Dear Friends and Fellow Karens:

Years have passed and we are now embracing another year (2739) on Jan 6, 2000.  On behalf of the Karen National League, I would like to extend my best wishes to all of you who are attending the celebration of our Karen New Year Day in Karen web.

This year is also a special year for us, the Karens, as we are reaching our 51st anniversary of our Karen revolution for peace and freedom in Burma and against injustices. Usually, we celebrate our Karen New Year Day with joy and smile with all the feelings coming straight from our hearts.  However, for us now in foreign land, we celebrate this day with a saddened heart, yet a hopeful one.  We look forward to fifty years from now and we can see the Karens together with all people of Burma enjoying freedom and peace with justice within a genuine federal union of Burma.

On this special day, I would like to call your attention to striving for unity and spirit of solidarity in the struggle we have started.  Although we remain being sincere, honest, friendly, and loving, the Karen today are no longer a timid and hidden people.  We have come out of the darkness – darkness of oppression – and we are walking toward the light: the light of freedom and peace with justice.  We must continue our struggle despite the obstacles before us in unity and solidarity, and most important of all, we must also continue to practice the legacy we inherited from our forefathers: the Karen integrity based on love and friendliness. We may have fallen so many times in our lives and in the struggle, but we all learn from our own mistakes and experiences.  The goal is not too far to reach if the hope stays firm, and there is always hope as long as we live.  So, let us continue to struggle and let us continue to hope. The Karen shall be free, and the Karen State shall be recognized.

On behalf of my colleagues and members of the Karen National League, I wish you all happiness and peace at this special moment and forever.  Enjoy the moment as well as the New Millennium! 

In solidarity,

Naw May Oo