To build newfound trust, U Nu allowed the KNDO to recapture Twante near Yangon from the Communist Party of Burma.

The KNDO successfully took the Twante canal back but Bamar news organisations were badly informed about this operation, leading to many in Yangon to panic about an impending Karen insurrection.

Conflict increased as a series of retaliatory incidents and massacres escalated following a Bamar militia killing 200 Karens during a Christmas eve service in a Palaw church.

U Nu set up Sitwundan militias who began to demand KNDOs and ethnic Karen military police to surrender their arms before engaging in battle.

In 1952, as the conflict dragged on longer than KNU leadership expected, new KNDO militias were established in Karen-controlled townships with the support of the local populace- both Karen and Bamar.

[16] From the 1970s onward the KNLA brigades maintained a presence in Karen-controlled villages administrating according to rules set by the KNU through local KNDO militiamen.

[17] The KNDO closely followed the peace process instigated by the government in 2011, starting with the call for a nationwide ceasefire by the Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs).