Myanmar troops kill five Indian sol

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Myanmar troops kill five Indian soldiers

WASBIR HUSSAIN, GAUHATI, India

AP, 26 October 2000.   Myanmar troops opened fire on an
Indian border post in the remote northeast, killing at least five
Indian paramilitary soldiers and wounding six others, police
said Thursday.

Indian soldiers fired back in the Wednesday night clash at a
border post in the Mon district of Nagaland state, but it was not
known if there were any casualties on the Myanmar side.

Lokheei Sema, the Nagaland state police chief, said five soldiers
from the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force, were killed in the
attack by Myanmar troops.

Militants of the banned National Socialist Council of Nagaland
have been fighting to create an independent tribal homeland in the
region. The NSCN has bases near the border inside Myanmar,
and Myanmar authorities have ordered a crackdown on the guerrillas,
resulting in several clashes over the past year.

''It might be a case of mistaken identity where the Myanmar army
thought our soldiers to be the outlawed militants and began firing
indiscriminately, leading to casualties,'' Sema said by telephone
from Kohima, the Nagaland state capital.

In February, at least 30 Myanmar soldiers were killed by the NSCN
in a gunbattle inside Myanmar. More than 15,000 tribal Nagas are also
settled in parts of the Sagaing district in northern Myanmar.

The NSCN has used Myanmar as a base to carry out their attacks
against Indian troops.