Burma Army Attacks Karen Area
By
JIRAPORN WONGPAITHOON
Associate
d Press Writer
Thursday,
March 20, 1997 4:34 am EST
BANGKOK,
Thailand (AP) -- The Burmese army pounded an ethnic
Karen
area inside Burma with mortar fire today, continuing an attack
against a
Karen rebel group that has sent about 3,500 refugees fleeing
toward
Thailand.
Karens
along the border said that the refugees, scattered in pockets
along
several miles of frontier across from Thailand's Ratchaburi
province,
were being denied entry by Thai troops unless the fighting
gets closer.
A
spokesman for Thailand's 9th Army Division, which controls the
border
area, confirmed Wednesday that Karen refugees were ``being
asked''
to stay on the Burmese side unless their safety is in imminent
danger.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.
The
Burmese bombardment, which began Tuesday, was about 6 miles
from the
border, Karen sources said on condition of anonymity.
Thailand
came under criticism from the United States, the European
Union and
human-rights groups last month for denying entry to
fighting-
age Karen males fleeing the fighting and for forcibly sending
hundreds
of women, children and others back into Burma.
Governmen
t officials note Thailand has sheltered some 100,000 people
fleeing
Burma's conflicts over the past decade, including perhaps
20,000
from the most recent offensive.
Burma's
military regime has deployed an estimated 100,000 troops to
destroy
the rebel Karen National Union. In six weeks, the
approxima
tely 1,500 rebel fighters have lost several bases and
abandoned
much of the rugged border area they had controlled for
decades.
The
Burmese army has consolidated its positions as it has advanced
and is on
the verge of taking control of the frontier for the first time.
The Karen
National Union is the last major group still fighting the
governmen
t. Cease-fire negotiations broke down on rebel insistence
that a
deal include Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the
country's
pro-democracy leader.
The
rebels suspect the Burmese and Thais of agreeing to crush them
to secure
the border for trade and infrastructure development,
including
a $1.2 billion pipeline built by oil companies Total and Unocal
to carry
natural gas from Burma to Thailand.
Gen.
Chetta Thanajaro, the Thai army commander, embraced his
Burmese
counterpart, Gen. Maung Aye, on the border last week to
celebrate
an agreement to revive construction over the so-called
Friendshi
p Bridge over the Moei River, which defines the border.
Thailand
formerly used the Karens and other ethnic minorities as a
buffer
against traditional enemy Burma. But a rapprochement has been
under way
as Burma prepares for entry into the Association of
Southeast
Asian Nations and opens its economy to foreign investors.
ASEAN
comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand,
Vietnam and Brunei.
Burma has
been ruled by the military since 1962. The current regime,
the State
Law and Order Restoration Council, came to power in 1988.
The
government has opened the long-closed economy to market
forces
but keeps a tight lid on political dissent.