VZCZCXRO7128
PP RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0139 2340825
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 220825Z AUG 06
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0259
INFO RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI PRIORITY 0294
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 0531
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON PRIORITY 0019
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0008
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0003

C O N F I D E N T I A L CHIANG MAI 000139 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, PRM/A: TRUSCH AND S/CT: TKUSCHNER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  8/22/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF PTER TH BM
SUBJECT: NORTHERN THAILAND COMMENTS ON KARENNI NATIONAL PROGRESSIVE 
PARTY 
 
REF: A. RANGOON 1184 B. STATE 130770 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: John Spykerman, Political Officer, Consulate 
Chiang Mai, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (c) 
 
¶1. (U) This cable provides supplemental information to Embassy 
Rangoon's more comprehensive response (ref. A) to Department's 
request for information on the Karenni National Progressive 
Party (KNPP) in ref B. 
 
¶2. (C) SUMMARY. Local RTG intelligence officials strongly 
dismissed links between the KNPP and any terrorist activities. 
Instead, these officials suspect that Burma's State Peace and 
Development Council (SPDC) engages in active misinformation 
campaigns against those ethnic organizations that have not 
agreed to cease-fire agreements with the Burmese regime. 
According to one source, these SPDC propaganda attacks are 
designed to link ethnic organizations to terrorism and erode 
international support for their cause. Northern Thailand-based 
refugee assistance organization sources also doubt the KNPP's 
ability to execute terrorist attacks, although they allege the 
organization has used intimidation and violence both within the 
camps and outside. End Summary. 
 
¶3. (C) Wiroon Iampraphat, chief of the RTG's National 
Intelligence Agency (NIA) Mae Hong Son office, flatly dismissed 
alleged links between the KNPP and terrorist activities. Wiroon 
(PROTECT) told post he has worked in northwestern Thailand's Mae 
Hong Son province with his Burmese ethnic minority counterparts 
(including Karenni, Shan, Pa-O, and Palaung) for more than 10 
years and has a deep familiarity with the KNPP's military and 
political strategies and those of the SPDC. According to his 
analysis, the SPDC has tried to capitalize on international 
sentiment against terrorist movements to discredit non-ceasefire 
rebel groups, thus weakening international support and 
pressuring these rebels to seek "a return to legal fold" within 
the Burmese regime. Wiroon also speculated that such propaganda 
could be meant to save face for SPDC leaders' failure to charge 
suspects in a spate of bombings in Rangoon earlier this year. 
 
¶4. (C) Wiroon said the NIA believes the KNPP and other ethnic 
rebel groups have usually  attacked only SPDC military targets 
and have eschewed civilian locations. Moreover, Wiroon said KNPP 
military action is defensive in nature, limited to small areas 
of Kayah State, and designed to protect bases, villages, and 
cross-border trade routes. Wiroon said the KNPP, like other 
ethnic rebel groups, relies to some degree on assistance from 
the RTG and Thailand-based organizations and it was in their 
best interests to "keep themselves clean" from suspicions of 
drug trafficking or terrorist activities. 
 
¶5. (C) Officials with the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR) office in Mae Hong Son who are familiar with 
the KNPP also doubt that the group has any capacity to engage in 
the activities listed in ref B.  Gradual loss of territory and 
defections to the SPDC over the years have weakened the KNPP's 
reach, and the group is especially sensitive to bad press and 
eager to maintain its dialogue with the UNHCR and other NGOs, 
those officials said. However, UHNCR Mae Hong Son field office 
chief Hanne Mathisen said that the KNPP has used intimidation 
and violence both within the camps and outside. She added that 
although the KNPP now says it does not employ child soldiers, it 
continues to compel porters and medics to cross into Burma to 
treat injured soldiers during its operations in Kayah State. 
 
¶6. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassies Bangkok and 
Rangoon. 
 
CAMP