In a statement released on Saturday, the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front (KNPLF) formally declared themselves in rebellion against the Myanmar military regime.
The KNPLF is an ethnic armed organisation (EAO) made up of five battalions. Two KNPLF battalions joined resistance forces in raiding junta outposts on the Salween (Thanlyin) River in Mese Township, Karenni State, on June 13, an event celebrated in the Saturday announcement as “opening a new chapter in history” for the armed group.
KNPLF battalions 1004 and 1005–which joined the raids against the junta bases and a police station in Mese Township in June–previously operated as part of the Border Guard Forces (BGF) under the command of the military.
The KNPLF originally formed as an independent organisation in 1978 when they separated from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP). They agreed to a ceasefire with the Myanmar military in 1994 and the two battalions reformed as a BGF in 2002.
In issuing Saturday’s announcement after participating in the attacks on junta forces, the battalions have now formally changed sides in Myanmar’s internal conflict.
Altogether, there are around 600 troops in Battalion 1004—based in Pan Tein, Mese Township—and Battalion 1005—based in Ywar Thit, Bawlakhe Township.
A BGF battalion traditionally consists of 326 members, including 300 KNPLF fighters and 26 junta soldiers. In order to defect, the KNPLF members of Battalion 1004 disarmed the contingent of junta soldiers and put them in holding cells, according to Lawrence Soe, a KNPLF associate secretary.
The captive solders reunited with the military after some 100 junta troops were airdropped on June 20, he added.
Lawrence Soe emphasised that the group was preparing to coordinate closely with their new allies in fighting the junta.
“We are conducting missions based on principles of unity and preparedness. We will only attack when we have done enough preparation,” he said.
The day before their announcement, the KNPLF claimed to have shot down a military aircraft in Bawlakhe Township, although the type of aircraft could not be confirmed.
According to Lawrence Soe, the aircraft crashed near the bank of the Salween River on Friday morning, a mile and a half from BGF Battalion 1005’s base in the town of Ywar Thit, Bawlakhe Township.
“We can confirm that we shot down the aircraft successfully but we still can’t confirm the type because we couldn’t get close enough to the crash site with battles still going on. We’ll only find out when the military council releases a statement,” he said.
Another KNPLF central committee member confirmed he had received reports from fighters in the field saying the downed aircraft was a helicopter, but that they had to flee as more junta aircraft approached and did not have time to record video or take photographs to confirm.
The site where the plane crashed was once an inhabited village but has since been abandoned, with only a monastery and pagoda remaining.
The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), another EAO active in the area, has yet to confirm the incident, and the military council has not released a statement acknowledging the loss of its aircraft. However, posts on pro-junta social media accounts claimed that a K8 Type fighter plane crashed during an airstrike in Bawlakhe Township because of bad weather, killing two officers on board.
In December 2021, four Karenni BGF members attempted to negotiate on behalf of dozens of civilians whom the military had captured and were holding in Moso village in Karenni State’s Hpruso Township.
The junta captured the BGF members and tied them up before executing them along with the other hostages in what became known as the Christmas Eve Massacre.
In response to accusations of the massacre, the military council claimed the victims had died when a dispute over vehicle stops at a checkpoint led to a shootout.
Around 20 BGF battalions operate on Myanmar’s borders with Thailand and China. This is the first instance of BGF battalions in Karenni State defecting to ally with the anti-junta resistance.
In the statement announcing their defection, the KNPLF said that they would cooperate with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and the publicly mandated National Unity Government (NUG), both of which formed in 2021 to resist the coup regime.
“Our goal is the same as the people’s. It is to overthrow the military dictatorship and to eliminate all the pillars supporting it. It is the people’s liberation,” Lawrence Soe said.
The KNPLF, the KNPP/Karenni Army, the KNDF, and the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army are collectively known as the 4K Alliance. Along with PDF battalions under the command of the NUG and the Karenni Revolution Union, they are all now united in the armed resistance movement against junta forces in Karenni State.
