised the first written system for the Karen and Karenni languages. The resource-rich region of high hills and deep valleys contains one of the world's largest deposits of tungsten, while other minerals and hydropower were also tapped.
When the Japanese invaded Burma during World War II, the Karenni, along with the Karen and Kachin, fought as guerillas after training from the British in neighboring India. This training later helped postwar leaders when they confronted the central government after Burma became independent in January 1948. Among them was Maw Reh, founder of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the Karenni's first modern political organization.
Another British legacy -- loose central control over Karenni affairs -- fostered among local leaders a strong sense of independence, opposition to the central government and a desire to retain their traditions.
The Karenni began their armed quest for self-determination on Aug. 9, 1948, after the assassination of one of their key leaders. The Karenni have not always focused entirely on the central government, however. In the late 1970s fighting broke out between the KNPP, which was popular and well-off due to cattle and black market trade with Thailand, and a faction that joined the Burma Communist Party.
The military takeover has reduced factionalism, with virtually all opposition groups now represented in a Karenni State Consultation Council. "After the [2021] coup we are more united than ever before,'' said Muu Angela of the Kayan Women's Organization.
But divisions remain. The KNPP, founded in 1957, faces competition from the Karenni National Defense Force, founded in 2021, while some smaller groups have sided with the government. The KNPP's military wing, the Karenni Army, sometimes fights alongside the KNDF and the People's Defense Forces -- fighters affiliated with the National Unity Government, Myanmar's government-in-exile.
Political-military strategists say that a solid united front under a single command would stand a better chance of victory. But the lack of unity within the Karenni mirrors divisions in many of Myanmar's ethnic groups, which make up an estimated 40% of the country's population. Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst, estimates that approximately 90,000 men are under arms in the ethnic armed groups, while the Myanmar army currently fields between 100,000 and 120,000 combat-capable troops.
"Unity is the most important thing for the minorities and is often called for, but it is relatively difficult to try to bring everyone to the negotiating table," said Theh Reh Khay Luiz, first secretary of the KNPP's international and alliance committee. Traditions, history and external pressures from Thailand and China have spawned an alphabet soup of organizations, shifting alliances, and sometimes even armed conflict among ethnic groups.
Luiz said the KNPP attempted to negotiate with the government after the coup, but peaceful demonstrations led by the young were met with mounting violence: "The youth came to the KNPP and said, 'We cannot fight in a peaceful way.' We didn't want violence but we could not just stand back. Finally we declared that we had to go for it."
Like the Chin, the Karenni initially resorted to homemade weapons as the regime unleashed modern technological warfare against a mostly rural population. The attacks involved a sizable air armada, including Russian Mig-29 jets, Hind attack helicopters and Chinese K-8 jet fighters, along with heavy mortars, multiple rocket launchers and armored vehicles.
Eubank said the fighting he has witnessed has been as intense and brutal as the conflict that he saw in Iraq and Syria. A former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, he began working among Myanmar's ethnic groups 26 years ago.
In the village of Nam Mae Koh last year, Eubank and his team dodged bullets as they evacuated the wounded and dead from the battlefield while two government warplanes dropped bombs and fired rockets and machine guns for two hours. One fighter, sheltering in a culvert next to Eubank, was killed along with a number of other Karenni soldiers.
"I was with young college kids with no experience in fighting," Eubank said. "But I've never seen such bravery anywhere. It's total commitment. They keep pressing the Burmese army." Avoiding set piece battles, the Karenni were switching to hit-and-run attacks, he said. "Their techniques and tactics are not as well developed as those of the Karen, but they're learning and not giving up." The Karenni carry only light infantry weapons and have no means of resisting air attacks.
Meanwhile the central government employs a "four cuts" strategy devised in the 1970s to stop the flow of food, funds, intelligence and recruits from the civilian population to the insurgents.
Reports and eyewitness accounts describe ferocious attacks, often directed at unarmed civilians without connections to the fighters. Hospitals, churches and village houses are bombed or burned in what Eubank describes as a war of terror. For example, no evidence has emerged that any Karenni soldiers were present at the Christmas Eve massacre, which the government justified as an action against "terrorists with weapons."
In another village, two brothers who had fled with their family returned to look after their property. When their mother asked Eubank to search for their whereabouts he found their decomposed bodies at the bottom of the village well, and was able to return only the brothers' skulls to their mother. They had been caught, tortured and beheaded by regime soldiers.
Naw Paw Wah of LAIN Technical Support Group, a civil society organization, believes that the government is particularly targeting the Karenni because they have both a higher degree of political awareness and a stronger desire for self-determination than other ethnic groups. This is something the regime finds especially dangerous.
The continuing violence is indisputably the most lethal in the 75 years of what the Karenni call "our revolution." But for survivors from earlier generations, it is just another cycle of suffering, fighting and flight. Many Karenni today would recognize a song I first heard while reporting from the Na Soi refugee camp in Thailand 17 years ago, when 50 young orphans sang: Mummy is in heaven / Daddy is in heaven / When shall I see my home again? / When shall I see my native land?
(c) 2023, NIKKEI Asia
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