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KNU Press Relaese No.25/97



                    OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEAD QUARTERS
                               KAREN NATIONAL UNION
                                     KAW THOO LEI


                                        KNU Press Release No.25/97
             Regarding 1997 SLORC Offensive Against the KNU

                                                                             
  June 3,1997

 
         By military offensive, the SLORC has been destroying Karen villages
and, in east of Shwe Gyin township, the SLORC is continuing its work of
destruction as given below-
          The SLORC troops burnt down:

In Sor-theh-kee village tract, 49 houses, making 494 persons homeless; in
Ler-wah village tract 50 houses, making 304 persons homeless, in Su-mu-ta
village tract, 25 houses, making 104 persons homeless; in Ko-phet village
tract, 40 houses, making 131 persons homeless; in Tee-ba-lar village tract,
63 houses, making 267 persons homeless; in Meh-reh-kee village tract, 93
houses, making 438 persons homeless; Eighty families from Meh-reh-kee and
Klor-ko-ger villages, and 32 families from Tee-ba-lar village tract were
driven down to the plain areas.

             From 12 to 21 May, 1997, troops from SLORC IBs 57, 59 and 37
combined together and continued the work of destruction in northern Pa-pun
district as given below.
             
             In Ler-mu-plaw village, the SLORC troops burnt down 55 houses,
83 farm huts, 55 rice barns and killed a large number of live-stock. The
SLORC IB 548 looted 10 baskets of rice and 10,000 kyats from
Tee-law-theet-ta, 25,000 kyats from Tee-theh-lay village and 2 buffaloes from
Tee-tha-blu-ta village. In Baw-kyo-traw village area, villagers have to pay
1,000 kyats per family as porter fees.

              On 11-5-97, a DKBA commander, Saw Hla Dah, came to Par-klu
village of Myawady township and forcibly collected 3,000 kyats per family as
recruitment fees.Village elders Par Jer Po and two others were beaten
severely as Lo-Baw and Do-thu-kee villages were late in paying the fees. The
villagers had to pay an additional 400 kyats to DKBA Saw Mya Aung, as a fee
for the work of beating. The three village elders were released on 18-8-97
and elder Par Jer Po could hardly walk because of the beating. 

Abbreaviations: KNU = Karen National Union (Political wing of the Karen
resistance), SLORC = State Law and Order restoration Council (Military
dictatorship of Burma), DKBA = Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (A pappet army
of the SLORC), Kyat is the name of Burmese currency, Shwe Gyin is a town
about 90 miles 
to the east of the Burmese Capital, Rangoon, Myawady is town in the Karen
State opposite Tak province of Thailand.

KNU Information Center

















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