BKK Post, April 8,1998.Burma confir

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Burma confirms mine deaths near border

Burma has acknowledged eight people were killed when a vehicle carrying guerrillas
allied to the government drove over a land mine near the tense border with Thailand.

A government official, in a faxed statement seen on Monday in Bangkok, said four soldiers of the government-allied  Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and four civilians
were killed and three civilians were injured.

The DKBA has launched several cross-border raids over the past month against refugee camps inside Thailand in an attempt to scare the refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, into returning to Burma.

Most of the refugees support the Karen National Union, which has fought for autonomy for Burma's ethnic Karen minority for 50 years. --AP