CHIANG MAI - The killing of Mahn Sha La
Pan, the 64-year-old general secretary of the
Karen National Union (KNU) rebel group, represents
a substantial loss to the movement - which at 58
years running represents the longest armed
struggle for independence anywhere in the world -
and promises to undermine the wider ethnic and
democracy struggle in Myanmar for years to come.
Mahn Sha was killed on Thursday in an
assassination in the Thai-Myanmar border town of
Mae Sot. Although sources vary about the details,
it appears he was killed by two men who entered
his house at about 4:30pm. The assassins went
upstairs where Mahn Sha was resting on his
balcony, greeted him, then shot him one time each
with 9mm pistols.
Independent accounts say
he was shot once by one assailant
and
then shot again while on the ground by the second.
The two men then fled the house and got into a
waiting pickup truck which a third man drove off
at speed.
Neither the KNU-breakaway
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army. nor the Myanmar
junta's military intelligence service can be ruled
out as possible culprits. However, KNU insiders
believe Mahn Sha's assassination was most likely
carried out as a revenge killing by members of the
KNU/KNLA (Karen National Liberation Army) Peace
Council, an armed splinter group loyal to former
KNLA 7th Brigade commander General Htain Maung,
which broke away from the KNU in January 2007.
Statements from the Peace Council often
vilified Mahn Sha and blamed him for many of the
verbal and military attacks later launched against
them. One of the leaders of the group, Saw Ler Mu,
the son-in-law of leader General Htain Maung, was
killed on January 29 when a bomb was placed under
the hut in which he was sleeping. It was widely
estimated, though never proven with corroborating
evidence, at the time to have been carried out by
the KNU.
Another member of the Peace
Council, spokesman Maung Kyaw, has been missing
for several days and thought by many to have also
been killed by the KNU. Sadly, the one person who
could have served as a unifying agent for both the
Karen and the political opposition was likely
assassinated by his own people in the cause of
furthering disunity.
Mahn Sha first joined
the KNU in 1966 and his subsequent duties within
the KNU took him to the insurgent areas of the
Shan, Karenni and Kachin, which gave him a broader
appreciation for the struggles of the other ethnic
groups than many of his Karen leadership peers.
Following a visit to the headquarters of
the Burmese Communist Party in 1986 and the
conclusion of an agreement to establish a joint
military alliance with the communists, Mahn Sha
was demoted to private and sent to the frontlines
by an angry General Bo Mya, then the leader of the
Karen and then a staunch rightwing anti-communist.
Mahn Sha, however, proved his worth and
rose quickly back up through the ranks to become
Bo Mya's personal secretary in 1988. At the KNU's
12th Congress in 2000 he was elected general
secretary, the number three position in the KNU.
He was reelected to the position in the 2004
Congress and also was a member of the secretariat
of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a
political umbrella organization of ethnic
political organizations and the democracy
movement.
This respect and sympathy for
other ethnic groups and his willingness to work
with the democratic opposition made him a unifying
figure in Myanmar opposition politics. In a milieu
where many ethnic minority and Burman-majority
leaders are often more interested in gaining
advantage for their own nationalist or political
causes - sometimes to the point of racism - Mahn
Sha made strenuous efforts to build consensus.
During the funeral for his wife several years ago
in Mae Sot, representatives from many of the other
ethnic insurgent organizations and political
opposition came to pay their respects.
Leadership vacuum Although
officially number three in the KNU, serving behind
both president Saw Ba Thin Sein and vice president
Saw Tamala Baw, the president's ill health and the
vice president's advanced age had in recent years
left Mahn Sha in real terms holding the reigns of
power. He was definitely the public face of the
KNU, being the most frequently sought after
official for press interviews.
The KNU now
faces the difficult task of filling his leadership
shoes, just over one year since the December 2006
death of former charismatic KNU leader Bo Mya.
Although there are other capable leaders in the
organization, the complex nature of Karen politics
means that before a new general secretary can be
chosen there must be some form of consensus. This
will be difficult to achieve in an organization
where clique politics plays an important role and
the Cold War-era ideological struggle between
communists and non-communists still plays a role
in internal Karen politics.
Mahn Sha was
also a Buddhist and an ethnic Pwo Karen in an
organization which since its creation has been
overwhelmingly controlled by Christians and Sgaw
Karen. The majority of Karen are Buddhists,
although the large percentage of Christian leaders
within the organization has lead to the movement
being erroneously represented as a Christian
group. Simmering anger over the perceived
privileged positions of Christian leaders and
their families resulted in a serious split in 1994
and the formation of the DKBA.
Sources in
Mae Sot close to the Karen say that Mahn Sha was
one figure who could unite Buddhists and
Christians, communists and non-communists, Pwo
Karens and Skaw Karens, and maintain peace between
the different power cliques. For consensus on
policy and important decisions to be reached
within the KNU, all sides have to be balanced and
Mahn Sha was uniquely qualified as a mediator.
He was however unable to stop the 7th
Brigade's commander and some of his soldiers
splitting from the KNU over issues surrounding
whether to maintain the ceasefire with the junta.
The split was largely contained and very few
joined the new group, but the damage to the KNU's
reputation had already been done.
Further
splits within the KNU, even if they are internal
ideological ones, are not something the rebel
group can afford if it hopes to continue to fend
off the Myanmar army and engage the junta in
future negotiations. Some analysts believe that
Mahn Sha's death will serve to embolden the ruling
State Peace and Development Council's attempts to
further divide and rule the KNU.
While it
is unlikely that Mahn Sha was killed on the direct
orders of the military regime, it is certainly to
their benefit. He was known to be a tough
negotiator and the junta expressly requested that
he not be included in the ceasefire negotiations
of 2003-2004. It was felt by those close to the
Karen struggle that this was because Mahn Sha
could not be enticed by promises of personal
enrichment or the lure of economic concessions - a
tactic that several other ceasefire ethnic groups
in Myanmar have been frequently accused of
succumbing to.
The Myanmar Army's renewed
offensive in early 2006 in the northern Karen
State and eastern Pegu Division is two years later
slowly eroding the last remaining areas under
Karen control. The army's scorched earth tactics
are also causing serious hardships for the
civilian population of the region. Mahn Sha was
never in support of the ceasefire agreed between
the KNU and the junta and which many now believe
was simply a diversionary tactic by the Myanmar
military to prepare its frontlines for the
offensive.
Mahn Sha's support for
continued military resistance to the junta until
the military regime is willing to hold an honest
political discussion with the KNU made him
unpopular with some who felt that the Karen should
have peace. Mahn Sha's stance, however, was
seemingly vindicated with the army's renewed
military activity against KNU strongholds.
The Karen are also suffering from
something of a crisis of resolve with many seeking
to emigrate as refugees, including members of the
KNU and KNLA and large numbers of young people.
Mahn Sha was a leader that the younger generation
of Karen could look up to and his death may
further diminish hopes for a people already in
crisis.
More than most ethnic or
democratic opposition leaders, Mahn Sha was
willing to put aside his nationalism and try to
form united fronts. While this cost him support in
some Karen circles, due to feelings that he may
have been appeasing other groups at the cost of
Karen issues, it made him invaluable for uniting
ethnic opposition to the military regime.
At this January's Karen new year
celebrations, Mahn Sha stated, "The KNU will also
cooperate with opposition groups inside and
outside the country in matters relating to change
in Burma [Myanmar] and increasing the progress of
the democracy movement."
Cooperation is
something the opposition is going to need to
counter the junta's new plans for a referendum on
its new constitution and follow-on elections.
Unity, however, is something the ethnic and
democracy struggle in Myanmar has historically
lacked, making the loss of a leader who inspired
people across ethnic and political divides that
more tragic.
Brian McCartan is a
Thailand-based freelance journalist. He may be
contacted through brianpm@comcast.net.
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