Wired News on March 22 & 23, '95

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on March 22 & 23, 1995
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      RANGOON, March 22 (Reuter) - Ethnic minority rebels in Burma's eastern
Kayah state have laid down their arms and surrendered to the government,
Burma's official media reported on Wednesday. 

    A total of 7,790 members of the the Karenni National Progressive Party
(KNPP) ``returned to the legal fold'' on Tuesday at a ceremony in Loikaw, the
Kayah state capital. 

    They brought with them almost 9,000 weapons including mortars, recoiless
rifles, machine guns and automatic rifles, the media said. 

    Burma's powerful military intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin
Nyunt attended the ceremony. 

    The KNPP has been fighting Rangoon for the independence of Kayah state
since Burma's independence from Britain in 1948. 

    The Karenni people are ethnic cousins of the Karen who live to the south
and the KNPP is the 14th rebel army to reach a ceasefire agreement with the
Burmese military government since 1989. 

    The Burmese army launched an offensive against one of the last remaining
guerrilla groups, the Karen National Union (KNU), last December, seizing
their headquarters in late Janaury. 

    As well as the KNU, Mon guerrillas are still operating in southern Burma
and a powerful guerrilla force loyal to Golden Triangle opium rebel Khun Sa
is still active in northeastern Burma's Shan state. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-22 00:05:20 EST
********

      MAE SOT, Thailand, March 23 (Reuter) - Burmese army shells killed four
Karen villagers and sent some 3,000 people fleeing into Thailand, Thai police
and rebel sources said on Thursday. 

    They said Wednesday's attack took place in a guerrilla zone near the town
of Myawadi in southeast Burma as government forces continued a drive against
Karen guerrillas. 

    Earlier this week Burmese troops occupied and burned a guerrilla camp at
Kanaelay, which had served as the Karen National Union's (KNU) temporary
headquarters since the loss of their former headquarters on January 27. 

    KNU leaders abandoned Kanaelay before Burmese troops arrived but at least
four Burmese troops were killed in clashes with Karen guerrillas, KNU sources
said. 

    Clashes continued in the area on Thursday, Thai border police said. 

    The Burmese army began an offensive against the KNU, one of the world's
oldest rebel groups, in mid-December. 

    The guerrillas lost their headquarters at Manerplaw at the end of January
and their last major base on the Thai-Burmese border at Kawmoora in late
February. 

    After the loss of the bases, guerrilla commanders said they would no
longer attempt to defend fixed positions but would adopt mobile guerrilla
tactics. 

    The KNU has been fighting Rangoon for greater autonomy since 1949, one
year after Burma's independence from Britain. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-23 01:47:18 EST
*****

      BANGKOK, March 22 (Reuter) - The United Nations has asked Thailand to
step up its border security to guard against raids on refugee camps by
pro-Burmese guerrillas, a UNHCR representative said on Wednesday. 

    The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also wants
to send a roving protection officer to the Thai-Burma border area where
Rangoon government forces have been fighting Karen and Shan rebel armies. 

    Bangkok-based UNHCR representative Ruprecht von Arnim told a news
conference the U.N. body had asked that camps housing ethnic Karen civilians
be moved deeper inside Thailand as a result of raids by the pro-Rangoon
Democratic Kayin (Karen) Buddhist Organisation (DKBO). 

    Thai army officers and Karen National Union (KNU) officials blame
guerrillas of the breakaway DKBO for a series of attacks on refugee camps on
the Thai side of the Moei border river. 

    Von Arnim said he estimated that non-governmental organisations running
the camps had to cope with an influx of between 5,000 and 8,000 Karen who had
fled since Burma began a drive against KNU bases in December. 

    This was in addition to the estimated 85,000 people from Burmese minority
ethnic groups already in camps on the Thai side of the long border with
Burma. 

    ``We feel at ease with the situation, apart from the intrusions from
Burma,'' Von Arnim said. 

    But in order to monitor the situation more accurately, UNHCR wants to put
a protection officer on the Thai-Burmese border as it already has on the
Thai-Cambodian frontier, he said. 

    Though the ethnic minority people do not have official refugee status,
Thailand has acknowledged they are civilians caught in a conflict and should
not be sent back, he said. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-22 05:55:50 EST
******

      RANGOON, March 23 (Reuter) - Japan has signed a memorandum of
understanding with Burma for a one billion yen ($11.1 million) grant to
produce food, Burmese state media reported on Thursday. 

    Minister for Planning and Economic Development, Brigadier-General David
Abel, signed the pact on Wednesday with Japanese Ambassador Takashi Tajima. 

    The grant will be used to buy fertiliser and agricultural machinery for
food production in border areas, state-run newspapers said. 

    Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said in Tokyo on March 17 that the
grant should be seen as humanitarian aid. 

    Kono said the grant did not signify a change in Japan's stated policy,
which is to work patiently for the promotion of democratic reforms and an
improvement in the human rights situation in Burma. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-23 03:16:52 EST
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