Kawthoolei
Sign in to savethumb|The KNU flag, sometimes used as the flag of Kawthoolei Kawthoolei (, ; ) is the endonym for a proposed state that the Karen nationalists have sought to establish in Myanmar since the beginning of the Karen conflict in the late 1940s. In general, Kawthoolei refers to the aspirational hypothetical state imagined by Karen separatist leaders. The area variously defined as being part of Kawthoolei includes areas where other ethnic groups, such as the Mon people, predominantly live.
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- Initial definition
- History during the Civil War
- See also
- References
thumb|The KNU flag, sometimes used as the flag of Kawthoolei Kawthoolei (, ; ) is the endonym for a proposed state that the Karen nationalists have sought to establish in Myanmar since the beginning of the Karen conflict in the late 1940s. In general, Kawthoolei refers to the aspirational hypothetical state imagined by Karen separatist leaders. The area variously defined as being part of Kawthoolei includes areas where other ethnic groups, such as the Mon people, predominantly live.
Kawthoolei was first described as an autonomous region for the Karen people to be set up following Burma's independence from the British. But after the oubreak of the Burmese civil war in 1949, it evolved into the name of the territories controlled by the Karen National Union. In 1953, the KNU announced the declaration of the Kawthoolei Free State, based in its capital, Papun. In the 1990s, the KNU chairman Bo Mya re-alligned KNU strategy towards protecting a smaller Kawthoolei territory in Eastern Myanmar based in Manerplaw, establishing his vision of an alternate society to military dominated Myanmar.