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Motor Road & offensive



Kanchanburi-Tavoy Motor Road Construction Begun

	In accordance with the MOU between the Industrial Estates Authority of Thailand
and Slorc, construction of a 70-kilometer motor road between Thailand's
Kanchanburi and
Burma's Tavoy began the beginning of 1997.
	The highway project was first proposed by former Foreign Minister Taksin
Shinawatra during the Chuan Leekpai administration and approved by Slorc in
late 1996. The main goal of the highway project is to expedite the smooth
and rapid transport of Thai goods to the western sea board by an inland
route and to facilitate the construction of a modernized harbor and an
industrial zone in Tavoy.
	There is a 70 kilometer stretch between Bon Ti, a border village in
Kanchanaburi Province and Tavoy.  Fully half of the proposed motor-road
passes through an area controlled by armed Karen forces of the KNU. 
	The initial survey was carried out by Ital-Thai Corporation.  Work on the
road running between Bon Ti and the Burmese village of Amo is currently
being undertaken by IEAT and Ital-Thai Construction Company.




Offensive in KNU Fourth Brigade Region

	While Slorc is carrying out a major military offensive in the KNU Sixth
Brigade Region near Thailand's Umphang District, similar mass offensives
have been launched in the KNU's Fourth Brigade Region of Mergui-Tavoy
district, near Kanchanaburi. 
	The offensive against the Fourth Brigade began on February 10, 1997.
Slorc's Light Infantry Battalions 25, 104, 224, 431 under the command of
Coastal Region Military Command and Division 66 are involved in the attacks.
About 1000  Slorc soldiers under the Coastal Region Military Command started
their offensive from Metta Village.  Currently there are fierce clashes
taking place near Iwai Village, which is approximately 20 kilometers from
the headquarters of KNU Battalion No.10.  
	Slorc Division 66 has reached Tavoy and sent three columns from Ban Chaung,
Nan Thila and Kyauk Lon Gyi targeting the headquarters of KNU Fourth Brigade
and ABSDF No.1 battalion. Troops have been given the deadline of March 27,
1997 for overrunning KNU's Fourth Brigade and ABSDF's 1st Battalion.  That
is Slorc's Armed Forces Day.
	According to an escaped porter from the Slorc column, more than 1000
civilians were conscripted for porterage from their hometowns.  He saw five
bulldozers accompanying the column in order to clear the way for tanks and
for army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons. 
	Since the fall of Manerplaw in 1994, KNU's Fourth Brigade area has become
strategically more important.  The area is also of international
significance because it is the scene of several major multinational
projects, such as the Yedana and Yedagon natural gas schemes.  The Fourth
Brigade is also the site of several bilateral Thai/Slorc projects, including
the Industrial Zone in Tavoy, the Off-sea Fishery project in the Andaman
Sea, and the Kanchanaburi-Tavoy Motor Highway.
	Many analysts see Slorc's major offensive in the KNU Fourth Brigade area as
a bid to secure all the projects in the region after the break-down of
cease-fire talks with the KNU.  In their statement dated on February 12,
1997, the KNU said  cease-fire talks were broken off because the KNU could
not accept Slorc's demand that KNU lay down their arms in surrender and
return to the legal fold after the new constitution was promulgated. 
	In May 1996, Slorc announced that all the villages betwen the Ye-Tavoy
motor  road and Tenasserim river must move immediately.   Since Slorc is
using a "clean-up strategy" in the region, forcing people to relocate,
thousands of villagers on the eastern side of the Ye-Tavoy motor road have
fled to the KNU-controlled area. These people now have to flee again from
this refuge to Thai-Burma border because Slorc is attacking the KNU bases.
Already, more than 1,000 villagers from Iwai, Sin Phyu Tai and Amo villages
have arrived in Bon Ti village on the Thai-Burma border.