Karen National Army

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Not to be confused with the Karen National Liberation Army.
Karen National Army
ကရင်အမျိုးသားတပ်မတော်
LeadersColonel Saw Chit Thu
Dates of operation11 January 2024–present
HeadquartersShwe Kokko[1]
Active regionsKayin State
Size7,000+[2]
Allies
OpponentsState opponents

Non-state opponents

Battles and warsInternal conflict in Myanmar

The Karen National Army, (Burmese: ကရင်အမျိုးသားတပ်မတော်; abbreviated KNA) formerly the Karen Border Guard Force (Karen BGF), is a primarily Karen Buddhist ethnic army active in Kayin State, Myanmar, which split off from the Myanmar Army in January 2024. The KNA was formed as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in December 1994 after the insurgent group split off of the Karen National Liberation Army. Shortly after, the DKBA signed a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar Army, officially joining the army as the Karen Border Guard Force (Karen BGF) alongside the Karen Peace Force in 2009.[1] In January 2024, after intensified rebel operations throughout Myanmar, the Karen BGF began distancing itself from the ruling military junta,[5] eventually splitting off from the Army and rebranding themselves the "Karen National Army" by April.[6]

Background[edit]

DKBA[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.[edit]
The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA; Burmese: တိုးတက်သော ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ ကရင်အမျိုးသား တပ်ဖွဲ့) was an insurgent group of Buddhist soldiers and officers in Myanmar that split from the predominantly Christian-led Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), one of the largest rebel factions in Myanmar. Shortly after splitting from the KNLA in December 1994, the DKBA signed a ceasefire agreement with the government of Myanmar in exchange for military and financial assistance; provided that it supported government offensives against the KNU (the political wing of the KNLA) and its allies.[7]
This section is an excerpt from Democratic Karen Buddhist Army § Formation.[edit]
The DKBA was formed for a variety of reasons. A Buddhist monk named U Thuzana had started a campaign in 1992 of constructing pagodas in Karen State, including at the KNU headquarters of Manerplaw. As the KNU leadership would not grant permission for construction of the pagodas, claiming they would attract government air strikes, Thuzana began to encourage KNLA soldiers to desert the organisation. Following a couple skirmishes and failed negotiations in early December 1994, the DKBA announced its formation and its split from the KNU on 1 January 1995. Its political wing composed of Buddhist officers, Democratic Karen Buddhist Organisation, was established on 21 December 1994.[7]

Karen BGF[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Border Guard Forces § Karen Border Guard Forces.[edit]
In 2010, a powerful commander of DKBA Saw Chit Thu accepted the Burma government’s demands to transform itself into the Border Guard Force, under the command of the Tatmadaw and serving as the leader.[8]

Tensions with junta and rebranding[edit]

This section is an excerpt from Border Guard Forces § Karen BGF Split.[edit]

In January 2021, the Tatmadaw pressured Saw Chit Thu and other high-ranking officers, including Major Saw Mout Thon and Major Saw Tin Win, to resign from the BGF. Major Saw Mout Thon of BGF Battalion 1022 resigned on January 8, along with 13 commanders, 77 officers, and 13 battalions from 4 regiments who collectively signed and submitted their resignations.[9] Amid controversy and under pressure, at least 7,000 BGF members resigned to protest the ouster of their top leaders. However, Saw refused to retire.[10]

On 23 January 2024, Saw Chit Thu told the media that he discussed with Vice-Senior General Soe Win, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, that the Border Guard Force (BGF), would no longer wish to accept money and supplies from the military. They aim to stand independently, and he also claimed that they don't want to fight against their fellow Karen people.[11][12]

On 6 March, the Karen BGF announced it would rename itself to the "Karen National Army" later in the month.[13]

After splitting away from the Tatmadaw, the KNA acquires revenue via taxation of gambling and scam businesses in Shwe Kokko.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Kayin Border Guard Force celebrates ninth anniversary". Frontier Myanmar. 20 August 2019. Archived from the original on April 19, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "All Karen Border Guard Force units to be rebranded as The Karen National Army". Karen News. 2 March 2024. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "As Myanmar Junta Counteroffensive Looms, KNU Leaves Myawaddy in Hands of Allies". The Irrawwaddy. 19 April 2024. Archived from the original on April 22, 2024.
  4. ^ "Into the lion's den: The failed attack on Shwe Kokko". Frontier Myanmar. 11 May 2023. Archived from the original on April 11, 2024.
  5. ^ "Powerful BGF leader Protecting Chinese- Gangs at Shwe Kokko Declares Autonomous Zone in Myawaddy – Colonel Chit Thu also ends Karen BGF's Proxy Role Under the Junta". Karen Information Center. 26 January 2024. Archived from the original on April 23, 2024.
  6. ^ "Karen BGF to rename itself 'Karen National Army'". Myanmar Now. 6 March 2024.
  7. ^ a b Gravers, Mikael (2018). "A Saint in Command? Spiritual Protection, Justice and Religious Tensions in the Karen State". Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship. 2020, Vol.1: Unknown. Archived from the original on December 3, 2023.
  8. ^ "Kayin State BGF officers and others collectively resign". Eleven Media Group. 16 January 2021. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  9. ^ "BGF ထိပ်သီးခေါင်း‌ဆောင်များ နုတ်ထွက်ခြင်းမပြုရန် တပ်မတော်တိုက်တွန်း". Myanmar NOW (in Burmese). 15 January 2021. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022.
  10. ^ "ယူနီဖောင်းချွတ်ရန် အစီအစဉ် မရှိသေးဟု ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူပြော". Mizzima (in Burmese). 12 January 2021. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021.
  11. ^ "ကရင်နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ် သီးခြားရပ်တည်ရေး ဒုတပ်ချုပ်နဲ့ ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူဆွေးနွေး". Radio Free Asia (in Burmese). Archived from the original on January 25, 2024.
  12. ^ "ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီးစိုးဝင်း ကရင်ပြည်နယ်ကို နေ့ချင်းပြန်သွားရောက်". BBC News မြန်မာ (in Burmese). 23 January 2024. Archived from the original on January 24, 2024.
  13. ^ "Karen BGF to rename itself 'Karen National Army'". Myanmar Now. 6 March 2024.
  14. ^ ‘Business is back’: BGF adapts under pressure. April 8, 2024. Naw Betty Han. Archived 2024-04-23 at the Wayback Machine. Frontier Myanmar
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