DKBA group to explain cease-fire to village representatives on Friday

Thursday, 10 November 2011 20:48 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army says a meeting with village representatives to explain the cease-fire with the government has been postponed to Friday because representatives could not reach the meeting location in time.

“The villagers were late. Representatives from some villages had to walk for three or four hours. The meeting will be held tomorrow,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.

The meeting is scheduled to be held in the group’s headquarters in Taungoak village in Myawaddy Township, Karen State.

The DKBA-government cease-fire went into effect on November 6. At least two representatives from each of the villages located around Dawna Mountain were invited.

The cease-fire agreement was achieved at the second meeting at the Karen State chief minister’s office in Hpaan on November 3 between a DKBA group led by DKBA Deputy Chief of Staff Brigadier General Mo Shay and central government representatives; the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Secretary No. 1 Aung Thaung, the National Race Affairs and Internal Peace-Making Committee chairman and USDP Secretary No. 2 Thein Zaw and Captain Maung Maung Thein attended the meeting.

The agreement included a cease-fire and the opening of a DKBA liaison office in Myawaddy. The agreement also calls for both sides to inform the other when it plans to travel outside its respective control areas, and to continue the meetings in the Union Assembly.

Under the agreement, the DKBA can establish its headquarters in the Soneseemyaing area in Myawaddy District on the east side of Dawna Mountain, and government troops must withdraw from that area.

DKBA Major General Saw La Bwe, aka Bo Moustache, has troops based in Kalohtoopaw in Kyainseikkyi Township, Kalohtoowa in Kawkareik Township and Kalular at the boundary of Myainggyingu-Hlaingbwe-Hpapun.

On the cease-fire, Major Saw Lone Lone of Taungoak village said, “If there are oppressions and violence, there will be another uprising. They pushed us to do what we did not want to do. That’s why we launched our counterattack.”

The DKBA group led by Bo Moustache fought government troops starting on November 8, 2010, with assistance from the Karen National Union [KNU] and the All Burma Students' Democratic Front.

On August 18, 2010, most of the DKBA battalions that broke away from the KNU in 1994 transformed themselves into units of the Union Border Guard Force under the command of the Ministry of Defence.

A small DKBA group led by Major Saw Bi, which earlier had transformed itself into a BGF, has gone underground again and has now established an alliance with the Karen National Union.