Karenni organisation says no word received after quitting resistance advisory council

A week after announcing its temporary exit from Myanmar’s advisory council of anti-junta groups, the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) claims the council’s representatives have not contacted its leaders. The Karen National Union (KNU) and Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)—ethnic armed groups opposed to Myanmar’s military regime—released a letter on November 17 announcing their provisional withdrawal from the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC). In an apparent response to the groups’ withdrawal, the NUCC issued a statement on November 22 claiming to have formed a negotiating committee to engage with officials of their member groups. However, spokespersons for the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) said that as of November 25, more than a week after they announced their withdrawal, there had been no communication or proposals to negotiate from the NUCC concerning its pause of participation. “The NUCC has yet to make contact with us,” KNPP Secretary Aung San Myint told Myanmar Now. “We chose to step back temporarily to adopt stronger political strategies.” He added that the KNPP, which serves as the political wing of the ethnic armed group Karenni Army (KA), now believes the political structures of the anti-junta resistance require reform, and aims to further the establishment of a federal democratic union through “bottom-up” federalism. “Reform will entail restructuring the entire political system. At present, the NUG, NUCC, and CRPH are all in need of changes. The NUCC, in particular, works slowly. Its mechanisms for political representation are hard to comprehend,” he said. The highest political body representing the coalition of anti-junta organisations in Myanmar, the NUCC formed in March 2021 in response to the military’s seizure of power the previous month. The council’s membership includes the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) formed by legislators ousted in the coup, as well as eight publicly supported ethnic armed organisations and their political wings, political parties, administrative bodies, student unions, strike committees, representatives of the Civil Disobedience Movement, and civil society groups. KNPP Secretary Aung San Myint in November 2024. (Photo: Karenni Information Centre) The National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party that led the elected government ousted in the coup, initially joined the NUCC but withdrew in 2022. While the NUCC has not disclosed its full membership publicly, the Chin National Front, KNPP, and KNU are all known to have participated in its deliberations. Myanmar Now attempted to reach KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee for comment on the powerful group’s temporary withdrawal from the NUCC but had not received a response at the time of reporting. Soe Win Swe, a representative of the civil society organisation Sagaing Forum Federation, interpreted the KNU and KNPP’s withdrawal as a move to adjust to the changing politics of the anti-junta resistance. “With a transition from a ‘centralised’ to a ‘bottom-up’ approach in progress, they may want their group to align with the political trend,” he said. He noted that, with central coordination already breaking down within the resistance forces, the KNU and KNPP’s exit from the NUCC is likely to add to its challenges. “Since its founding, the NUCC has faced limitations, including the gradual weakening of the Federal Democracy Charter and the council itself,” Soe Win Swe said. “There was the withdrawal of the NLD and the Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team (KPICT), along with other similar cases.” The KNPP and KNU sheltered anti-junta protesters following the military coup as well as providing combat training and actively joining the armed struggle against the junta. Although it had signed a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar military in 2015, the KNU publicly condemned the 2021 coup and supported the resistance against it. Based in Karenni State and adjacent parts of the Karenni community’s homeland, the KNPP and its armed wing, the KA, did not sign the 2015 ceasefire agreement. NUCC officials at an online press conference in November 2022. (Photo: National Unity Consultative Council)

Karenni organisation says no word received after quitting resistance advisory council

Despite promising to address the provisional departure of two ethnic armed groups from the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), the council’s representatives reportedly have yet to communicate with one of the groups that withdrew

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