Refugees flooding across Thai-Burma border
by Daniel Pedersen on Jun.24, 2009, under Battles, Burma reportage, Northern Thailand, The Karen
A human disaster is occurring and the world doesn’t seem to care.
Mae Sariang, Thailand
Karen villagers flee Burma Army attacks - Photo: FBR
June 24, 2009, Mae Sariang, ThailandPeople are flooding over the Moei River into Thailand from Burma to become stateless no-ones.
At best there are only 6000.
They don’t make the news.
Driving north from the border-town of Mae Sot you find clusters of people spread out along the river banks, living under tarpaulins.
The sound of 120mm shells echoes in their ears as they huddle against the relentless rains of this wet season.
And they are simply grateful for having made it away from their home country, a country in which their own government is attacking them with conscripted, dislocated forces.
This is Burma’s ruling military dictatorship, the State Peace and Development Council’s preparation for the 2010 elections.
Via that election they hope to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the ‘international community’.
The preparation of a constitution upon which this new election is to be based was a corrupted affair and enshrines the military as the supreme power.
This latest offensive that drove thousands of people across the border into a neighbouring country began at the capital of Karen State, Pa-an.
From there they ran for their lives, not even stopping at Internally Displaced Peoples camps along the border.
As he drove north to hand out money at orphanages that have tripled in size in the past two weeks, Colonel Nerdah Mya said this latest offensive was aimed at wiping out the Karen National Union, which has been a thorn in the side of the junta for 60 years.
Eliminating political opposition is one of the keys to this election.
They must force their detractors into submission.
So the SPDC have put their military forces to work.
Who may suffer is inconsequential.
DKBA burns down houses, school and hospital in Kler Day area
ENDS
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"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.
June 27th, 2009 on 4:54 p
News 26.Dead of DKBA Commander San Pyone
http://www.khitpyaing.org/news/june_09/26-6-09h.php
June 29th, 2009 on 6:47 p
Translated:Senior DKBA commander killed in ambush
–A senior figure in the pro-Burmese junta militia Democratic Karen Buddhist Army has been killed in an ambush by the opposition Karen National Union as clashes continue near the Thai-Burma border.
Five fellow Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers were killed alongside Colonel San Pyone, commander of Battalion 7 of the Brigade 999, on 26 June, while around 10 more were injured.
A source close to the DKBA said that seven boats carrying more than 20 DKBA members from the overrun Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 7 headquarters was ambushed at about 8am on 26 June.
“There must be about 20 casualties, but about six people died on the spot,” he said, adding that the corpses of San Pyone and others were taken to the DKBA base in the Shwekokko area of Karen state.
The DKBA has said that the attack was carried out from Thai territory, but this was refuted by the KNU.
“The shooting did happen but not on the Thai side. It happened on the other side [in Burma],” said KNU spokesperson David Thakabaw.
read all http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2663