OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

Address by KNU President Gen. Saw Tamla Baw on 58th Anniversary of Martyrs Day

August 12, 2008

Dear All Karen Nationals, KNLA Officers and Men,
First, I would like to extend my greetings by wishing the best of health in mind and
body to all of you. Today, August 12, 2008 is the 58th anniversary of the day on which our
martyrs sacrificed their lives in the fight for justice and freedom for the Karen people and a
day on which we remember and honor them for their heroic sacrifice. Today, we are still in
the battlefield, having to fight on for our rights. We still cannot struggle out of various forms
of mistreatment by the military dictatorship. We still have to carry on armed struggle,
because successive military dictatorship cliques, practicing extreme chauvinism, have
rejected on several occasions negotiation, and our effort to settle political problems by
political means. For that reason, we must fight on together with our fellow oppressed
nationalities and the democratic forces for the rights to decide our own destiny, equality,
democracy, true Karen State and establishment of a federal union, in accordance with
aspirations of the Karen people.

My fellow Karen Nationals, Officers and Men,

In the 59 years of the Karen people’s revolutionary struggle and difficulties, we have
seen many traitors, defeatists and reactionaries, but we also find many thousands of true
patriots and heroes. I would like to say further that we would never be defeated if we fight
on, with unity, in our revolutionary resistance against the SPDC military clique, practicing
military despotism and extreme chauvinism, and if we fully embrace the Four Principles of
our martyr, Saw Ba U Gyi, which state that:

1. Surrender is out of the question;

2. We shall retain our arms;
3. Recognition of Karen State must be complete;
4. We shall decide our own destiny.

In conclusion, I would like to urge all of you to follow leadership of the KNU at
different levels and the organizational discipline, to be alert against the enemy’s attempt to
divide us, to annihilate the enemy with unity, to oppose capitulationism, to uphold the
Principles of Saw Ba U Gyi and fight on, with one mind, until victory is achieved.

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