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KAREN REBELS IN BURMA

Sterling Seagrave

This is the first of a three-part series on the insurgencies of Burma’s hill tribes: the Karens, the Shans and the Kachins. Since 4 January 1948 when Burma gained independence from Britain and established the coalition Union of Burma, the government has been unable to quell the ethnic insurgencies. The Karen are the second largest ethnic group, next to the Burmans, and constitute approximately seven percent of the population. – The Ends.

When the Burmese Army began its long-awaited move against the Karen Rebels last June (Making strictly illegal use of U.S. helicopter in the process), there was a lot of excitement on Embassy Row in neighboring Thailand. A stunning Burman victory was predicted.

But the prediction was wrong. By the time the attack ended, the U.S. government had egg on its face and was trying hard to keep the details from coming to the attention of Congress. Tow shiny new Hueys were lying in the jungle like crumpled beer cans, and the Karen were grinning from ear to ear. They had downed both Hueys with a homemade mortar. That’s right, a home-made mortar.

It happened this way. On 2 June 1983, the word went out among foreign military attaches and journalists in Bangkok that a massive Burmese operation had begun that day. The predicted outcome was practically universal: This time it was all over for the Karens.

The U.S. Embassy in Rangoon knew that the Hueys were involved, but made no protest. On the face of it, this was highly illegal because the Hueys were given to Burma's military dictatorship only for use in suppressing opium traffic out of the notorious Golden Triangle, far to the north where the borders of China Burma, Laos and Thailand come together. The Burmans had given their word that the choppers would not be used for population control. But everybody knew that they were using them anyway to suppress the ethnic rebels.

There had been arguments before congressional committees over the years, pointing out that U.S. aid was being abused and used to destroy political enemies of Burma's strongman, Gen. Ne Win. This was one reason why the foreign embassies were watching the latest campaign so closely.

Another reason was the dangerous proximity to the Thai border. The Thai government maintains good relations with the Karen people and their rebel leadership. It makes sense.

The Karens are a well-educated, stable ethnic force with British-trained military leaders. They are traditionally anti-communist and have been struggling against Burmese oppression for nearly 40 years. The Karens control the jungled mountains that serve as a buffer between Thailand and Burma. They dominate an area larger than New England, including rich countryside ranging all the way from the long southern tail of Burma up to the bridge on the River Kwai, northwest of Bangkok, and northward along the Salween River to the edge of the Golden Triangle, where the wild and beautiful countryside comes under the control of a different group of ethnic rebels, the Shans.

The Thais obviously like having the Karen buffer zone. The rebels are permitted to operate on the Thai side of the border with minimal interference. On the other hand, Bangkok is traditionally frosty toward Rangoon: They have been enemies for centuries. Burmese armies-mounted on war elephants- sacked the Thai capital at Ayudhaya in the 18th century. Still, despite pretenses of neighborliness, periodic skirmishes erupt between Thai and Burman border patrols.

On 2 June, the Burmese Army struck first at a remote Karen outpost guarding Nawtaya Pass at the top of the Dawna Mountain Range. This is the only direct route through the mountains from the Burman-controlled lowlands into a Karen stronghold in a broad valley along the Thai border, near the town of Mea Sot.

The Karens have controlled the big, secluded valley for decades, successfully thwarting all Burman attempts to seize it. It is an important part of the Karen rebel nation (which has its own prime minister, cabinet, tax structure, school system, teak lumber mills, etc.). But this time the small Karen garrison at Nawtaya Pass was understaffed, reduced to only five soldiers. The rest were away on raids against Burman garrisons to the west.

As a result, the Burmese Army force was headed for the strategic town of Mawpokey, where the chief Karen radio transmitter was situated. This town, on the Burman side of the border river, has Karen schools and mills, plus a hearty export trade to Thailand in cattle, teak and minerals. It is close to Karen headquarters and symbolic of the Karens success in running a rebel nation within a nation.

Units of the Burmese Army's 44th Light Infantry Regiment had the town surrounded before dawn on 5 June. One company managed to infiltrate the town in the dark. When they were discovered, fighting began. There were only 40 Karen soldiers in Mawpokey at the time, but as the attack commenced, every able-bodied Karen in town ran for weapons. The Burmans who had infiltrated were driven out. They regrouped, forded the river and made their way through Thai territory to the Thai village of Mae Tan to attack the Karen defenders from behind.

It was a well-planned operation, supported by Hueys bringing in howitzers and ammunition, and taking out wounded. The Karens realized that they were in trouble.

The first day's battle raged from 0530 until sundown. The Burmans lost 102 dead and 94 wounded. The Karen lost nine killed and 18 wounded. Although taken off guard, the Karens reacted swiftly.

Main force units and commando teams converged on Mawpoekey from every direction. A battalion of the Karen's 7th Brigade, plus the 101 Special Force who were rushing to relieve the siege of Mawpoekey, clashed with Burmese Army elements at nearby Pwe Taw Roh, a battle that lasted two days. Other battles occurred up and down the valley.

On 9 June, the Burmese Army seemed to have the upper hand when seven rebels, led by young Saw Law Eh, slipped up to the enemy field headquarters on the football grounds at Taleka. They were toting a homemade mortar and five rounds of ammunition. While they struggled to set up the crude mortar, they watched one Huey being loaded up and prepared for takeoff, while another took on wounded.

When the first Huey lifted off, Saw Law Eh began firing. His first round seemed to go astray, and the first Huey was clattering off over the tree tops when it suddenly exploded in midair. His second shot fell on the football field and seemed to have been wasted. But shrapnel splinters from it tore through the second Huey, which by then was about 20 feet off the ground. The chopper dropped like a stone and sat on the field with the rotors turning for about 10 minutes before the engine stopped.

There was nothing visibly wrong with the Huey, but a Karen radioman in the group heard the pilot say he felt pain over his bladder and the co-pilot complain of chest pains. Shrapnel had hit them just enough to cause panic and keep them from flying out. Both pilots seemed unable to move. They had to instruct a soldier aboard how to stop the engine.

A third mortar round meanwhile fell on the field, but did not explode. The last two rounds were expended holding back the Burmese Army troops charging Saw Law Eh's position. The Karens beat a quick retreat.

When the Karens were gone, the Burmans blew up the Huey. Nothing was wrong with it, but the only men who could fly it to safety were out of commission for the season. The Burmans did not want to leave it for the Karens. The rebels did capture several howitzers and a large quantity of other weapons and ammunition.

The Burmans were now showing definite signs of giving up. The loss of the two U.S. helicopters had brought their confidence crashing down. They called in jet fighters to cover their retreat. The Karens were now organized and coming in full strength. Karen main force units were now ready to take on the Burmans, one-on-one.

On 11 June, nine days after the battlelhad begun, two battalions of the Karen main force engaged the Burmese Army at Taleka, killing 60 and wounding 70 before the Burmans finally gave up and withdrew through Nataya Pass. During the last skirmish, one of the Burman jet fighters, a U.S.- made AT-33A, was damaged and tried to make it back to Pa-an Airbase near the Salween delta, but it crashed short of the runway, killing the pilot.

In all, the Burmans lost 215 dead, 219 wounded, two Hueys, one jet fighter, several artillery pieces and large quantities of smaller weapons and ammo. The Karens lost a total of 18 dead and 26 wounded. The Karens captured two French mining engineers- whom they were still holding as this article went to press- for exchange. What had begun as a major military campaign had turned into a disaster.

Diplomatic relations between Thailand and Burma chilled to a record low for the decade. The Thais are famous for their permissiveness and tolerance, but this hospitality did not extend to Burmese Army troops crossing into Thai territory for a sneak attack.

The most embarrassing result, however, was the loss of the Hueys. If they had been used successfully, neither the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon nor the one in Bankok would have made a great issue out of their illicit use. There is a good chance that it would all have remained buried in classified cable traffic to the pentagon and State Department, with only minor repercussions. Americans have learned that it is not fruitful to try to slap the Burmans on the wrist. The Burmans are tough, independent and highly intelligent, with one of the world's oldest and most interesting cultures, and an impressive military tradition. They like to do things their own way, even if it means angering Washington, Peking or Moscow.

But the fact that the two Hueys were destroyed while engaged in an illegal operation (not to mention one involving penetration of the Thai border), caused red faces all the way up to the Executive Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. According to sources at the American Embassy in Bangkok said the embassy staff was "whooping it up" with glee.

The battle of Mawpokey was given lavish treatment in Bankok's English-language and vernacular press. There were amusing stories "warning" journalists "not to attend" Karen press conferences. The stories, published at the instruction of the Thai government, made a point of stating exactly where and when these press conferences would be staged.

As for Congress and the long-simmering issue of sending Hueys to Burma for "opium suppression," there was an outside chance that this incident would trigger a review of U.S. military aid abuses. But only an outside chance. After all, who had ever heard of these Karen rebels, and who could get excited about them when they were not called a national liberation front?

The United States should realize that the struggle for Burma never be settled without the Karens' participation. They are the only rebel force close and strong enough to hit the Burmans where it counts. This last confrontation was not the first time they have proved it.

In August 1948, just eight months after the Union of Burma became independent from Britain, the Karens moved suddenly and swiftly to end their quarrel with the Burmans. In less than 10 days, Karen forces swept across the country, seizing the cities of Thaton and Moulmein without firing a shot, and closed to within 10 miles of Rangoon. The Burmans were stunned. Counterattacks failed to dislodge the Karens from the area around the international airport.

Finally, the Burmans used a ruse. They offered to hold peace talks under a truce flag. The British ambassador and two other diplomats carried the offer to the Karens and persuaded them to agree. Reluctantly, the Karen leadership entered Rangoon under white flags, leaving their troops with strict orders not to violate the truce.

In their absence, Burmese Army units raced forward to gain strategic battle positions. The Karen soldiers watched in fury, their orders preventing them from blocking this betrayal.

In the city, the Karen leaders were prepared to negotiate a peaceful settlement. But they were astounded to be greeted instead by Burmese demands to lay down their arms. Now that the Burans had treacherously gained the upper hand, they wanted nothing short of total, unconditional Karen surrender.

The Karens had no choice. Their leaders were trapped in Rangoon. Their soldiers were without senior officers- surrounded, outgunned and outnumbered.

After staging one of the most stunning military campaigns of the postwar years, the Karens had allowed themselves to be duped. Their cause collapsed as quickly as it had sprung into motion. The bewildered Karen forces straggled back into he hills that divide Burma and Thailand, where they continue their uneven struggle today, more than three decades later.

Why were these tough, determined guerrilla forces tricked so easily?

And why does their cause remain tragically unfulfilled today?

The truth is simply that the Karens are straight arrows, unable to comprehend the duplicity of the Burmans. The Americans and British always liked the Karens because of their basic honesty- or naivety.

And herein lies the pathos of their historic struggle.

The Burmans, on the other hand, take pride in being able to get around life's obstacles by cleverness, cunning or brute force, as displayed so beautifully by George Orwell in Burmese Days. They are charming, witty, artistic, handsome, lazy, full of music and laughter- and homicidal tendencies.

In Rangoon, hit-and –run drivers are often murdered by angry bystanders. In the countryside, young men don't think twice about ambushing and raping village girls if they catch them off guard. Rape, after all, is just a strenuous form of seduction; and if the girl is a Karen, that's even better since Karens are not Buddhist, but rather Christian "eaters of foreign religion."

Few things are as amusing to Burmans as a tale of outwitting or making fools of the mountain people. It does not matter whether the victim is Shan, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Arakanese, or from one of Burma's many smaller ethnic groups. The Burman always sees himself as the fox in a sort of Aesop's fable.

The Karens came down into Burma thousands of years ago, in one of the Mongols' periodic migrations. Their lore speaks of crossing the Gobi Desert from the windswept steppes and forested taiga of Central Asia. They still possess relics of their ancient script, a written language that nobody in living memory has deciphered.

The Karens settled in the fertile lower valleys of Burma, gradually drifting south to mingle with the Mon people in the area that now includes the Malay Peninsula and the southern tails of Burma and Thailand.

Burma's geography has ensured its survival over the centuries. Rugged mountain ranges run north and south, blocking conquest from India or China. Rich river-fed valleys lie between the mountains. The rivers run down from Tibet, and include the Irrawaddy and the Salween, two of the world's great rivers.

More than a thousand years ago, the Burmans swept down in a migration from the Himalayas. They are not Mongols, but rather Tibetans, heavily influenced by the Hindus of India.

The Burmans pressed south and gradually took over the soft pockets of rich farmland in the lower plains of Burma, replacing the ancient kingdoms and pushing the Karens and Mons up into the jungles toward Thailand. There, the Karens became an oppressed minority, preyed upon for centuries by Burmese armies mounted on elephants.

The tide was turned when Britain came East in search of empire. From India, The British invaded lower Burma in the early 1800s and waged a series of Anglo Burmese wars to dominate the entire country. The Burmese monarchy was terminated in humility.

Shrewd English colonial administrators placed the civil service in the hands of Indian carpetbaggers, who could be trusted to be servile, The colonial army's native troop units were composed not of Burmans but of Karens. It was typical of the British to administer a colony in this way. They recognized the Karens as fundamentally simple people, not given to mischief.

American Baptist missionaries, who arrived along with the first British invaders ( my ancestors included), also recognized kindred spirits and took fast to the Karens. Missionary schools and churches sprang up like mushrooms, and the Karens eagerly accepted fundamentalist Christianity.

Although the Burmese resented foreign domination, the Karens were accustomed to it. To the Karens, the ruler's character was important – not his nationality. The British treated them fairly and rewarded their hard work and loyalty.

On the other hand, the Burmans had been brutal overlords, stifling the Karens and jealously excluding them from educations or government participation. So the Karens were more than willing to help the British administer Burma, and enjoyed their protection. Karen officers were trained at Sand Hurst and gained significant mid-level ranks in the British forces.

On the eve of World War II, the Japanese secret service took advantage of Burma’s internal situation to turn the tables on Britain. Spies arriving as crewmen on Japanese ships offered help and training to Burmese nationalists. Thirty Burmese “comrades were smuggled out in freighter bilges for military training and political indoctrination in Japan, Formosa and Hainan. When Singapore had fallen and the Japanese were massed in Siam (the official name of Thailand before 1939 and from 1945 to 1949), their overland invasion of Burma in 1941 was spearheaded by the Thirty Comrades, leading an army of Burmese rabble.

Unfortunately, the Karens were in the path of the invaders. First the so-called “Burma Independence Army” and then the Japanese Imperia; “Army had to cross through the Karen heartland to from Bangkok to Rangoon. Anybody who got n the way was cut down.

Murder, rape, pillage and arson swept through the hills as the Burmans revenged themselves upon the Karens. The physical atrocities were imaginative and extreme: Ears and breasts were sliced off, genitals were skewered, and women were impaled. The Burmese cutthroats who composed the invasion spearhead were mostly criminals, smugglers, dope runners and riffraff who had fled to Bangkok to escape the British constabulary.

The poorly prepared British in Burma, as in Singapore, were badly routed. Only the appearance of William Slim, a British officer, saved them from ignominious defeat. Slim staged a fighting withdrawal to India that remains one of the great moments of World War II.

In India Slim rallied his forces, counterattacked in the Chin and Naga Hills. And caught the Japanese overextended. The carnage ended with the British in command and the Japanese fleeing back in to central Burma. ( Slim’s Defeat Into Victory id a brilliant account of the campaign.)

The Burmese, recognizing the writing on the wall, contacted Lord Louis Mountbatten, the supreme Allied commander for the China-Burma-India Theater, and offered to collaborate against Japan – in return for guarantees of independence after the war. The British reluctantly agreed.

During the three years of Japanese occupation, the Karens had been totally subjugated. But hope reappeared in the form of Force 136 the British commando operation staged from Kandy, Ceylon (renamed Sri Lanka in 1948). This infusion of British support gave the Karens heart, and they wreaked havoc on the Japanese in ambushes and sapper operations up and down Burma’s spiny tail. This was the region of the Bridge on the River Kwai – part of a Japanese railway from Bangkok to Rangoon that was repeatedly cut by Karen sappers. The famous bridge site can still be visited easily from Bangkok, and there is a strong Karen rebel base nearby at three Pagodas Pass.

War’s end brought demands on Britain to grant independence to Burma as promised. By then Britain had a labour government that was quick to compromise. England had its hands full with internal rebuilding, and no resources left to fend off independence movements in its colonies.

The Burmese leader, Gen. Aung San who had led the Thirty comrades from the beginning, was a tough, determined liberator. He kept pressure on Britain until resistance collapsed in Whitehall.

Britain recognized that independence could not be granted to the Burmas without also granting it to the other ethnic people of Burma. Otherwise, they would simply be turning over rule to one faction, while the others were left to fend for themselves. The Shans already had a state government of their own, so they felt no immediate pressure to escape from Burmese clutches. The Kachins in the far north were so far away that they had little contact with the lower Burmans. So they did not demand a separate settlement either.

The Karens had no separate state government, and if Burma were turned over to the lower Burmans, it was clear to the Karens what would follow. They initially pressed the British not to leave. Then they asked for guarantees of internal self-rule. The best that Britain could offer was a plan that gave the Burmans control of the central government, and made vague promises to the Karnes and other ethnic minorities. They were assured that they could sue for divorce after 10 years if the Burmans did not treat them fairly. Theoretically, they could then become independent or establish a federation on equal footing with the Burmans. Unfortunately, the karens and other minorities believed these promises. Burma became fully independent of Britain in January 1948.

Tragedy followed, whether the Burmese leader, Aung San, Ever intended to live up to his promises became a moot point when arrival politician had him assassinated. Almost the entire independence cabinet died in the same hail of machine-gun fire.

U Nu, a Buddhist teacher, became the new Burmese leader. But he was indecisive and vulnerable to pressure from unscrupulous generals and politicians. the Communist Party took advantage of the chaos, and staged a widespread uprising. Only a few months after gaining its independence, Burma was plunged into civil war.

At first, the Karens thought they should support the central government. The Burmese Army had many Karen officers, and the defense ministry was filled with Karen generals.

But the Burmese were nervous. Now that they had gained power over all of Burma for the first time in 150 years, they did not want to risk losing it to the communists or to any minority group that mighty take advantage. Craftily, the Burmans in the general staff engineered the firing of a score of top Karen officers, purging the defense ministry of Karens.

Burmese newspapers, controlled by politicians, fanned the frenzy against the Karens. Karen property was seized on trumped-up charges, and Karen villagers and shopkeepers were arrested and beaten, while their home and shops were looted. In the field, Burmese military units went berserk and massacred many Karen families, who were in church observing the Christmas Eve religious service. The Karens reacted to this brutality by launching their successful 10-day blitz across Burma. Then the made their fatal mistake of trusting the Burmese offer of truce talks.

A fascinating aside to the Karen liberation efforts was the attempt by British secret agents to persuade the Karens to secede from Burma and set up an independent state called Kawthoolei. Although a labour government was in power in the United Kingdom, the British secret service and defense establishment were still the provinces of Conservatives. The loss of Burma by the Labour government galled these traditionalists, who were determined to regain a portion of what was lost.

According to the British plan, Kawthoolei would encompass the southern tail of Burma, all the way up to Moulmein and the Salween River estuary. The western boundary of the new state would be the Sittang River, just east of Rangoon; it then would range north to include both the Salween District and Karenni.

This proposal would give the Karens and the Mons (who have always coexisted peacefully) a significant independent nation, with its capital at Moulmein, Burma's third-largest city and second-largest seaport after Rangoon. Britain would immediately recognize the independent state, and provide it a lifeline by sea with her merchant navy and gunboats.

It was a workable idea. The new state would be roughly the size of Panama. It would answer the urgent need of the Karens and Mon, and give Britain a foothold again for trade and transit in the East.

Unfortunately, the Burmese got wind of the plot (which helps explain their pathological fear of the Karens at the time), and the British were not especially effective in carrying it out- partly because the plot was never approved by the Labour government. For example, the British Special Operations Executive was to land arms and ammunition at Rangoon airport to support the Karen forces fighting around the city. But the British got cold feet at the last minute when their military mission decided the the Karens could not hold out more than 10 days. The British arms shipment failed to show, but the Karens fought on for 112 days, until their betrayal.

Licking their wounds after the Burmese treachery, the Karens did not give up. Soon they had trained 10,000 soldiers and 10,000 paramilitary troops. Karen military strength is roughly equivalent to that today, 30 years later.

The Karen forces are organized on a command chain extending from supreme headquarters to command headquarters, divisions, brigades, battalions, companies, platoons and sections. The Karen military chief, Maj. Gen. Bo Mya, is a tough, experienced field commander.

The Karen civilian government is a parallel organization with Prime Minister Than Aung at the helm, and a central committee of able Karen elders, including ministers of finance, justice, education, mining, health and welfare. The annual budget of the Karen state, or Kawthoolei, is about $2 million U.S., although this is an operating budget and does not represent the total revenue by any means.

They area controlled by the Karens is nearly as large as the British-proposed state. The cities and large towns are still garrisoned by Burmese Army units, but this area is still primarily a Karen and Mon stronghold. The Burmese Army does not operate outside the garrisoned towns without risking ambush and occasional massacre.

Out of their stronghold, the Karens and their Mon allies export tin, antimony and other minerals, and large quantities of Burma teak- all on an industrial scale. Traders move large quantities of Burma gems, including the world's finest rubies and sapphires, to markets in Thailand.

Reciprocally, traders take into Burma large quantities of dry goods, medicines and commodities to be sold on Burma's nationwide black market. In a socialist economy that resembles Bulgaria's at its worst, Burma has little to sell in state stores, so most residents depend entirely on the black market for food and goods.

From 1962 until 1982, when he stepped down in favor of his hand-picked successor, U San Yu, Gen. Ne Win ruled Burma as a military dictator. He is a frog-like man, with a lizard's grin, who has been known to beat to death aides or colleagues who crossed him at the wrong moment. He once became angry when an American Embassy car was blocking the entrance to a charity ball in Rangoon. The acting American ambassador was causing the delay as he stood by the car gibing instructions to his chauffeur. Ne Win jumped out of his car and gave the American ambassador a mighty, bone-crunching kick in the pants.

Nearly crippled by the kick, the humiliated U.S. diplomat was rushed home to the States and soon retired.

For years, the Karens have managed to retain majority control of their section of Burma, but they have not been able to gain total control. One reason is the sheer size of the Burmese Army which, at 200,000 men, keeps a sizable force in the center of the country to protect Rangoon, Mandaly and Moulmein, Its three largest cities.

Other large forces are spread along the Sittang front, facing the Karens. The rest of the Burmese Army is on picket duty in the Shan and Kachin regions to the northeast and for north, or directly engaging Shan and Kachin rebel armies in running combat.

Thanks to years of training and experience in this protracted, brutal civil war, the Burmese Army has become extremely proficient. It has performed well against crack units of China's People's Liberation Army during Chinese forays along their common frontier.

The Karens have proven to be just as skillful, but they have neither an air force nor adequate air defenses. Consequently, the tiny Burmese Air Force has been able to win many battles by using napalm and rockets.

If the Karens were to cut off the tail of Burma at any of the many narrow points south of Moumein (which could be done easily at any time), they would have to contend with Burmese jets. The Burmese Army would use their planes to chew up the Karen line, and then move in with supporting armor.

To correct this deficiency, the Karens must either develop and antiaircraft capability with surface-to-air missiles and ground fire, or cripple the Burmese planes on the ground with sappers.

The Karens have been reluctant to strike deep within Rangoon, or ambush the air force because they do not approve of treachery, and refuse to practice it themselves.

Nevertheless, changes are taking place. On 30 September 1982, heavily armed Karen sappers attacked Rangoon's main radio transmitter and a nearby police station. Rocket launchers and Chinese A K-47s were used in the attack; the Kalashnikovs were purchased on the black market in Thailand. This may signal a quickening in the tempo of this long civil war.

Indeed, at Karen headquarters near the Thai border, delegations from the Shan rebel forces, the Kachins and other ethnic groups have discussed forming a joint military command. Proposed is a plan that would attach Karen advisers to all other ethnic forces' headquarters to coordinate operations. Units of tough mountain guerrillas from the Kachin and Shan regions (including the Wa, Lahu and other hill tribes) would join the Karen operations in the south, targeted on Rangoon.

The objective should not be considered as a contest between communist and non-communist elements in Burma. That struggle exists, too, but the ethnic rebels are struggling for statehood, not political ideology. They want a significant say in their affairs, control of their finances without Burmese interference and a measure of self-rule under a federal form of government.

Since the Karens have suffered brutality for decades under a military dictator as ruthless as Idi Amin or Papa Doc Duvalier (who despite his retirement, failing health and age still retains power in Burma), they deserve all the help they can get. The good people who gave sanctuary to Lord Jim are still there, getting trashed by fate