Karen National Defence Organisation
| Karen National Defence Organisation | |
|---|---|
| ကရင်အမျိုးသား ကာကွယ်ရေး အဖွဲ့အစည်း | |
| Dates of operation | July 16, 1947–present |
| Active regions | Kayah State Kayin State Tanintharyi Region Mon State Bago Region Myanmar-Thailand border |
| Ideology | Karen nationalism Federalism Historical: Kawthoolei separatism Anti-communism |
| Part of | Karen National Union |
| Allies | |
| Opponents | Myanmar
Union of Myanmar (until 2011) |
| Designated as a terrorist group by | Myanmar |
The Karen National Defence Organisation (Burmese: ကရင်အမျိုးသား ကာကွယ်ရေး အဖွဲ့အစည်း; S'gaw Karen: ကညီဒီကလုာ်ဂၢၤသးကရၢ; KNDO) is the older of two main military branches of the Karen National Union (KNU), the other being the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). The KNDO fought against the government of Myanmar from 1947 until 1949 as the armed wing of the KNU. It was succeeded by the KNLA when KNDO militias were combined with KNLA forces in 1970.
The KNDO's goals include self-determination, freedom for the Karen people, the recognition of Karen State and human rights.