KNLA Wah Lay Kee base camp falls [with pictures]
by Daniel Pedersen on May.06, 2009, under Battles, Burma reportage
Mae Sot, Thailand
May 6, 2009
The Karen National Liberation Army’s Wah Lay Kee base camp, home to its Sixth Brigade 201st Battalion has fallen.
Since 1988 the camp had been held against repeated attacks by soldiers of the Burma Army and later the breakaway Karen militia allied with Burma’s military junta the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
Hundreds of lives have been lost around the camp, and hundreds maimed by landmines and booby traps.
Last year the KNLA lost it then won it back right at the beginning of the wet season proper.
This year, it seems, the rain has come early, and Wah Lay Kee has been abandoned.
The final push by the ruling Burmese junta, the State Peace and Development Council, and the DKBA began on April 12.
In late afternoon of April 28, the KNLA pulled out, leaving the camp surrounded by landmines and the camp itself loaded with booby traps and tripwires.
These images tell the story of the continuing brutality of the Burma Army and their allied militias.
They were captured by medics and soldiers during the hectic final days of Wah Lay Kee.
ENDS
"Secret Genocide is a scholarly book on the plight of the Karen of Burma. Author Daniel Pedersen writes about the secret genocide of the Karen people at the hands of the Burmese junta, who use murder, rape, forced labour and torture to quell their enemies. Decades after the Karen took up arms against Rangoon; there is no telling when - or if - their struggle for a secure homeland will finally be accomplished"
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Secret Genocide by publisher Maverick House. >>> Read prologue.
