Karen Cooperation Agreement Heralds Uncertainty

commander of a small Karen splinter group, the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council, also joined the agreement.

Irrawaddy Founder Among Press Freedom Awardees

In mid-October, commanders of different Karen armed groups vowed publicly to begin military cooperation in the face of growing government army operations in southeastern Myanmar.

On Oct. 14, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Vice-Chief of Staff Gen. Baw Kyaw Heh and Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) leader Col. Nerdah Mya signed an agreement with Gen. Saw Lah Pwe, the head of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), in which they pledged to cooperate militarily. Col. Tiger, a

However, the following day, Saw Roger Khin, chief of the KNU department of defense, sought to distance the organization’s political leadership from the agreement. He said in a statement that the KNU leadership was not involved and that the agreement “was signed by the KNLA vice-chief of staff and the commander of the KNDO… through their own ideas.”

The agreement was potentially significant as it would further cooperation between the KNU and the DKBA. The latter is a Buddhist Karen group that broke away from the KNU and joined the government in 1994 after falling out with the KNU’s predominantly Christian leadership. —Nyein Nyein

Aung Zaw, the founding editor-in-chief of The Irrawaddy, was among four international journalists awarded the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ)’s 2014 International Press Freedom Award. The award is an annual recognition of courageous reporting and acknowledges the work of journalists who have faced imprisonment, violence, and censorship. This year’s other awardees were journalists from Iran, Russia and South Africa.

CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said “the journalists that CPJ will honor with the International Press Freedom Award are undeterred and unbowed. They have risked all to bring us the news.” The CPJ noted that The Irrawaddy, like other Myanmar media, “still comes under pressure from the current Burmese government.”

Just days after the award was announced, The Irrawaddy’s website was defaced by hackers calling themselves the “Blink Hacker Group.” The Irrawaddy’s home page was replaced with a message accusing it of supporting “jihad and radical Muslims.”

The cyber attack was linked to The Irrawaddy’s coverage of nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu’s trip to Colombo to attend a convention organized by a controversial Sri Lankan Buddhist group. —The Irrawaddy

Thai PM on Two-Day Trip to Myanmar

Thailand’s newly installed Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited Myanmar on Oct. 9-10, his first official overseas visit since assuming the top job.

The recently retired general met with President U Thein Sein in Naypyitaw, where the two leaders discussed pushing ahead with the stalled Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in southern Myanmar, migrant labor issues, and plans to develop economic zones in border areas.

Slated as Southeast Asia’s biggest industrial estate, the Dawei SEZ, which also includes a deep-sea port and highway, railroad and oil pipeline routes to Bangkok, has faced numerous challenges—not least of which are local grievances over forced evictions and the project’s heavy environmental impact.

A handful of Myanmar activists in Yangon turned out to protest during the Thai prime minister’s two-day trip against the arrest of a pair of Myanmar migrants accused of murdering two British tourists on southern Thailand’s Koh Tao in September. —Yen Snaing

Worried Parents

Daw May Thein, left, and U Tun Tun Htike, parents of Ko Win Zaw Htun, one of two Myanmar workers suspected of killing British tourists in Thailand, pass the time at a monastery outside Yangon on October 16. Relatives of the two Myanmar suspects who were arrested in Thailand's beach island Koh Tao for killing two British tourists said on October 16 that their sons had been arrested unjustly by Thai police. They were planning to travel to Thailand to meet their sons.