Dear All,

Here is the NEWS.

A leader of Myanmar's biggest ethnic armed groups has been killed at his home in Mae Sot, a border town in neighbouring Thailand.

Mahn Sha Lar Phan, secretary-general of the Karen National Union (KNU), was shot dead at about 4:30pm on Thursday at his two-storey wooden home by two men who had arrived in a pickup truck.

"One of them walked up to the house and said in Karen 'How are you, uncle?' Then the other man joined him after parking the truck and they both shot him with two pistols," Kim Suay, his wife, told the Reuters news agency.

The killing was immediately blamed on Myanmar's military government.

In an interview on Monday, the Karen leader had predicted a possible increase in violence ahead of a constitutional referendum in Myanmar in May.

Karen divisions

His son Hse Hse, another senior member of the predominantly Christian Karen rebel movement, blamed a Buddhist Karen splinter group which brokered a truce with the Myanmar government in the mid-1990s.

"This is the work of the DKBA and the Burmese soldiers," Hse Hse said, referring to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

The KNU and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), are riven by internal feuds and lethal vendettas.

Thai police said they had the registration number of the vehicle and were setting up roadblocks around Mae Sot - a frontier town of refugees, illegal migrants and gem dealers - to try to catch the two killers.

The Karen have been fighting for independence in the hills of eastern Myanmar for the past 60 years.

The group once controlled areas of eastern Myanmar, but has been reduced mainly to a string of bases pressed against the Thai border.

Border conflict

Myanmar began a bloody offensive against the Karen two years ago, which activists say has targeted ordinary villagers rather than separatists.

Decades of fighting have devastated eastern Myanmar, where 500,000 people have been displaced by violence, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group.

Up to 150,000 Karen refugees also live in camps along Thailand's border with Myanmar. Many of them have been there for more than 20 years.

Rape, forced labour, summary executions and land grabs remain widespread, while the military also forces villagers to act as human minesweepers, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report last month.

EBD OF THE NEWS.

My comments,

If only he decides to take honourable retirement within Myanmar and within legal fold he would still be alive and help the cause of Karen affairs together with Phado Aung San. But who can change his fate or " Phaya Thakihn Alo-daw Ja " It's the will of GOD in the name of Jesus Christ.

Whether SPDC representatives will attend the funeral of Phado Mahn Sher or not is another matter. SPDC attended at Saw Bo Mya's funeral who died of natural causes.

If only Phado Mahn Sher had join hn=and with Phado Aung San at least and took part in National COnvention he could be
one of the ministers or authorities for Kayin Affairs in the Kayin State.

What we can make out of this is, that Thailand which is a member of ASEAN, which is supposed to be a neighbour of Myanmar by hoarding the insurgents against Myanmar's government. Thailand can not be called a good friend but only a friend .

It is not only Phado Mahn Sher who lives in Chaig Mai in luxiry while his followers are in refugee camps or in the jungle of Myanmar poorly, risking their lives for their cause, whatever that means. What a waste.

It is not surprising some people might accuse Myanmar military(SPDC) for his tragic death.

Thunderbolts.