[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Pro-Myanmar Forces Hit Thai Camps



Pro-Myanmar Forces Hit Thai Camp

By DON PATHAN
 .c The Associated Press  

MAE HLA, Thailand (AP) - A raiding party allied with Myanmar's military
government fired more than 10 mortar rounds Sunday into a refugee camp in
Thailand sheltering 30,000 people, a Thai general said. At least one refugee
was confirmed injured. 

Maj. Gen. Chamlong Photong, chief of staff of the 3rd Army, responsible for
the rugged border area, said Thai soldiers returned artillery rounds and drove
off the attackers shelling the Mae Hla refugee camp. 

The raiders belonged to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a faction of the
Karen ethnic minority allied with the government of Myanmar against the Karen
National Union, which has battled for more Karen autonomy for 50 years. 

The DKBA attacked and torched another refugee camp, Huay Koloke, last
Wednesday. Three people died and 9,000 were left homeless. 

The border is strung with refugee camps filled with some 100,000 people,
mostly Karen, who have fled military offensives in Myanmar that survivors and
human rights groups say have brought rape, murder and torching of villages to
terrorize the populace. 

The Myanmar army and its allies are staging a late dry-season offensive
against the Karen nationalists. Refugee camps are targeted to deny the KNU
rear-base support and to frighten the refugees into returning to Myanmar, also
known as Burma. 

Tension has been high, especially at Mae Hla, the largest camp, with some
30,000 people. It was attacked a year ago. Chamlong said other camps were
vulnerable to attack, especially Maw Ker, with some 6,000 people. 

DKBA and Myanmar troops had gathered for the past two days across the shallow
Moei River that defines the border to attack Mae Hla, aid workers said. Many
residents left the camp Saturday night to sleep across a highway in relative
safety. 

The Ministry of Interior warned aid agencies not to send a scheduled twice-
monthly rice shipment into Mae Hla, saying the 10-truck convoy would present a
tempting target. Aid workers said the refugees have sufficient rice for the
time being. 

Meanwhile, fighting was raging inside Myanmar between an estimated 1,000
government troops and some 300 KNU fighters near the KNU's 7th Brigade
headquarters at Tha Ko Sutha, north of the Thai border town of Mae Sot. 

KNU officials said the pro-Myanmar forces were believed to have infiltrated
Thailand to open a new front against the 7th Brigade. The KNU has suffered
several defeats in recent years and controls relatively little territory
inside Myanmar. 

The headquarters was taking artillery and mortar fire from two sides, KNU
officials said, but would be difficult to capture because it is ringed by
mines. 

The terror raids on the refugee camps have been condemned by several Western
nations and human rights groups, and Thailand has been urged to improve
security. Thai army troops in the area of Huay Koloke were said to have done
nothing to deter the attack. 

Chamlong said more troops and artillery pieces have been sent to the area.
More checkpoints along roads are visible, but visitors to the camps say they
have seen little reinforcement between refugees and the likely lines of
attack. 

Aid workers said the Thai army has forced refugees who sought shelter outside
the burned remains of Huay Koloke to return to the camp, threatening to deport
them to Myanmar if they did not. 

Thai army and government officials and aid agencies are looking for a safer
site for the Huay Koloke refugees after discounting the initial idea of moving
them to Mae Hla.