The Kayin have fought for independence since 31st January 1949. Consequently, 31st January is recognized as Revolutionary Day amonst the Kayin.

The Kayin people live mostly in the hilly eastern border region of Myanmar, primarily in Kayin State, with some in Kayah State (Karenni State), southern Shan State and in western Thailand. The name Karen was originally applied as a criticism by its enemies. However, the term has since been claimed by the Karen themselves as a badge of pride.

The total number of Karen in Myanmar is estimated at around 7 million.

Culture

The Kayin hill tribe villages are mainly concentrated in the mountains and also along the Myanmar-Thai border in the Kayin State. The Kayin people like to settle in the foothills, living in bamboo houses raised on stilts, beneath which they keep their live domestic animals: pigs, chickens, and buffaloes.

The Kayin practice monogamy and look down on pre-marital sex with strict social community laws against immorality. In the past, in some villages, punishment for adultery was death. The village chief of the Kayin hill tribes has great power over his local community, and is regarded as the spiritual as well as the administrative leader.

The Kayin costume for women is very attractive and distinctive. Unmarried girls wear loose white V-necked blouses, decorated with tear-shaped beans at the seams.

Married Kayin women wear blouses and skirts in hard colours, predominantly red or blue, Men wear blue baggy trousers with red or blue shirts, a simplified version of the women's blouses.

                  Kayin Traditional dress

Kayin Musicians

Kayin village

When the Japanese occupied the region, long term tensions between the Karen and Burma turned into open fighting. As a consequence, many villages were destroyed and massacres committed by both the Japanese and the Burma Independence Army (BIA) troops who helped the Japanese invade the country. Among the victims were a Pre War Cabinet Minister Saw Pe Tha and his family. A government report later claimed the "excesses of the BIA" and The "loyalty of the Karens towards the British" as the reasons. The intervention by Col. Suzuki, the Japanese commander of the BIA, after meeting a Karen delegation led by Saw Tha Din, appeared to have prevented further atrocities.

The Karen people aspired to have the areas where they were the majority formed into a subdivision or "state" within Burma similar to what the Shan, Kachin and Chin peoples had been given. A goodwill mission led by Saw Tha Din and Saw Ba U Gyi to London in August 1946 failed to receive any encouragement from the British government for any separatist demands.

Saw Ba U Gyi

When a delegation of representatives of the Governor's Executive Council headed by Bogyoke Aung San was invited to London to negotiate for the Aung San-Atlee treaty in January 1947, none of the ethnic minority members was included by the British government. The following month at the Panglong Conference, when an agreement was signed between Aung san as head of the interim Burmese government and the Shan, Kachin and Chin leaders, the Karen were present only as observers; the Mon and Arakanese were also absent.

The British promised to consider the case of the Karen after the war. While the situation of the Karen was discussed, nothing practical was done before the British left Burma. The 1947 Constitution, drawn without Karen participation due to their boycott of the elections to the Constituent Assembly, also failed to address the Karen question specifically and clearly, leaving it to be discussed only after independence. The Shan and Karenni states were given the right to secession after 10 years, the Kachin their own state, and the Chin a special division. The Mon and Arakanese of Ministerial Burma were not given any consideration.

After the war ended, Burma was granted independence in January 1948, and the Karen, led by the KNU, attempted to co-exist peacefully with the Burman ethnic majority. Karen people held leading positions in both the government and the army. In the fall of 1948, the Burmese government, led by U Nu, began raising and arming irregular political militias known as Sitwundan. These militias were under the command of Major Gen Ne Win and outside the control of the regular army.

In January 1949, some of these militias went on a rampage through Karen communities. In late January, the Army Chief of Staff, Gen Smith Dun, a Karen, was removed from office and imprisoned. He was replaced by fanatic Burmese Nationalist Ne Win. These events happened at exactly the same time a commission looking into the Karen problem was due to make its report to the government. The events effectively killed the report

Years later, the Karen had become the largest of 20 minority groups participating in an insurgency against the military dictatorship. The conflict continues as of 2006, with KNU headquarters in Mu Aye Pu, on the Burmese-Thai border. It has been estimated that up to 200,000 Karen have been driven from their homes during decades of war, with 120,000 more refugees from Burma, mostly Karen, living in refugee camps on the Thai side of the border.