Ceasefire alone cannot guarantee peace and genuine peace can only be achieved if every race in the whole union is respected and regarded as a race and has the right to equality and autonomy, said Karen National Union (KNU) Chairman General Saw Mutu Say Poe in his message. 

The message was sent in commemoration of Kayin New Year Day which will fall on December 26, according to a press release issued by the KNU. 

The general said KNU and some other ethnic armed organizations are seeking political solutions for freedom, equality, justice, and political, economic and human rights after ending armed struggle and making ceasefire. 

"We cannot enjoy real peace only through a ceasefire. Genuine peace means that we enjoy rights to freedom, equality, and autonomy and if every race residing in the union is respectfully regarded as a race," Saw Mutu Say Poe said. 

He stressed the need to clearly prescribe such rights in the constitution. Only then will national reconciliation be forged, and internal peace can really be achieved, he added. 

KNU is acting with this aim and Kayin people need to take their respective roles, he urged in the message. 

He said people and countries that are economically, politically and militarily strong are excellent in education. Therefore, young Kayin people should work hard for their education promotion to develop their lives to catch with the developing world, he commented.