Interview with the Secretary 2 of Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)
2 May 2021
We caught up for interview with Khu Daniel, the Secretary 2 of Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), concerning around 70 youths who had been arrested by military council on April 30 in Hpruso.
MPM : Military Council has been making serious violence on uprisings after coup. Now there are a lot of young people who have joined the armed revolution. What is your opinion upon them? Is there any military training of KNPP for them?
KDL : The perception or wishes of the youths reflect the desires of the public. The youths are creating the situation what the public desired. Most people are against the military council. They are trying to resist the dictatorship in many ways. There is no reason to object upon their revolution movement. We need to encourage them. Many youths frequently requested us to provide military training. However, we are just the representatives for KNPP. For instance, there are general strike committees and the leaders behind. There have been certain trainings under the supervision of such leaders and committees. Hence, such trainings are administered by any representative organization of the state but not directly led by KNPP. Hence, there is no direct administration by KNPP upon training.
MPM : Is KNPP providing military courses during these days?
KDL : There are regular courses in KNPP. This program is related with party because this is just the organization’s own military training. This is the regular course. This course has been normally provided one time or two times in a year. After the courses, the trainees become the KNPP members. There are certain trainings led by the youths who had already completed our courses. Therefore, I am saying that those kinds of trainings are not directly administered by KNPP and they are just led by any State Representative Organization.
MPM : Today many people are talking that the seventy youths who had completed the KNPP’s military training courses were arrested on their return in Hpruso on April 30. What do you want to say upon this? Is there any involvement of KNPP?
KDL : I don’t know about the certificate or something else. Here I want to make you clear that there is no reason to return back if these youths were attending the KNPP’s training courses. For example, if they are trained under KNPP, they become the members of KNPP. Since they need to carry the duties under Karenni Army (KA), they don’t need to go back their original places. Those detained groups were just the trainees under the leadership of such State Representative Organization. It is necessary to be clear. Since the people who are directly trained by KNPP will surely become the members of Karenni Army, they don’t need to return back. We also cannot let them go in a hurry. I cannot say exactly upon such State Representative Organization’s long-term plan for their trainees. I am not sure upon their plan of letting them go after the training. But I heard the news that they had been arrested. Again, the leaders of such training are not the KNPP appointed personnel but just the representatives of the Kayah State. Nevertheless we are trying our best to solve this problem.
MPM : Who is the most responsible for those arrested seventy youths?
KDL : Such State Representative Organization is the most responsible. There are also many leaders in different areas. I mean such kind of training are usually led by the activist youths. We are not trying to escape from taking responsibility. We are responsible too. KNPP is also responsible as other organizations do. As they are the youths in Kayah State, all organizations, political parties and leaders in Kayah State are responsible. I am also responsible for them so I am trying to help them. It can be concluded that all of the leaders are the most responsible ones.
MPM : What will be the consequences of such arrest?
KDL : It mostly depends upon the military council. If the military council doesn’t want the peace process impaired, it should hold the negotiation with the public and make certain bargains. This is their business. If the military doesn’t choose the soft way of negotiation, perhaps the youths may be charged with Section 17(1) and may be beaten or tortured. The more violence the military makes, the more protests the public do. This is sure that if they tortured more, the more people go on streets. The more persecuted they are, the more enemies they will have.
MPM : How do you encourage the detained persons?
KDL : I want to encourage the detained persons and the public as well. This is just the start of the revolution. It has only been months since the revolution. One Burmese saying states that a politician has been in prison for six months. If you are determined to dive in the politics, you have been in prison. If you are doing revolution, you have ever been bloodshed. I want to hearten the youths not to give up immediately after one failure. There had been innumerable losses during the revolution. There had been uncountable deaths in ethnic armed organizations. Around 700-800 death toll does not reach the loss of our ethnic armed organizations. However, we did have the certain record. Nobody knows what was happening in our ethnic regions due to the lack of social media. For instance, those living in Taunggyi, Yangon or Mandalay had not known or noticed the serious explosion or the intensified battles occurred in Loikaw. Wherever we are, if we are getting the information on time, we can know that the violence is happening seriously. There had been innumerable deaths or amputations. I want to hearten the youths. When you are diving into politics or making a revolution, you have to be sacrificed for bloodshed or failure and you may also be beaten. This is the nature of revolution. You don’t need to give up upon such kind of failure. The politician has been in prison. If we are trying hard without giving up, we can reach our goal.
Interviewed by
Maw Oo Myar (Kantarawaddy Times)
