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The Nation, Burma Intensifies Push



Subject: The Nation, Burma Intensifies Push Against Karen

The Nation		Feb. 18, 1997
Burma Intensifies Push Against Karen Rebels
BY YINDEE LERTCHAROENCHOK

	THE Burmese army is pressing ahead in its efforts to capture the last
remaining sizeable area under the control of the country's Karen rebels,
while the combined number of refugees who have fled into Thailand since the
offensive began has reached a record 100,000, the largest number since the
Cambodian conflicts in the 1980s.
	Although the Thai Army has played down the impact of the major Burmese
offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU) on Thailand, arguing that
the fighting is a Burmese internal affair, officials from several government
agencies said that they foresee problems between the two countries as a
result of Rangoon taking control of the entire 2,500-kilometre common
frontier for the first time.
	They said that Thailand's national security policy towards its western
border will have to undergo a major overhaul and that the two countries,
which are yet to resolve several territorial claims, will face a surge in
new territorial disputes.
	Thailand, they said, also faces the heavy burden of housing more than
100,000 ethnic refugees from Burma, a number which excludes several hundred
thousand more illegal Burmese immigrants already seeking employment and
better economic opportunities.
	Thai officials said they have detected a new mass movement of Burmese
troops towards the area controlled by the KNU's 4th Brigade, which is
opposite Kanchanaburi.
	They said that about 2,500 Burmese troops from Bokpyin, Kawthaung and Tavoy
have been deployed to launch attacks from the north and southwest on the
brigade's headquarters in Thi Tha, while another Burmese contingent is
poised to attack Chong Kamin, opposite Thailand's Chumphon province, where
the KNU's 11th and 12th battalions are located.
	The officials said that the fall of the 4th Brigade would mean ''a virtual
end" to all of the KNU's stationary strongholds and its source of income
from fisheries, logging and mining.
	They said the KNU will not be able to resist the superior number of Burmese
troops and are certain to burn down their camps before pulling back and
transforming their forces into full mobile guerrilla units.
	Thai officials said that about 3,000 Karen refugees have already crossed
into Thailand around the Bong Ti Pass in Sai Yok district and that thousands
more are expected to flee across the border, should a full offensive be
launched in the Thi Tha area.
	A relief worker said yesterday that most of the civilians in the area under
the 4th Brigade's control were displaced within Burma after earlier
harassment from Rangoon and that as many as 5,000 were possibly making their
way towards Thailand's Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi provinces.
	Some officials said that Thailand is facing a refugee crisis similar to
that which occurred as a result of conflicts in Cambodia in the 1980s, which
drove more than 500,000 Khmers into Thailand.
	


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