OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERSKAREN NATIONAL UNIONKAWTHOOLEI

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Address of KNU President Saw Tamla Baw on 63

Anniversary of Karen National Revolution

Dear All Karen Nationals,Officers and Men of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA),Firstly, on this January 31, 2012 day, which is the 63

Anniversary of Karen National RevolutionaryResistance and in the auspicious time of the New Year, I would like to extend my best wishes for health andhappiness to the officers and men, and all the Karen people.Men and women comrades of the KNLA, who are protecting the entire Karen people while fightingagainst oppressive regimes in succession, since the time the Karen armed resistance started on January31, 1949, are heroes, and the lives, blood, sweat and tears of the Karen people are invaluable sacrifices.The pillar of just truth laid down as foundation by the thousands of martyred heroes is a guarantee for victory. If this just truth has not been established, there would be no Karen life, soul and nationality. I wouldlike to remind you to take note especially of words of Karen people’s enemy, who said that Karen peoplewould be seen only in the museum, one day.Leaders of the KNU have the custom of patience, broad mindedness and farsightedness. Theyhave made the effort consistently to resolve political problem by political means. However, the regimes inpower, bent on using the violence of military conquest, persistently push us to enter the legal fold, lay downarms, in the end. They close down talks, launch massive military offensives, and try to wipe out the Karenrevolution forever. Having the habit of reticence, the Karen people have to suffer losses and the Worldknows that they have to swim in a sea of misery, up to this day. At this point, I would like to urge all toremember the words of well-known historian, Toynbee, who said that ‘those who fail to learn lessons fromhistory are bound to repeat the past mistakes’.The Karen people at home and abroad must have seen and learnt from the media that on January12, 2012, the KNU delegation led by some members of the KNU Committee for Emergence of Peace met inPa-an town with the delegation representing President Thein Sein to talk at the State level and the Unionlevel, and signed two preliminary agreements. The agreements were small initial steps in the march towards