The Karen National Union (KNU) and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) announced that they were opposed to the newly formed Kawthoolei Army and expelled its leader Saw Nerdah Mya from the KNU.
The decision was taken at a KNU Central Executive Committee meeting on 20 July.
The committee was reacting to a statement released the day before, 19 July, by Saw Nerdah Mya where he identified himself as the commander-in-chief and founder of the Kawthoolei Army.
According to the KNU announcement following the Executive Committee meeting, Saw Nerdah Mya had frequently violated the KNU/KNLA Supreme Headquarters rules and regulations ever since he was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Karen National Defence Organization (KNDO), on 10 September 2013.
The KNDO is one of the KNU’s two armed wings, the other being the KNLA.
Saw Nerdah Mya was temporarily suspended from his duties on 5 July 2021 so that the KNDO could investigate his involvement in an alleged massacre of construction workers on 31 May 2021.
A junta news outlet alleged that around 30 KNDO troops kidnapped 47 construction workers from a bridge construction site on the Oh Ho Stream on the Kane Lay to Maw Khee highway in Karen State's Myawaddy District on 31 May 2021.
The kidnapped people included 31 men, six women and 10 children. According to the junta the 22 hostages, including all the women and children and some of the men, were released on 1 and 9 June.
But, on 11 and 12 June junta troops found the bodies of the other 25 kidnapped men with their hands tied behind their backs in Myawaddy’s Waw Lay area.
Saw Nerdah Mya asserted the victims were not civilians, but were actually junta soldiers disguised as construction workers and he claimed to have confiscated their badges. In photos of the executed men issued by the junta some were wearing camouflage trousers, but the junta claimed they were all civilians.
Following the KNDO investigation Saw Nerdah Mya was dismissed from his position and suspended of all duties on 17 January 2022.
According to the 19 July Kawthoolei Army statement the organisation is not affiliated with the KNU/KNLA.
Saw Nerdah Mya, is the son of the late KNU chairman General Bo Mya.
