Burma-border,sched : Burma's succes

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Subject: Burma-border,sched : Burma's successes bring ethnicj  civil war to Thai border


Burma-border,sched : Burma's successes bring ethnic
                            civil war to Thai border

                            by Thomas Fox

                            BANGKOK, March 30 (AFP) - Burma's military
government appears
                            to have gained the upper hand in its 49-year
civil war with ethnic
                            minorities, but fighting continues along most of
the Thai border,
                            official and ethnic sources say.

                            As thousands of soldiers marched to celebrate
Armed Forces Day
                            amid tight security and communal unrest in the
capital last week,
                            thousands of ethnic Karen refugees streamed
across the border
                            into Thailand's Ratchaburi province. 

                            Rangoon has taken control of long stretches of
the Thai border in
                            the past two years for the first time since
Burma gained
                            independence in 1948, most recently in an
ongoing sweep
                            through the last Karen strongholds.

                            The junta has signed ceasefire agreements with
15 armed ethnic
                            groups, allowing them to retain their arms and
engage in certain
                            business enterprises.

                            Clashes occur regularly, however, in four of the
five Burmese
                            states and divisions, as they are called, along
the the mostly
                            undemarcated 2400-kilometer (1450-mile) Thai
border, according
                            to ethnic sources on the border.

                            A spokesman for the military's ruling State Law
and Order
                            Restoration Council (SLORC) in Rangoon confirmed
most of the
                            reports, but said they were only "skirmishes." 

                            The Karen National Union (KNU), the Shan United
Revolutionary
                            Army (SURA) and the Karenni National Progressive
Party (KNPP)
                            have been chased out of most of their bases, but
guerrilla warfare
                            continues, the border sources said.

                            Most ethnic groups say they seek greater
autonomy in a federal
                            and democratic Burma, but the SLORC says the
military must have
                            a major role in a future centralized government
to prevent the
                            disintegration of the country.

                            The junta's military successes, however, come as
UN and other
                            groups report soaring heroin production in areas
controlled by
                            ceasefire groups, serious economic problems,
malnutrition in the
                            slums, and massive human rights abuses.

                            Armed Forces Day celebrations, meanwhile, were
marred by
                            communal unrest many analysts say is an
expression of
                            discontent with the junta among the
400,000-strong Buddhist
                            monkhood.

                            Rajsmoor Lallah, a UN rapporteur, said in a
report released in
                            March that Burma's military had forcibly
relocated and essentially
                            detained or forced into labor more than one
million people without
                            compensation.

                            Most were cleared out to make way for
development projects or
                            evicted in the course of ongoing military
campaigns against ethnic
                            groups -- said to rely on torture, extrajudicial
killings, arbitrary
                            detention as porters, the burning and looting of
villages and rape.

                            Shan refugees were uncountable, border sources
said, as most of
                            them joined the several hundred thousand Burmese
nationals
                            working illegally in Thailand, while only about
100,000 Karen and
                            Karenni were registered in the camps.

                            Despite the surrender of opium druglord Khun Sa
a year ago,
                            remnants of his Mong Tai Army (MTA) in Shan
State have refused
                            to lay down arms.

                            At least one group of remnants has an unofficial
ceasefire with
                            Rangoon, while another Shan group has an
official agreement, but
                            former MTA under the SURA were in active opposition.

                            "The SURA is still fighting almost every day," a
Shan source said.

                            A military source in Rangoon told AFP that
skirmishes may have
                            taken place in Shan State with MTA remnants as
government
                            troops patroled the area.

                            He also confirmed that "skirmishes have taken
place with the KNU
                            ... during mopping up operations in those areas." 

                            KNU officials, however, vowed to re-establish
bases lost in Karen
                            State and Tenasserim Division in the coming
rainy season, while
                            reporting dozens of government casualties and
the routing of
                            remote military outposts.

                            The smaller KNPP, which signed a ceasefire in
1995 that fell apart
                            within a few months, and was driven out of its
bases last year in
                            a campaign that uprooted most of the villages in
Kayah (Karenni)
                            State, also reported continuing irregular clashes.

                            Thailand has said that if the fighting in Burma
subsides, the
                            refugees in the camps will be repatriated.

                            "Well, it looks like (the fighting) is not going
to die down," a
                            Karenni source said.

                            The official source in Rangoon, however, said
the KNPP could
                            only launch its attacks from Thailand.

                            "Clashes take place occasionally when they cross
over into
                            Myanmar territory to attack villages in the
area," he said, using the
                            SLORC's official name for Burma. 

                            But observers said Thailand has so far appeared
more anxious to
                            clear out refugees in its Ratchaburi and
Kanchanaburi provinces,
                            south of the Karenni areas, where several joint
infrastructure
                            projects are planned with the junta.