Q§ ong é QiogeagSoqosi cly§
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At that time the Karens had submitted to Thakin Nu's Govt:,a demand for a Karen Independent State comprising:-(a) The Tenasserin Division including Toungoo District (b) The Irrawaddy Division (c) Hanthawaddy District (d) Insein District, and (e¢) Nyaunglebein Sub- Division. This demand had been made without any prejudice to the demand of the Mon people to which effect the Mon Leaders, in token of mutual understanding were also signatories to this demand made by the Karen people.
In the Mon demand for a Sovereign Independent State made to Thakin Nu's Government comprising:-(a) The Tenasserim Division (b) Pegu Division and (c) The Irrawaddy Division, the Karen Leaders, also in token of mutual understanding that this demand would in no way prejudice’ the demand of the Karen people, likewise were signatories to the demand made by the Mon people.
This resultant cementing of age-old existing ties and the unexpected joint demands of our two peoples, the Mons and the Karens, drove Thakin Nu to resorting to political chicanery and clever subter- fuges that made it utterly impossible for the achievement of our common objective through Constitutional means thereby opening up avenues through which Thakin Nu in purposeful attempts has been mis-representing the true facts to the world, minimising the seriousness of the Mon and the Karen situation in Burma in a ruthless pyopaganda drive to alienate world opinion and sympathy from our two peoples.
The Mon people for their part, ‘in order to counteract this vicious propaganda of Thakin Nu's Government and to retrieve what had once by rights been,theirs - a people, 2 country and a Government in submersion for elmost two centuries - have formed the ‘Provisional Government of Monland' on the 27th March, 1953 to achieve this cherished ideal - the restoration of the Government of a lend that had long belonged to their forefathers. To this enc, the Mon People in a united and con- certed effort with the Karen Peopl2 have worked shoulder to shoulder to prove to the world the sincerity of their belief, their desire and the circumstances that necessitated this common belief in and desire for the attainment of Sovereign Independence. ear
Therefore, through the medium of this 'JOINT STATEMENT! of the Executive Council of the Mon Peoples! Front and the Executive Council of the Kawthoolei Governing Body, we, the Mon and the Karen Peoples wish to make it-known to the world that:-
(1) We respect and recognise the individual rights of self- determination.
