4/6/2009

The son of late Karen National Union leader General Bo Mya has defected to the Burmese military junta, a junta official reported on Saturday.

Nay Soe Mya turned himself into the Burmese junta authorities on Monday along with a group of soldiers and their families, totaling 159 people. The defectors will be allowed to keep their weapons.

The KNU's 60-year fight for autonomy is becoming increasing difficult to sustain as the Burmese military chips away at its remaining hold on the mountainous border region near Thailand, according to analysts.

Nay Soe Mya has joined Htain Maung, a former brigade leader who was sacked from the Karen National Liberation Army in January 2007 after making an independent peace deal with the military regime, a Karen guerilla on the Thai-Burma border said.

The Burmese military is eager to suppress its political problems ahead of the elections designed to produce a military-controlled civilian government to held early next year.

Civil war has been ongoing in Burma since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948. Mostly non-Burman insurgent groups have been fighting for their political rights, such as self-determination and political equality within the framework of Burma's constitution. Opposition groups have called for political problems to be solved by political means through peaceful dialogue, but such efforts have been ignored by successive Burmese governments. The KNU is the largest ethnic rebel group and the only major one that has yet to sign a ceasefire with the junta, one senior politician said.