Ethnic Karen rebels reject Myanmar

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Subject: Ethnic Karen rebels reject Myanmar junta's peace offer.


	Ethnic Karen rebels reject Myanmar junta's peace offer 
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     YANGON -- Rebel ethnic Karen guerillas operating along the 
south-eastern border with Thailand yesterday
     rejected the latest peace overture from Myanmar's military 
government. 

     General Bo Mya, leader of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), told 
Reuters from his Hteet Kaple base that
     the offer was rejected because Yangon had insisted that the KNU lay 
down its arms for talks to progress. 

     Earlier, a spokesman for Myanmar's ruling State Law and Order 
Restoration Council (Slorc) told a monthly
     news conference that the government was awaiting the outcome of a 
new round of peace talks with the KNU. 

     Slorc spokesman Colonel Kyaw Thein said some influential Karen 
nationals from Yangon were meeting with
     KNU leaders to persuade them to make peace with the government. 

     The KNU, formed in 1948, is the only remaining armed group still 
fighting Myanmar's military government. 

     Last week the KNU and its rival, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army 
-- a splinter group backed by the
     Myanmar government -- engaged in heavy fighting that left thousands 
of refugee Karens homeless. 

[Reuter, 2 Feb 1997].

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