Myanmar Election Will Escalate War, Says Karen National Union, Key Ethnic Armed Group |
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New Delhi: As Myanmar’s military Junta begins its controversial phased general elections on Sunday, the Karen National Union (KNU), the oldest ethnic armed group, has dismissed the polls as a sham designed to manufacture a veneer of legitimacy.
In an interview to The Wire, KNU spokesperson Saw Taw Nee, speaking from the Myanmar-Thailand border, warned that the general elections will likely escalate the civil war and asserted that barring a few countries, it will not find any takers.
Although India has publicly backed “inclusive” elections in Myanmar, Saw Taw Nee said New Delhi’s stance remained unclear from the KNU’s perspective.
For India, the KNU is a critical stakeholder in connectivity, as Karen State serves as the primary corridor for the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which aims to link Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand. However, KNU has had very limited contact with Indian authorities.
The Myanmar military made territorial gains in 2025, reversing losses suffered the previous year. The KNU spokesperson attributed this shift to support from China, particularly in the form of advanced drones, as well as the junta’s enforcement of compulsory conscription.
The spokesperson said the cyber scam centres that trapped hundreds of foreign nationals, including Indians, had largely operated in areas not under KNU control. He accused the Junta-aligned militias of facilitating their expansion, and said the KNU had taken a firm stand against such operations and moved to shut them down wherever it had authority. The interview has been edited for clarity.
How do you think this election will impact the future of Myanmar?
Our position is very firm. We deeply participated in the peace process for a long time. After we agreed to and signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and political dialogue, we participated in the peace process with all our heart and resources. We aimed for peace in our country, dealing with the Burmese military and the government for several years since 2015. India was also one of the eyewitnesses to the agreement at that time, along with Japan, Thailand, China, the EU [European Union] and the UN [United Nations].
But when the Burmese military violated everything and staged a coup, our policy for the Karen National Union took a sharp turn. We are standing firmly on the position that we can’t accept anything from them anymore. We don’t agree with anything regarding the coup.
They have now become an illegitimate and illegal organization. We don’t accept that at all. We are against whatever they do, such as the election.
We declared a statement on August 26, 2025, clearly stating that we are against the general election that will happen in our country.
Two days later, they declared our organization an illegal and unlawful association and called us terrorists. That is the situation now. The military has lost control of nearly two-thirds of the country. They might only control cities and towns, but in rural areas, they cannot control the main roads or the border areas. We believe the situation will only get worse after........