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.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
More Karen IDPs Fleeing Fighting
Friday, June 26, 2009
KNU Headquarters Overrun: Now What?
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16188
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By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, June 25, 2009
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After a long offensive, the Burmese army and its ceasefire militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), has overrun the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 headquarters.
The question now is: What’s next?
Karen sources and analysts said the fighting will continue as the joint Burmese army and DKBA troops focus their attacks toward the KNLA Brigade 6 area.
Analysts said powerful business interests are supporting the offensive.
Enlarge Image
(Graphic:
The Irrawaddy)
The Burmese regime’s goal is to control all of central Karen State, where the Karen National Union’s KNLA Brigade 7 and 6 are now located, in order to dominate the business and border trade activity with Thailand, said one DKBA businessman who asked for anonymity.
Once dominated, many industries, companies and infrastructure will be improved and supported by the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the businessman.
Important activities will include logging and mining natural resources, including zinc, he said.
He said the Burmese authorities and DKBA troops will construct roads to connect between army headquarters in Myaing Gyi Ngu and border areas.
Once the clashes end, the relationship between the DKBA and local Thai authorities and businessmen in Mae Sot will expand when compared to the past, businessmen said.
During the recent fighting, a KNU leader said two DKBA leaders were spotted in a car traveling with Thai police near the border where Karen refugees have sought shelter in Tha Song Yang District in Tak Province.
Analysts also said the situation will be more dangerous for the KNU and Burmese opposition groups in exile when the border area is controlled by DKBA troops.
Maj Hla Ngwe, the joint secretary (1) of the KNU, said the loss of KNLA Brigade 7 headquarters could affect the work of Burmese opposition organizations based in Mae Sot.
“The opposition movement will be limited. They might not launch campaigns as they did before,” said Hla Ngwe.
Border sources also say more assassinations could be expected in the border area, where many Burmese and ethnic opposition groups are based.
In February 2008, the KNU’s late general secretary, Mahn Sha, was gun down by two DKBA members at his home near the center of Mae Sot. Many sources claimed the assassination also involved Thai border police.
Border sources said that DKBA members will have easy access to Mae Sot once the relationship between the DKBA and Thai border authorities is established.
A sign of the evolving transition in the power center, said the businessman, is that DKBA soldiers are now receiving medical care in Mae Sot. What’s happening is “very obvious,” he said.
The DKBA plans to expand its troops from 6,000 to 9,000 in preparation for its transformation to become a border guard force under the Burmese army. The DKBA split from it mother organization, the KNU, and signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime in 1995.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Burmese army drives ethnic rebels from last stronghold
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmese-army-drives-ethnic-rebels-from-last-stronghold-1708992.html
Thousands of refugees flee to Thailand as Karen fighters resort to guerrilla war
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Friday, 19 June 2009
An ethnic rebel army that has been fighting for greater autonomy from Burma for more than 60 years has been driven from its stronghold after weeks of fighting against government troops, raising the prospect of a fresh flood of refugees into Thailand.
More than 4,000 civilians have fled into neighbouring Thailand this month following attacks by Burmese troops against the Karen National Union (KNU). Yesterday, the rebels revealed that having given up several camps, they had now been forced from their main base.
"Our troops are planning to move behind enemy lines to pursue guerrilla warfare," the KNU's vice-president, David Tharckabaw, told the Associated Press. "If it is necessary, any camp can be abandoned."
The struggle by the Karen, squeezed into ever smaller patches of jungle in the east of Burma, represents an ultimately futile battle against the odds. It is one of the world's longest-running conflicts.
With almost all other ethnic rebel groups having now agreed peace deals with the Burmese junta, the KNU has been struggling to survive against a determined effort by the government to crush the last of the rebels.
About 100,000 Karen refugees have taken shelter in Thai camps over the past two decades after fleeing the government's counter-insurgency operations. Aid groups suggest that another half-million Karen are displaced inside eastern Burma.
Human rights groups and the UN have long accused the Burmese government of torturing, killing and raping Karen civilians while trying to stamp out the insurgency, though the military regime denies the allegations.
Last week, the EU condemned the fighting, saying that it "noted with serious concern the mounting offensive of the Burmese army and its allies against the Karen... which has resulted in large numbers of civilians fleeing from the conflict area.
"The EU calls for an immediate ceasefire and requests the authorities and military operators to ensure the protection of civilians at all times."
During the Second World War, British forces recruited ethnic Karen to help drive the Japanese from Burma, with an undertaking that at the conclusion of the war, they would win their independence.
With victory secured, however, that pledge was forgotten and independent Burma's first leader, General Aung San, the father of the imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was also opposed to Karen autonomy.
The stepping up of the junta's operation against the Karen, who are seeking a federal state rather than independence, comes as preparations are made to mark Aung San Suu Kyi's 64th birthday today.
The opposition leader is to spend her birthday at the notorious Insein jail in Rangoon, where she is being held after an American man swam to her house, uninvited. She has been accused of violating the conditions of her house arrest after she let the man stay at her home for two nights.
Ms Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognise the victory of her party, the National League for Democracy, in a 1990 election.
In Rangoon, members of her party were planning a celebration at their headquarters where they intended to give breakfast to Buddhist monks. "We have to hold the birthday party without the host again. We would be very happy if she could be released, we are hoping and praying for this," said a senior party member, Lei Lei.
A website set up to gather birthday wishes for Aung San Suu Kyi, "64 for Suu," has collected more than 10,000 names, including those of Gordon Brown, David Beckham, George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
SSA deplores clashes between DKBA, KNU
http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2528:ssa-deplores-clashes-between-dkba-knu&catid=86:war&Itemid=284
Wednesday, 08 April 2009 18:28 Hseng Khio Fah
Col Yawd Serk, Chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), the political arm of the Shan State Army (SSA) South, said he was distressed to hear about clashes among the same nationality, the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).
“It is not good to take personal problems into the national problems. It brings no benefit to one’s own nationality,” said Col Yawd Serk.
On 6 April, a joint force of Burma Army and DKBA attacked Waleki, a base camp of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of KNU.
He said that the Burma Army is using two strategies to fight the KNU to be weak. One is psychological and the other is actual fighting.
On the other hand, some KNU’s officers and Thai Foreign Ministry’s officials on the same day held a meeting in Bangkok, according to the New Era Journal, 6 April.
Col Yawd Serk
The Burma Army is asking Thailand to help facilitate talks with ethnic resistance movements to join its seven-step roadmap toward national reconciliation when Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya made his two day visit to Burma on 22-23 March.
“It is good that KNU held meeting with Thailand. But I don’t think KNU will benefit on it as we all know the Burma Army is bent on walking the same trail that it is used to,” commented Col Yawd Serk.
To solve the political problems in Burma one must endeavor to solve the root cause of the problems, that is, the Panglong agreement, he said.
“SSA is always ready to hold talks with the Burma Army, but the meeting must be held in the third country and there must be observers. We must build mutual trust first,” he added.
Whoever wants to mediate must know the root cause of the political problems in Burma. The main key to change Burma into a genuine Union is based on the unity of all groups. Without this unity, nobody can help them, he said.
The junta and the SSA had agreed to hold talks on 23 May 2007 but it failed to take place when the Burma Army delegation failed to appear at the venue.
KNU accepts junta’s offer for peace parleys
http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/1948-knu-accepts-juntas-offer-for-peace-parleys.html
by Salai Pi Pi
Wednesday, 08 April 2009 15:33
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burma’s leading ethnic armed resistance group, the Karen National Union has accepted the offer of the Burmese military junta for peace talks through Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Monday.
Saw David Takapaw, Vice-president of the KNU on Wednesday told Mizzima that KNU had reacted positively to Kasit at the informal meeting held in Bangkok for over one hour on Monday regarding the offer of the Burmese regime for peace parleys.
“We told them (Thailand) that we have accepted the offer of the junta on peace talks, as we want to solve political problems by political means,” Takapaw said. “
However, he said the date and venue for the talks are yet to be fixed.
KNU delegates led by Takapaw and General Secretary Naw Ziporah Sein met Kasit, the facilitator for the talks between KNU and the Burmese regime, and other officials from Thailand’s Foreign Ministry in Bangkok.
During the meeting, Takapaw said, Kasit revealed the message of the Burmese Prime Minister General Thein Sein that the junta would like to hold a dialogue with the KNU for national reconciliation.
“They (Thai) informed us that Thein Sein would like to talk to us regarding national reconciliation,” he said. “He (Kasit) said he will act as facilitator.”
Last month, Thein Sein sought help from Kasit during his two-day visit to Burma to persuade the KNU to contest the ensuing 2010 election.
“If the regime is willing to solve problems peacefully, we are ready to talk,” said Takapaw, adding that the KNU will insist the regime first convene a tripartite dialogue and amend the constitution.
Meanwhile, Takapaw alleged, the Burmese Army is supporting the KNU splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in launching fresh offensives against its armed wing the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Kawkreit district in Karen state close to the Thai-Burma border. KNLA battalions have been retaliating using guerrilla tactics.
“Recently, the Burmese Army backed up the DKBA which was attacking us in Kawkreit district. We also retaliated in guerrilla warfare style,” he said.
“We (KNU and the junta) attack each other while we also talk to each other,” he added.
The KNU has held talks with the Burmese regime on five occasions previously since launching their campaign for self-determination in 1948.
The two sides were able to reach a verbal ceasefire agreement, commonly known as the “Gentlemen's Agreement," after the last round of formal talks between the KNU’s late leader, General Bo Mya, and former military intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt, in the former capital Rangoon in 2004. The talks, however, came to a halt after Khin Nyunt was purged from the military hierarchy.
The KNU’s statement on peace efforts issued last month said, “Peace negotiations between the KNU and successive Burmese regimes have consistently failed because of lack of sincerity on the part of the regime in power.”
According to Burma’s state media ‘The New Light of Myanmar’ on April 4, Nay Soe Mya, son of the late KNU leader Gen Saw Bo Mya, led 71 Karen rebels and defected to the junta on March 30.
However, Takapaw said, among the 71 Karen who had defected to the junta, only four are from the KNLA armed group including Nay Soe Mya while the rest are civilians.
He went on to say that 71 Karen broke away from KNU as the Burmese regime, particularly Maj. Gen. Saw Htay Maung led DKBA tempted them with money.”
“It is better for KNU that such corrupt people defect” he added.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Myanmar announces peace deal with Karen rebels
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C04%5C06%5Cstory_6-4-2009_pg20_6
YANGON: Myanmar on Sunday confirmed that it had made peace with a splinter group of Karen rebels.
Government spokesman Ye Htut told The Associated Press in an e-mail statement that Saw Nay Soe Mya, the son of a late Karen leader, his 71 followers and 88 of their family members turned themselves in to authorities in Htokawko village on Monday. They will be allowed to keep their weapons, he said. Nay Soe Mya could not be reached, and it was impossible to independently verify the report.
Even if true, the latest peace deal is unlikely to end fighting between Karen rebels and the government since his group represents such a small number of fighters. The Karen National Union has been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. It is the largest ethnic rebel group and the only major one which has yet to sign a cease-fire with the junta.
The United Nations and human rights groups say that over the years the military has burned villages, killed civilians and committed other atrocities against the Karen and other ethnic minorities. The Myanma Ahlin daily newspaper on Saturday said Nay Soe Mya returned to the legal fold “as he has confidence in the government’s roadmap and understood the genuine goodwill of the people and the military,” referring to the junta’s plans to hold elections next year.
Cease-fire talks broke down between the KNU and the government 2004, and the Myanmar army launched a major offensive in eastern Karen state in 2005. It has also successfully enticed elements of the KNU to the bargaining table as part of a campaign to split up the group. In 2007, the government announced that a splinter group led by Brig. Gen. Htein Maung had agreed to a peace deal. Maung was reportedly on hand Monday when Nay Soe Mya and his followers arrived at Htokawko. A KNU spokesman could not be reached for comment. ap
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
KNU Willing to Talk, but not on Burmese Territory
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=15358
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By LAWI WENG Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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The Karen National Union’s deputy chairman, David Takapaw, has welcomed Thailand’s offer to mediate talks between the KNU and the Burmese regime, but said they would have to be held outside Burma.
“We are always ready for peace talks,” he told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “But we will not attend any talks in Burma at this time. Talks must be held in another country.”
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who met Burmese government leaders in Naypyidaw at the weekend, said he would approach the KNU in the hope of getting talks started. It was in Thailand’s interest for peace to reign in Burma, he said.
Thai army officials recently asked Karen rebel leaders living in the Thai border town of Mae Sot to return to KNU-controlled areas of Karen State. The rebels belong to the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
Burmese researcher Aung Thu Nyein said the Thai government’s efforts to help bring about peace talks between the Burmese regime and the KNU would increase pressure on KNU leaders who live in Thailand.
“Thailand needs border stability for trade with the Burmese regime,” he said. “From an economic point of view, this might put more pressure on the KNU leaders to talk to the regime.”
The KNU has engaged in peace talks with the Burmese regime four times since the present regime took power in 1988.
The late chairman of the KNU, Gen Saw Bo Mya, held peace talks with regime leaders in Rangoon in 2005, two years before his death. Contacts have been at a standstill since then.
Takapaw said whenever the KNU talked to the regime “they always insist that we give up our arms and return to the ‘legal fold.’ But how we can agree to live under a regime that isn’t the official government?”
Takapaw said that if the KNU agreed to talks on Burmese territory the Burmese negotiators would have the upper hand. “Such a meeting wouldn’t be on equal terms,” he said.
The KNU has been in conflict with the Burmese army for more than 50 years. It turned to guerrilla tactics after regime forces overran its headquarters in 1995.
Burmese army offensives have been accompanied by the destruction of Karen villages, displacement of local populations, the killing of civilians and other serious human rights abuses. More than 100,000 Karen villagers have sought refuge in camps along the Thai-Burmese border.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Monday, March 9, 2009
Pressure mounts on KNU to move out of Thailand: Sources
http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/1802-pressure-mounts-on-knu-to-move-out-of-thailand-sources.html
by Solomon
Wednesday, 04 March 2009 19:20
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Members of the ethnic Karen rebel group – Karen National Union – have began moving back into Burma, after Thailand warned them not to set up base in their territory, a source close to the rebel group said.
The source, who did not want to be named, said KNU leaders had recently been told by Thai military authorities in the border town of Mea Sot, to move out of the town and to avoid Thailand’s territory for their activities.
“The Thai authorities issued the notice informally about 10 days ago. The Thai military told KNU to move out of their territory and several KNU members have left,” the source said.
However, the source, said a few leaders had remained in Mea Sot town, but were keeping a low profile.
“Currently, the KNU leaders cannot move around as freely as they did in the past, they need to be more careful,” he added.
The KNU, however, denied any official comment.
KNU, the longest running insurgent group of Burma, which has been waging war against the regime, earlier had strong bases inside Karen state of Burma. But, they suffered a heavy blow after their stronghold – Manerplaw – was overrun by a joint group of the Burmese Army and a Karen splinter group – the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army – in 1995.
Since then, several leaders, including deceased KNU General-Secretary, Pado Mahn Shala Phan, had taken shelter in Thailand’s border town of Mea Sot. Although, the Thai authorities were aware of the KNU leader’s presence, they did not take any official stand against the group, which would force the KNU to leave Thailand.
Occasionally, Burma’s military rulers have news reports in the state mouthpiece, New Light of Myanmar newspaper, accusing Thailand of hosting the rebels, whom they term as ‘Destructive Elements’.
The source said, the current wave of pressure seems unlikely to be Thailand’s policy but the country could be acting on mounting pressure received externally. Thailand, has unofficially hosted the KNU and other ethnic rebels in their territories bordering Burma.
“It is unlikely to be Thailand’s official policy to force the KNU to move out of their territory, but it must be pressure coming from outside,” the source added.
The source, however, added that it was not the first time that members of the KNU and its armed wing Karen National Liberation Army, were forced to stay out of Thailand.
“It is not the first time, but things turn back to normal later,” the source added.
Nyo Ohn Myint, in-charge of the Thailand-based Foreign Affairs Committee of the National League for Democracy-Liberated Areas (NLD-LA) said, those who have long observed Thailand’s policy on Burma, said while they were not certain about the pressure on KNU, they did not rule out the possibilities.
“We heard that the KNU is facing pressure to stay out of Thailand, but we still cannot confirm it,” Nyo Ohn Myint said.
But, he added that he was aware of the KNU leaders moving out of the border towns and from Thailand’s territories.
It was also likely that Thailand had been urged to drive away the Karen rebels from their territory, during the Thai Army Chief’s visit to Burma, he said.
“Thailand might be acting on pressure from the Burmese junta, and the two countries might have reached an agreement during Thailand’s military commander’s visit to Burma,” he added.
Thailand’s Army Commander-in-Chief, Anupong Paochinda, in mid-February visited Burma on a two-day official trip and had met the Burmese Army’s top leader, Senior General Than Shwe.
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