BURMA: Karen Community Organizations Worldwide Express Grave Concerns on His Excellency’s Upcoming Trip to Nay Pyi Taw

April 20, 2026

H.E. Mr. Sihasak Phuangketkeow
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Kingdom of Thailand
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
443 Sri Ayudhya Road
Bangkok, Thailand 10400

Your Excellency,

We are among the tens of thousands of Karen refugees–spanning at least three generations–who fled Burma (Myanmar) military atrocities in Kawthoolei and spent years in refugee camps across Thailand.

With respect, we are writing to express our grave concerns with regard to your upcoming trip to Nay Pyi Taw to meet with the self-appointed president whose hands are soaked in the blood of thousands of people, including children, women, youth, doctors, nurses, artists, and the elderly.  We trust that you care about the stability, peace, and prosperity of people from both countries.  However, we are deeply concerned that your visit will be manipulated by the junta as a sign of endorsement of their illegitimate power and their sham elections.

Although many of us have been able to resettle in safe places, it is abhorrent and incomprehensible to witness the continuing atrocities that are being inflicted upon the people of Kawthoolei and all other areas bordering Thailand, causing immense instability, disruption, and fear for communities from both sides of the country.

Especially in the last five years since the Burmese military junta staged a coup, the people of Burma are living through hell–enduring excessive use of force, indiscriminate aerial attacks targeting civilian facilities, arbitrary arrests, forced conscription, torture, economic and financial repression every single day.

Since April 2021, when leaders of ASEAN reached a five-point consensus to help resolve the Burma crisis, the very first point–the immediate cessation of violence–is still nowhere close to making any progress.  The Burmese military junta is blatantly violating the commitment it made in front of all the ASEAN leaders by repeatedly launching air strikes over civilian facilities, such as schools, hospitals, and religious structures.

We note with profound distress that on the day before your trip to Nay Pyi Taw, the junta’s fighter jets dropped nine bombs on Oo Mi Hta hospital on the bank of the Salween River, across Mae Hong Son Province of Thailand. This attack followed devastating aerial attacks on Day Bu Noh and Kheh Pa Hta the week prior. We see these heinous acts as a total disregard for the goodwill of His Excellency, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the ASEAN 5PC.

As long as the Burmese military is in power in its current shape and form, none of us, including Thailand, will see any semblance of stability, prosperity, and normalcy that we all desire.  Being the closest neighbor within ASEAN, Thailand knows how reckless the junta can be due to several cases of its own mortar shells falling on Thai soil and causing severe injuries to civilians and damage to civilian homes.

In light of all the above, we respectfully and urgently call upon Your Excellency to carefully reconsider your proposed visit to Nay Pyi Taw and possibly cancel the trip. Should the visit proceed, we strongly urge you to leverage Thailand’s crucial role and leadership within ASEAN to apply maximum pressure on the Burmese military junta to honor its commitments under the ASEAN 5PC–beginning with an immediate and unconditional cessation of all violence against civilians.

Thailand has endured nearly eight decades of instability–economic destruction, environmental damage, public health crisis, drug trafficking, scam centers operations, and other cross-border crimes. All of which track back to a single common source–the Burmese military. This is not only a crisis for people of Burma, but one that Thailand has shouldered alongside us for generations

It is time to break this vicious cycle–for the sake of our people, our shared region, and the generations yet to come.

We wish to draw your attention to an unfolding reality. Along our shared borders, the people of Burma are building local administrations, providing services, upholding justice, and working toward lasting stability, while the Burmese military continues to bomb and kill civilians in order to undermine our efforts, relocate scam centers, and continue mining projects that pollute Thailand. Far from aspirational, the Karen administration in Kawthoolei and the Karenni administration in Karenni State are actively functioning realities on the ground. Thailand will find far greater security, stability, and partnership working alongside these administrations than it will ever find in engagement with a military junta that has brought nothing but suffering to both our people.

We respectfully and sincerely urge you to consider this path forward.

In closing, we wish to express our enduring gratitude to the people and the government of Thailand for your remarkable kindness and generosity shown to the Karen people and the border people of Burma through decades of hardship.

Sincerely,

Myra Dahgaypaw
Advocacy Lead, U.S. Campaign for Burma
On behalf of Karen Community Organizations

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