The Karenni Army ( my, ကရင်နီ တပ်မတော်;

abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

KA, KnA or KiA) is the armed wing of the

Karenni National Progressive Party The Karenni National Progressive Party ( my, ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ; Abbreviation, abbr. KNPP) is a Karenni people, Karenni political organisation in Kayah State, Myanmar (Burma). I ...

(KNPP), and operates in eastern

Kayah State Kayah State ( my, ကယားပြည်နယ်, formerly Karenni State) is a state of Myanmar. Situated in eastern Myanmar, it is bounded on the north by Shan State, on the east by Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province, and on the south and wes ...

(also known as Karenni State),

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma).Karenni Army (KA) (Myanmar), GROUPS - ASIA - ACTIVE
/ref> On 7 March 2012, the government of Myanmar signed a ceasefire agreement with the KNPP, in the presence of international observers from the

UN High Commission for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integratio ...

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and the American embassy. A similar ceasefire deal was signed in 1995, but it was dissolved within three months.

History

The British government recognised and guaranteed the independence of the

Karenni States The Karenni States, also known as Red Karen States, was the name formerly given to the states inhabited mainly by the Red Karen, in the area of present-day Kayah State, eastern Burma. They were located south of the Federated Shan States and ea ...

in a treaty with the Burmese King

Mindon Min Mindon Min ( my, မင်းတုန်းမင်း, ; 1808 – 1878), born Maung Lwin, was the penultimate King of Burma (Myanmar) from 1853 to 1878. He was one of the most popular and revered kings of Burma. Under his half brother King Pa ...

in 1875, by which both parties recognised the area as belonging to neither to the

Konbaung Dynasty The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

(

Kingdom of Burma The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကုန်းဘောင်ခေတ်, ), also known as Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်) and formerly known as the Alompra dynasty (အလောင်းဘ ...

) nor to the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. Consequently, the Karenni States were never fully incorporated into British Burma. The Karenni States were recognised as tributary to British Burma in 1892, when their rulers agreed to accept a stipend from the British government. The Constitution of the

Union of Burma Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

in 1947 proclaimed that the three Karenni States be united into a single constituent state of the union, called Karenni State. It also gave the possibility of secession from the union after 10 years if the state's leaders were not satisfied with the central government. In August 1948, the Karenni leader U Bee Htu Re was assassinated by a pro-central government militia for his opposition to the inclusion of the Karenni States in the Union of Burma. Since 1957, the Karenni Army has been fighting government forces in an attempt to create an independent Karenni state, apart from a brief ceasefire in 1995. The KNPP have also fought left-wing groups such as the

Kayan New Land Party The Kayan National Party is a political party in Myanmar. Unlike Kayan New Land Party and other parties which failed to be approved by the Union Election Commission (UEC) in Kayah State, it was allowed to register to contest the election in 2011. ...

(KNLP), and the

Karenni National People's Liberation Front The Karenni National People's Liberation Front (KNPLF) was a communist and Karenni nationalist insurgent group active in Kayah State, Myanmar (Burma). It agreed to become a government-sponsored border guard force on 8 November 2009 although i ...

(KNPLF), both of which are now allied with the

Tatmadaw Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

(Myanmar Armed Forces). The group has been accused of using

child soldiers Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, includ ...

, a claim that they have not denied, saying that the children had volunteered willingly, because their parents had been killed during fighting between the KA and government soldiers. Violence between Karenni rebels and the Tatmadaw escalated in May 2021. Beginning on 21 May 2021, the Karenni Army, along with their newly-constituted ally the Karenni People's Defense Force, engaged in battles with the Tatmadaw across several towns in Kayah State, leaving dozens dead.

Flags

References

External links

Karenni State

{{Insurgent groups in Myanmar Rebel groups in Myanmar Guerrilla organizations Separatism in Myanmar Karen people