THIRD KAREN NATIONAL UNITY SEMINAR STATEMENT
June 3, 2004

The Third Karen National Unity Seminar, attended by 99 delegates from nineteen organizations, was held from May 31 to June 2, 2004, at a certain place in the base area of Karen revolutionary resistance. At the Seminar, discussions were held on the current situation in Burma, the political objectives of the Karen people, Karen National Unity, the cease-fire talks between the KNU and the SPDC, and plans for the future of the Karen people.

In the analysis on the current situation of Burma, the Seminar reaches the conclusion that Burma is:

- Currently under domination of Burman chauvinism and military dictatorship;
- The people made up of various nationalities have lost their basic rights;
- Political, economic, and social conditions of Burma are in a very distressing state due to the failure to resolve political problems justly through dialogue;
- The people as a whole are suffering harshly under political repression and an economic crisis.

In analyzing issue concerning dialogue and the cease-fire between the KNU and the SPDC, the Seminar unanimously resolves to support the KNU’s effort to conduct cease-fire talks in accordance with its principles based on the Karen people’s fundamental interests. At the same time, the Seminar resolves:

- To continue the effort to eradicate narcotic drugs and human trafficking;
- To carry out widely the work of educating the people concernng activities for the preservation and protection of the environment and natural resources;
- To unite, without discrimination as to race or religion, setting the realization of ethnic equality and self-determination as the basic political objective;
- To endeavor for the elevation of the education and development of the younger generations.

Finally, the Seminar earnestly calls upon:

1. The entire Karen people to strive on with unwavering determination and courage, and with the political objectives of realizing the right of the Karen people to determine their own destiny, establishment of democracy and establishment of a genuine federal union;
2. The international community and the Karen people, at home and abroad, to endeavor for the emergence of a genuine federal union in Burma, meaningful talks and three-party dialogue (tripartite dialogue), by various means;
3. The SPDC to cease military activities, attempts for regional control, human rights violations, forced labor, destruction of the people’s homes and properties and extortion of cash, in Karen areas during the period of truce, and to resolve justly the political problems.