OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI
Address of KNU President Saw Tamlabaw on Karen New Year Day of 2750 KE

Dear All Karen Nationals,

Day one of Pyatho Waxing Moon 2750 Karen Era (KE), which falls on January 5, 2011, is New
Year Day of the Karen people. The opportunity for us to welcome such a singular and gracious day means
that we are to receive happiness and various kinds of blessings. On this New Year Day, I would like to wish
all the Karen people living inside the country, abroad and in the border areas to be full of bodily strength,
high morale and to be able to enter the field of work with high spirit and full energy in the New Year!
The Karen people are one of the major ethnic nationalities in the country, but as they do not have
freedom and rights befitting a nationality, many have gone to different parts of the world, and those
remaining in the country, far from having guarantee to the security of life and property, have to live
constantly in fear and anxiety.
We the Karen people, since the days of our forefathers, have been deprived of the right to our
native regions and lands, by force. Though the KNU has struggled for liberation of the Karen people from
persecution and for existence as a free people, it is still in the mode of liberation struggle.
In liberation movement in the past, due to weakness in unity and cooperation, victory had been
beyond our reach and so we have to struggle on. In this New Year, it is necessary for every Karen to be
involved in building up unity and cooperation, at every level of our national liberation movement. Unity of the
Karen people is a vital element in national liberation movement. Every Karen has the responsibility for
liberation of the Karen people from persecution and for their development, and cooperation of the entire
Karen people is especially necessary. I would like to remind all of you to work with discretion so as not to
let our unity and our beliefs to become divided among ourselves, as a result the enemy’s machination.
For that reason, Karen national unity is one of the vital elements for victory of the Karen national
revolutionary resistance. It is especially necessary for all of us to work with unity and with one mind in order
to achieve the national goal of the Karen people, in this New Year.
Similarly, it is necessary to cooperate with unity with the other fellow persecuted nationalities living
together in the country, as they also are still in the mode of national liberation movement. Since every
nationality has the right to live in freedom and self-determination, all of us must strive on.
It is necessary for every Karen, living in different parts of the world, to uphold the Karen people’s
cultural heritage and language, and hand them down to posterity so that the Karen people may not become
extinct.
Accordingly, I would like to urge, in conclusion, all the Karen nationals to work with unity and in
cooperation in this year of 2750, until the Karen people gain the right to live in freedom as a nationality,
while resisting the enemy endangering our Karen people.

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