KNU Report May 8,1997

[So_Nou@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Human Rights Violations Update, Karen State

The SLORC troops have launched an offensive against the KNU in the northern
region in February this year and the offensive is still continuing. To crush
the resistance group in the area, the invading force burned down villages as
well as the rice barns belonging to the villagers who were mere civilians and
play no part in this armed conflict. Thousands of villagers have to leave
their villages and flee to the jungle to hide from the abuses of the invading
army. Not like the refugees in Thailand, these villagers have no NGOs to
provide food and health care for them.Now these helpless people are facing
starvation and diseases in the jungle and when they were found by the
invading army, they were shot to kill.

>From February to May, the SLORC troops have burned and destroyed more than 40
villages in Naunglinbin district alone. The total number of homeless families
in the area is estimated about 800 and the total number of villagers hiding
in the jungle is more than 3000.

We urge you who  receive this information, to do whatever you could in your
power to alleviate the suffering and plight of this ethnic group of people.

KNU Information Center

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