SPDC wins significant victory against KNLA
by Daniel Pedersen on Mar.25, 2009, under Battles, Burma reportage
January 16, 2008
Burma’s army has in the past week won a significant victory in a vicious battle that has see-sawed back and forth across Thailand’s northern border with Burma since June 30 last year.
Soldiers of Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, have overrun the base camp of the Karen National Liberation Army’s Special Battalion 103.
SPDC troops then destroyed the significant settlement, equipped with solar power, fish holding tanks, a huge granary and a medical clinic that serviced 800 people living in two nearby villages.
The KNLA has lost and won back the base repeatedly since last year.
Now there is nothing to win back.
The Karen are the only significant Burmese ethnic minority not to have signed a ceasefire deal with the SPDC.
A KNLA commander, Colonel Nerdah, said his base camp was in cinders and his special battalion “no longer has a location, we have to find a new location, for now we are moving all the time.”
David Thackrabaw, vice president of the Karen National Union – the KNLA’s political overseer – said the SPDC was pursuing a “scorched earth” policy against not only the KNLA, but also the civilian population.
But SPDC troops have suffered significant casualties from landmines, the corridors of both Umphang and Mae Sot hospitals in Thailand are crowded with legless Burmese soldiers on stainless steel trolleys.
The battle is roaming over a region opposite Thailand’s Umphang region, a tourist drawcard for its spectacular mountain scenery.
Yesterday morning (Friday Jan 16) soldiers of KNLA Special Battalion 103 moved to their only significant military encampment remaining in the region.
They have reinforced the camp known as Wah Lay Kee, home to KNLA Sixth Brigade’s 201st Battalion.
Yesterday SPDC troops were positioning themselves around the camp for an all-out offensive.
The SPDC wants to wrest control of the region for its significant deposits of gold, tin, zinc and wolfram (from which antimony is refined).
Taiwanese and Thai mining companies are waiting in the wings, ready to strike a deal with whichever side can guarantee security for their capital investment.
ENDS
Leave a Reply
"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"
Read and add comments at the book's blog
Secret Genocide by publisher Maverick House. >>> Read prologue.
