Karenni National People's Liberation Front

Karenni National People's Liberation Front
ကရင်နီလူမျိုးပေါင်းစုံ ပြည်သူ့လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်ဦး
Flag of the Karenni National People's Liberation Front
Leaders	Sandar Shwe War
Dates of operation	1978 (1978)–2009 (2009)
Headquarters	Mobile headquarters
Active regions	Kayah State
Ideology	Karenni nationalism Communism
Allies	State allies Myanmar Tatmadaw Union of Myanmar (1989–2011) Non-state allies Communist Party of Burma (until 1989)
Opponents	State opponents Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (until 1988) Non-state opponents Karenni Army
Battles and wars	Internal conflict in Myanmar

The Karenni National People's Liberation Front (Burmese: ကရင်နီလူမျိုးပေါင်းစုံ ပြည်သူ့လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်ဦး; abbreviated KNPLF) was an insurgent group that was active in Kayah State, Myanmar (Burma). It became a border guard force on 8 November 2009.

History

In 1978, a group of communist fighters split from the Karenni Army due to ideological differences, and founded the Karenni National People's Liberation Front (KNPLF). The KNPLF maintained close ties with the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), receiving training, supplies, and armed support from the group until their armed wing's dissolution in 1989.

In 1989, a ceasefire deal was negotiated between the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the KNPLF, which was finalised in 1994. The group had since helped government soldiers combat other armed insurgent groups, most notably the Karenni Army, and on 8 November 2009, the group agreed to transform into a "border guard force".

The KNPLF has been accused of using child soldiers and landmines in the past, with one child soldier named Koo Reh at age 13 saying:

I was watching the video [in the cinema], and he [the recruiter] sat and talked to me. He said if I joined I'd be happy and get a salary and uniform. I don't remember his name but he was from KNPLF. I agreed to join. He spoke to many people in the cinema, one by one, 20 or 25 people, adults, women, boys. About six people went with him. The older ones were 16 or 17, the younger ones 11, 12 or 13. I went home but didn't tell my mother, then I went with him.