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Re: Dawn Gwin and karens update




12-20-94,08:08:30p r ibc-burma-karen 12-20
 Burmese gunners shell Karen bases
    By John Hail
   Bangkok, Dec. 20 (Upi) -- Burmese forces fired mortars at ethnic Karen
positions near the Thai border Tuesday, keeping up the pressure against
one of the country's last pockets of resistance to the ruling military
junta. 
   Thai Border Patrol Police said the Burmese army barrage began
mid-morning, with two of the heavy, 81mm mortar rounds landing on the Thai
side of the border. 
   The two shells reportedly exploded harmlessly in thick jungle on the
Thai side of the Moei River, which separates northwestern Thailand from
eastern Burma. 
   Casualty figures were not available from Kormura Camp, the Karen
position on the western bank of the Moei river that was targeted by the
Burmese gunners. 
   The Karen have been at war with the Rangoon government for more than 30
years, but fighting has intensified in the past week, with thousands of
Burmese troops reinforcing government positions around the Karen bases. 
   A Thai Border Patrol officer near Mae Sot, 247 miles (397 km) northwest
of Bangkok, said sporadic shelling of Kormura Camp, which houses about 600
Karen soldiers and civilians, began last Friday. 
   San Aung, who holds the post of minister of health and education in the
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, said Rangoon's latest
dry season offensive violated a unilateral cease-fire announced by the
Burmese junta in 1992. 
   "They broke their promise," said San Aung, whose organization was
formed as a parallel government in the wake of the Burmese junta's brutal
crackdown on pro-democracy forces since 1988. 
   The junta has signed peace agreements with several of the country's
ethnic insurgencies in the past two years, and peace talks had been
undertaken with the Karen. 
   San Aung told Upi in a telephone interview that the latest fighting was
intense, but Burmese troops were not in a position to threaten the Karen
"capital" at Manerplaw, near the junction of the Moei and Salween rivers. 
   He said Karen troops had helped Burmese students push back a Rangoon
government attack on the students' base at Dawn Gwin, 12 miles (20 km)
north of Manerplaw. 
   Thousands of pro-democracy students have fled to the jungle near the
Thai border to continue their struggle against the Burmese junta, joining
forces with the 7,000-strong army of the Karen National Union. 
   "The students evacuated Dawn Gwin on Dec. 14 and began
counter-attacking the Burmese and cutting supply lines," San Aung said.
"The students have only small arms so they must use guerrilla warfare
against the Burmese." 
   He said the latest Burmese government offensive had forced more than
1,000 civilian dependents of the students and the Karen to take shelter on
the Thai side of the border. 
 upi 12:31 gmt ;12201259 ---End---