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Karen tribe (Myanmar)

Republic of Kawtholei

Last modified: 2006-10-21 by ian macdonald
Keywords: karen | myanmar | burma |
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Karen

Flag of Karen people, Myanmar by Jaume Ollé

The national flag of Karen (Republic of Kawtholei) according Franciae Vexilla #20/66, December 2000, by J. Renault & H. Calvarin.
Jaume Ollé, 25 January 2001

See also:

[Note: Several of the flags below come from and article in Franciae Vexilla, and are of questionable reliability. Sources are: 'personal documentation, M.Corbic's archives, J. Ollé's archives, various plates on non-independent peoples. Most flags shown beside a map of Myanmar are not really described, and individual sources for each of them are not shown.]

Karen People

The Karen National Union (KNU) has 6000 fighters and the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO) has 2000 fighters, 90% Karen (2% Shan, 2% Mon, 6% others). The Karen people number 2,000,000.
Jaume Ollé, 15 September 1996

Variants of the flag

Flag of Karen people, Myanmar by Jaume Ollé

The design with a drum is attributed to the KNU (Karen National Union).
Jaume Ollé, 25 January 2001

A photo of a flag like this can be seen at www.jubileecampaign.org. Several differences between the image above and the photo image can be seen - in the latter the drum is white, not gold, and it is a bit shorter and considerably wider.
Ned Smith, 6 February 2006

Flag of Karen people, Myanmar by Jaume Ollé

Flag of Karen people, Myanmar by Jaume Ollé

A photo of an actual flag of the Karen National Union shows yet another variant: http://www.iisg.nl/today/en/11-02.php.
Valentin Poposki, 11 September 2006

Possible Political Party flag

Flag of the Karen people, Myanmar Than-Tam Le, 09 June 1999

This flag was reported in a letter from George Pasch to Thanh-Tam Le dating from May 1982 as coming from "a review of Burmese flags published in 1975." It is described as a Karen flag, which would be either a flag of the Kayah state or a political party.
Than-Tam Le 09 June 1999

Karen Military Unit

Flag of Karen people, Myanmar by Jaume Ollé

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