More Karen IDPs Fleeing Fighting

More Karen IDPs Fleeing Fighting
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By SAW YAN NAING Monday, July 13, 2009

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More than five hundred Karen villagers in Mon Township, Nyaunglebin District, in northern Karen State have become internal displaced persons (IDPs) after they were forced to flee and hide in the jungle due to fresh attacks by the Burmese military, according to relief groups.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a relief group operating in the area, reported on July 7 that the five hundred villagers, including women and children, are facing food shortages as they were unable to take sufficient food with them when they fled.

Infants are suffering from illness due to heavy rain and a lack of proper medical treatment in the jungle.

Three men were also killed during the attack, according to the FBR report.

Karen sources said that Burmese army forces and troops from battalions 333 and 555 of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) ceasefire militia are now more active in Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 5 area in northern Karen State after ending the week-long offensive against KNLA Brigade 7 in southern Karen State.

Due to the offensive launched by the joint force of the Burmese army and DKBA troops in June in the KNLA Brigade 7 area, about 4,000 Karen civilians in Pa-an district in Karen State fled into Thailand’s Tha Song Yang district for safety.



About 20 clashes took place in KNLA Brigade 5 areas during June, and an estimated 16 Burmese soldiers were killed and 39 were injured, according to the Karen news organization, Kwe Ka Lu.

Saw Steve, a leader of a Karen relief team of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) said, “We heard the Burmese army has been reinforced in Mon Township, Nyaunglebin District, and now there is more military activity in this area.”

Border sources and observers said that after the fall of KNLA Brigade 7, the DKBA and Burmese force will turn its attention to the KNLA’s outposts in Brigade 5 and 6 areas.

The joint force intends to clear the KNLA from areas they control along the Thai-Burma border as assigned by the Burmese military, before the Burmese regime holds its planned general election in 2010, sources have reported.

The DKBA is conscripting new members in order to complete its assignment and make up a border guard force with 326 soldiers in each battalion, sources said.

The DKBA split from its mother organization the KNU and signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military government in 1995.


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