‘Stop the killing’

Letter a desperate plea for action

Karen National Union

  Kwathoolei, Karen state

March 5, 2010

While we, the Karen National Union (KNU), welcome UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s expression of concern regarding new attacks on the Karen people, we do not believe that this alone is an adequate response to the current crisis. We would like to remind the Secretary General that these attacks have been taking place for more than 60 years, and that numerous requests and expressions of concern, and even resolutions from the United Nations General Assembly, and a Presidential Statement from the United Nations Security Council, have failed to halt these attacks and persuade the SPDC military dictatorship to enter into genuine dialogue.

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North Korea, other foreign advisers consult junta on extensive network of tunnels

Democratic Voice of Burma

  Norway, Oslo

December 05, 2009

Tunnels being built in Burma: Photo DVB

Burma’s military junta is building an extenstive network of tunnels designed to support the military against attack and suppress any insurgency, the Democratic Voice of Burma has reported.

According to documents obtained by DVB, Burma is aggressively bolstering its defence in the event of an invasion and is developing projects ranging from tunnel digging to possible nuclear proliferation.

The documents reveal plans to construct covert ammunitions factories that will produce surface-to-air missiles controlled from underground command bases, and can accommodate heavy weaponry and battalions of troops during military operations.

North Korea and other foreign advisers in Burma are consulting with officials on what now appears to be a the development of a network of some 800 underground tunnels across much of the country.

How, and with what intention, is one of the world’s poorest countries running such a secretive project worth billions of dollars?

Sections of the project date back as far as 1996.

Burma’s military regime: Digging the tunnels

New images have emerged that show North Korean and other foreign advisers in Burma consulting with officials on what now appears to be an extensive network of some 800 underground tunnels across much of the country.

While rife government corruption and uneven development in Burma yesterday awarded Burma a spot at the bottom of Foreign Policy magazine’s Failed States Index, billions of US dollars are now known to have been channeled by the Burmese government into building the tunnels >>> Burma’s military regime: Digging the tunnels

Special: Digging the tunnels, part two

The tunnel project underway in Burma includes plans to build covert ammunitions factories that will produce surface-to-air missiles controlled from underground command bases, leaked intelligence documents reveal.

Last week DVB revealed that some 800 tunnels were under construction throughout Burma, with sections of the project dating as far back as 1996.

The majority of tunneling and construction equipment for the project has been bought from North Korea in a series of deals over the last three years which total at least $US9 billion, according to two purchase orders received by DVB >>> Special: Digging the tunnels, part two

Special: Digging the tunnels, part three

Burma is aggressively bolstering its defence in the event of an invasion, according to a series of leaked reports and testimonies that outline a myriad of projects ranging from tunnel digging to possible nuclear proliferation.

In recent weeks, DVB has revealed that with North Korean help, the Burmese junta is developing a complex network of tunnels that can accommodate heavy weaponry and battalions of troops during military operations >>> Special: Digging the tunnels, part three

ENDS

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Junta details how to assault ethnic minorities, decimate development of Christian church

www.danielpedersen.org

Daniel Pedersen

  Mae Sariang, Thailand

November 28, 2009

Leaked documents from Burma’s ruling military junta provide shocking insight of the inner workings of a fascist regime bent on eliminating diversity within its own people.

The documents are detailed directives about how to assault ethnic minorities and decimate development of the Christian church in Burma.

Two telling documents have been acquired by ethnic minority organisations, one detailing payment incentives for impregnating ethnic minority women so as to dilute their bloodlines, the other how best to purge Christianity from Burmese society.

Both documents refer to the Burmese “master race” and relate a desperate desire to maintain Burman domination over myriad ethnic minorities who populate much of Burma’s landmass.

The brochure claims the State Peace and Development Council, Burma’s ruling military clique, has set a budget of five million pounds sterling (GBP) annually to fund “Human on Human conquest”.

Monthly incentives being offered to members of the Burman majority are staggered from 500 kyat ($A84 at the official rate) for impregnating a “commoner or ordinary woman” to 2,700 kyat to the “daughter or niece of an educated, wealthy person”.

At the unofficial or black market rate by which everyone in Burma operates – about 1,000 kyat to the US dollar – making a “commoner” pregnant would attract a payment of little more than 50 Australian cents a month.

Currently in Burma rice is retailing for about 1,000 kyat per 2.5kg, enough staple for a person on an extremely lean diet to eat for five days.

Rice prices soar

The Burman majority is thought to constitute about 60 per cent of Burma’s population, the sum of the rest divided among a swathe of ethnic minorities, the two most-populous being Karen and Shan, each thought to make up about seven per cent of the population.

The brochure being distributed in ethnic minority areas is headed “A notice urging Burmese comrades to act” and suggests “Burmese comrades shall assault other ethnic groups of Burma by all possible means; both economic and social”.

It says the main objective of the assault is the “everlasting dominance of the Burman race”.

And it says the easiest way to achieve this is “subjugating non-Burman women through inter-racial breeding”.

It spells out measures that can be employed by Burman men loyal to their “comrades”.

“Typically, ethnic women lack moral principles, and tend to like and envy Burman men. In order to attract ethnic women into Burman society we should exploit these characteristics,” the brochure says.

“Ultimately non-Burman women shall effectively become prostitutes if offered money in an affectionate manner by Burman men,” it says.

“Dear comrades, if we are unable to carry out the above, ethnic people will become a poisonous substance that will harm the Burman race,” says the brochure.

“Oh my dear comrades, there is no time greater than the present to proceed with the above, we shall therefore work to subjugate non-Burman women by offering financial disbursement to encourage sexual relationships.”

It then goes on to list prices for impregnating women of various social levels.

It also deals with the possibility of a forced withdrawal from the ethnic areas in the future and the “benefits” of such a breeding programme in the long-term.

“We must entrench ourselves as firmly as we can in every corner … In case we have to leave the ethnic regions permanently one day, we shall leave our bloodline established,” the brochure says.

It closes with instructions to distribute the brochure – its fourth edition – only to Burmans who can be trusted to keep the matter confidential.

The documents relating to “eradication of Christianity” have supposedly been issued by the “Religious Order of Highest Honored Monks” and are marked “top secret”.

They constitute guidelines issued by a special unit supposedly established by monks to deal with Christianity – it is referred to as the “Cleansing Association”.

Given the Burmese Sangha’s (the monks’ supreme body) current hostility to the junta it seems highly unlikely they would pen such a document, particularly one that flies in the face of Buddhism’s ideals.

Under a heading “annihilate”, its first recommendation is to oppose the development of Christianity and every Christian household.

The Burmese documents suggest multi-faceted discrimination against Christians will be used as an offensive tactic to scupper the religion’s growth.

It also recommends “all means necessary” to defeat the rise of Christianity, “be they violent or peaceful means”.

The documents also suggest attacking the concept of creation with “scientific” theory and exposing what are considered inherent weaknesses of Christianity, such as its “gentleness and politeness”.

It portrays Christianity as narrow-minded, as opposed to Buddhism, which it claims is free of all prejudice.

It also suggested the “indecent apparel of morally bereft Christian youth” could be exposed among laypeople to Buddhism’s advantage.

These violent discriminatory tactics have been well known by ethnic minorities for years now – they have been subjected to racial and religious attacks for decades.

But the acquisition of these documents points to a determined campaign by the military junta to oppress, or even eventually eradicate, ethnic minorities, particularly those who have embraced Christianity.

The Karen have largely adopted Christianity, having always believed in a single god and a single book of his commandments.

Such was their dedication to these beliefs that upon “discovery” by American Baptist missionaries in the mid 1800s it was speculated they might have been a lost tribe of Israel.

From “tribe” to “state”: An official view of Karen identity

New editions of these documents do not augur well for recognition of ethnic minorities’ rights in next year’s planned elections, nor do they bode well for countries that believe the junta’s attitudes can be changed via “engagement”.

These tactics are anything but new.

In 2001 I interviewed a 19-year-old defector from Burma’s Army, Htun Htun, and he recounted religiously inspired attacks on villages.

“We walked into Ka La Ner, a Muslim village.

“First we burned the mosque then told everyone to leave for three days.

“We then began forcibly relocating anyone who refused to leave and seized control of the village and 25 others surrounding it,” he said.

Htun Htun said when the SPDC troops had finished using the village as a base they burned it down, wiping out more than 100 families’ homes.

Or take the case of Ye Ye Aye, whom I interviewed in December 2000 just days after she had arrived at Mae Lae refugee camp, to Mae Sot’s north.

She said in August 2000, soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a militia allied with the SPDC, marched into her home village of Aong Daw.

She said they immediately began terrorising people and grouping at gunpoint those who admitted to being Christian.

They were then marched out of town, never to be seen again.

Ye Ye Aye was at the time 25 years old, is a Christian and a mother of three.

She, like others from her home village all those years ago, lied about being Christian and used to pray only when she knew she would not be discovered.

The soldiers who took control of the village were strict vegetarian Buddhists, she said, and each night searched every house for any evidence of meat or eggs.

Anyone found with such “contraband” was jailed in a bamboo compound.

Ye Ye Aye fled her home village in a moment of opportunity with her husband, 32-year-old Hla Kah Paw and her three children on December 12, 2000.

She still lives in Thailand’s Mae La refugee camp and thanks God that she and her family survived.

ENDS

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MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

October 20, 2009

The State Peace and Development Council also has warships in a standoff with Bangladesh, the result of more than half a century’s of the neighbours’ failure to demarcate a common border.

Warships and Bangladesh braces for war

It also stands accused of trying to acquire nuclear arms technology from North Korea and Russia.

In the most southeastern areas of Burma and stretching into the north abutting Karenni State, the junta is at war with the Karen – as it has been since 1949.

The Karenni live in misery, with much of their territory to be flooded by dams along the Salween River and its tributaries from which they will reap no benefit.

In the massive territory that constitutes Shan State and includes the ethnic Chinese enclaves of the Wa, Kokang and Mongla people, the SPDC is buildings its military presence, an ominous sign it intends to purge the region of dissidents before its election.

In an editorial this week (week of Oct 11-17), Burma’s state newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, appealed to the United States for assistance in its anti-narcotics efforts, naming the United Wa State Army as its nemesis.

In fact the Kokang people, clustered to the north of the Wa region and the Mongla, to the Wa’s south, have been tarred with the same brush.

The junta is currently positioning artillery in those regions.

Along the Indian border the Naga people maintain a campaign of resistance to centralised governance as they watch India strike deals on dams that will change he face of the Chindwin River forever.

Ironically the electricity generated by the planned massive hydropower schemes will be taken by high voltage lines to Uttar Pradesh, or Indian Kashmir, in a bid for peace through development inevitably at6 Burma’s expense.

Near the border with Bangladesh the Muslim Rohingya people still pay astronomical fees to be thrown into unseaworthy vessels to make a break for Malaysia.

In short, the SPDC is at war with its own people.

Neighbouring Thailand is expecting clashes with the Burmese military as it forces people out of the country and will operate on high alert for the next few months along its more than 2000km.

Burma border clashes likely as poll nears

Regularly during the dry season mortar fire is exchanged between Thailand and forces within Burma’s boundaries, if not the SPDC then one of its allies.

Every country surrounding Burma has it share of refugees.

One of the big gripes of the opposition is the new constitution of 2008, according to which next year’s election will be contested.

The constitution was supposedly ratified by referendum just eight days after Cyclone Nargis wiped out the mouths of the Irrawaddy River in April last year in Burma’s greatest natural disaster of modern times.

Cyclone Nargis

People were washed away in their tens of thousands and the true death toll will never be known, the generals initially rejected foreign assistance and the military was hopelessly ill-prepared to help the population.

The foreign aid that did get in was sold on the black market or some was re-packaged with individual generals’ names plastered on the wrapping with the aim of generating good will for those commanders.

The constitution enshrines the military in the political process, along the lines of Indonesia’s Suharto-era dwifungsi model.

The Indonesian military: DWI Fungsi and territorial operations

It reserves 25 per cent of parliamentary seats for junta appointment and a 75 per cent majority is required for major amendments to standing laws or the constitution itself.

The first signs the junta had plans to neutralise the ethnic minorities before the 2010 election, a date for which has not been announced, came in June last year.

Troops of the SPDC and an allied militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, launched major and sustained offensives against base camps of the Karen National Liberation Army.

During last year’s rainy season the SPDC took two major KNLA base camps, that of 103 Special Battalion and Sixth Brigade’s 201 Battalion based at Wah Kay Kee, both to Mae Sot’s South.

During this rainy season, which is only now ending, a wide offensive swept from Karen State’s capital Pa-an to the Moei River, which forms the border with Thailand.

Thai authorities struggled with a sudden influx of refugees from Seventh Brigade, about 6,000 people.

KNLA 7th Brigade loses a quarter of its territory

Many of them are still dependent on international handouts of food and live under thin plastic sheeting in pitiful conditions without even mosquito nets in this malaria-ridden part of the world.

They are mostly Karen, their homes, schools and churches have been burned down and it has been made clear they are considered enemies of the state, unwelcome in the country of their birth.

Zipporah Sein is the Karen National Union’s general secretary, elected in October of last year at the KNU’s 14th Congress since 1948.

She replaced Pado Mahn Sha who was assassinated at his home on February 14 last year by Karen assassins working for the DKBA, and in turn the SPDC Zipporah says the new constitution is a “death sentence” for recognition of the ethnic minorities.

Burma’s New Constitution: A Death Sentence for Ethnic Diversity

The KNLA is now preparing itself for another sustained offensive throughout the dry season, which is beginning now and will probably last until April.

Its Fifth Brigade region, with terrain too difficult to fight in during the wet, will now be targeted as vehicular access becomes possible in some areas.

And deep within Sixth Brigade, around Dooplaya district, another SPDC push is underway that Zipporah predicts will create huge numbers of refugees, dwarfing the 6,000 from Seventh Brigade in June and July.

The Institute for Political Analysis and Documentation, an independent body described the junta’s constitutional referendum as “a complete sham” and predicted much the same for the coming election.

Burma: voting in vain of democracy

Burma’s Buddhist monks, who hold the most sway in Burmese society among the common people of any individual or institution have been banned from voting in the coming election, as they were during the constitutional referendum.

Referendum law excludes monks and bans dissent

In the lead up to the two year anniversary of 2007’s so-called “Saffron Revolution”

(Burmese monks do not wear saffron robes), the ruling Buddhist authority, the Sangha, demanded Burma’s generals apologise for their treatment of monks and release the hundreds that remained behind bars.

The Sangha said if its demands were not met the junta, its soldiers and their families would face Pattanikkujana, the refusal by monks to accept alms from those considered to have violated Buddhist principles.

The junta did not apologise nor release the jailed monks, but rather began a campaign of harassment, jailed more monks and posted military intelligence officers to keep a close watch on monasteries considered liable to begin any insurrection.

At least 30 monks were arrested in Burma in September and October, the two-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution

These are not encouraging signs of an upcoming free and fair election.

As the Burma Army’s troops mass in the country’s north and, far from cowering, Burmese citizens prepare to do battle against their own “government’s” soldiers in the window of opportunity when torrential rains do not pummel the jungles, some countries talk of engagement.

Gentle persuasion will not work with a military regime that has taken Burma in little more than 50 years from the world’s largest exporter of rice to what Macquarie University’s Professor Sean Turnell now describes as an “undeveloping nation”.

The generals have ruined the economy while enriching themselves without taking a moment to ponder whether they might have got their economic model wrong.

Engagement would generally assume some modicum of trust among the interacting parties.

Either that or parties looking to engage have assumed that things can only get worse without some form of intervention.

In the next few months in Burma, things are going to get worse.

And Burmese citizens who have organised themselves into opposition blocs, employing tactics from outright violence to insistent diplomacy, and forged alliances despite their differences have sent their messages to the world.

The world stands warned.

ENDS

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www.danielpedersen.org

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

October 14, 2009

Unauthorised meetings with Burma’s ruling junta, the State Peace and development Council, in Rangoon and Naypidaw last year ensured Nay Soe Mya’s ouster from his father’s beloved Karen National Union and Karen National Liberation Army.

The KNU now regards him as a traitor and people who once thought of themselves as comrades-in-arms want nothing to do with him.

Better known as Tay Lay, the late General Bo Mya’s youngest son crossed into Thailand this month, driving a car with Thai registration plates, carrying a Thai passport and doing the rounds of his old stomping ground of Mae Sot, a town where whispers were exchanged in his wake.

He’s still got the same disarming grin and remains loose with the facts.

He’s stacked on weight around the gut, but sticks with his tight, black T-shirts that make clear he shares the broad shoulders of his famous father, the late General Bo Mya.

Tay Lay Mya likes to wear dark glasses, slip-on dress shoes, a nice cut of trouser and considers himself quite the ladies’ man.

Once a prominent figure in Karen circles, Tay Lay has now aligned himself with his uncle, former KNLA Brigadier-General Htein Maung.

Htein Maung was once KNLA Seventh Brigade commander, but absconded in 2006 amid allegations of multi-million baht theft.

Tay Lay has now joined Htein Maung’s ranks.

He brags about having taken 42 soldiers from KNLA Seventh Brigade’s 202 Battalion with him when he jumped ship to work with Naypidaw.

He’s a little more reserved when he admits he only got four from Sixth Brigade’s 201 Battalion, the hardcore crew that held onto the stronghold of Wah Lay Kee for months either side of the new year in the face of constant attacks.

“The Peace Council has a problem with the SPDC,” he says matter-of-factly, as he pulls up a plastic seat and orders a glass of milk at a Mae Sot cafe.

“Two months ago they [the SPDC] asked Htein Maung to fight the KNU.

“We have said we will not fight the KNU.

“We have been asked to change badges for an SPDC insignia, some DKBA [the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a KNU splinter group allied with the SPDC] commanders have agreed, some have not. We have not.

“Some of the leaders have said it would be considered a move against the Karen people,” he said.

Tay Lay said the current pressure from the SPDC for militia armies to “join the legal fold” and transform into “Border Guard Forces” backed by the SPDC was not working for the greater Karen community.

“The SPDC will order the border guard forces to fight the KNU,” he said.

The entity to which he is now aligned, the ambiguously-named KNU/KNLA Peace Council, has refused to fight the KNU and will not transform itself into a border guard force if that is a pre-requisite.

“But Htein Maung [the supreme KNU/KNLA Peace Council leader] has said we must control the borderline,” said Tay Lay.

Control of border territory relates directly to the Peace Council’s interest in trade with Thailand.

It seems this is not an area where conflict with the KNLA is likely anyway.

KNLA Special Warfare Branch chief, Brigadier-General Saw Hsar Gay, earlier this month said border fighting was not on the KLNA’s agenda, regarding it as an expensive waste of ammunition.

The KNLA’s intention is to move deeper inside Burma, he said.

So it would seem the Peace Council and the DKBA will have the border to themselves – and have to sort out who takes what cut on which deal, a potentially messy business.

Peace Council members are widely regarded within the KNU as money-grabbing opportunists.

And the SPDC has reinforced this view, rewarding their desertion with revenues from Thai-Burma border trade, showering them with “gifts” and essentially giving them their own carriage on the junta’s gravy train.

“We are close to the SPDC, but don’t agree with everything they say,” Tay Lay said of the Peace Council.

He, for one, has done well out of his shift from the KNU.

He shows me snapshots of his three new homes in Burma and says he now owns 12 vehicles, one a jeep with an M-60 machine-gun mounted on top.

For the record, the American-designed M-60 is capable of firing 550 7.62mm rounds per minute.

But, according to its own leaders, the Peace Council is not in conflict with anyone.

Tay Lay says he is now in the jade business, teaming up with SPDC vice chairman Maung Aye’s sister-in-law, selling jade internationally.

“We’re working together, she came to me and asked how she could help,” he said.

Tay Lay carries two passports, Thai and Burmese, and has homes at To Kau Ko, Myawaddy and Rangoon, but says he doesn’t live in Rangoon because he’s not really sure how the SPDC feels about him and worries they may assassinate him.

Much of Tay Lay’s cash comes from the Myawaddy-Mae Sot and Shwe Kokko-Kokko tax gates.

“We’re also planning a new road to To Kaw Ko,” he said, and quickly sketched a map showing To Kaw Ko directly west of Mae La refugee camp, across the dividing Dawna Mountain Range.

The sketch showed a rough square, bordered by Myadwaddy on the Moei, Kaw Ka Klae to the west, To Kaw Ko to the north and Mae Lae in the east.

This is apparently Tay Lay’s patch.

He said he personally commanded 1,800 men, the Peace Council’s Company One, which he described as a “special company”, comprising Battalions 709, 708, 37 and 777.

This flies in the face of KNLA Colonel Nerdah Mya’s (Tay Lay’s older brother) estimates of the Peace Council’s strength.

“They have about 300 men,” he said earlier this year.

Tay Lay said the major difference between the Peace Council and the SPDC and its ally, the DKBA, was that the Peace Council’s prime motivation was helping the Karen people, whereas the DKBA and SPDC thought about making money first.

“The schools are not good, they need to be helped first,” he said.

“The villages get 20,000 kyat a month from the SPDC, that’s not even enough for food.”

He said donations such as that from World Vision, which he claimed on September 27 donated books to a school in Karen State amid much fanfare, were welcome additions to sparse resources.

He said the Peace Council wanted to establish offices in Mae Sot, Thailand, “for the Karen people”, that could help administer aid distribution and trade deals over the other side of the border.

Cash doesn’t seem to be a problem for Tay Lay and just before he left to return to Myawaddy he said he intended to buy a helicopter.

But where would he buy a helicopter from?

“From the Thais of course,” he said, mocking me as if I were a fool for not realising the Thai military did deals with outlaw businessmen aligned to Burma’s military junta.

And for how much?

“Four hundred and fifty thousand baht, it’s an old one,” he said.

“I’ll only fly it once, but I want to fly over Nerdah’s house.”

Tay Lay said his motivation for buying a helicopter was “a show of strength in the face of the SPDC”.

Asked about Tay Lay’s hopes to buy a chopper, Colonel Nerdah simply laughed and said he cannot buy a helicopter”.

“He’s a businessman now, he just comes over the border to see his family,” he said.

Tay Lay’s wife and children live in Khamphaeng Phet.

ENDS

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Special Warfare Branch to strike deep, hit strategic targets

MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

October 15, 2009

When two explosions rocked the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army compound in the middle of the night, destroying a bulldozer and excavator, the Karen National Liberation Army’s Special Warfare Branch headed for the hills.

It was a rude post-midnight awakening for the DKBA soldiers of Brigade 999, but they quickly assembled a pursuit team.

And they struck out from Ta-ah Tah village, straight up into unforgiving terrain of the Dawna Mountain Range.

They had been hit by a KNLA strike deep behind the lines, a tactic favoured by Karen National Union Vice President David Thackrabaw, and they knew there would be hell to pay for destruction of such expensive machinery.

It is not the first such strike and will not be the last.

The Special Warfare Branch, headed by Brigadier-General Saw Hsar Gay, says this is the result of a new warfare doctrine, using small teams and hitting strategic targets.

The targets are of such value that the teams know hot pursuit will follow and prepare in advance to create a matrix of booby traps that will inflict maximum injury and death on their pursuers.

Some of the key weapons of these matrices are Claymore-style, directional anti-personnel mines, bounding and stake mines.

Brig-Gen Hsar Gay said these weapons were all detonated at the time of engagement, and so proved no danger to the civilian population later on and technically weren’t considered landmines.

“They are triggered either by remote control, electric trigger or a tripwire and, provided strict technical specifications are followed, can be manufactured anywhere.

“They represent the premium defensive weapons as small demolition squads withdraw under fire, or a lethal ambush weapon where a handful of men can hit entire enemy columns without expending ammunition.

“There’s also the benefit of the low risk of casualties,” he said.

These tactics will be spread throughout KNLA battalions.

“It is important to standardise construction of all our boobytraps,” said Brig-Gen Hsar Gay.

“Wherever they are assembled they must be identical, so that performance is streamlined and training and user manuals don’t differ.

“That means our special warfare soldiers can move between battalions and brigades and train others.

“Stealth communications and night warfare are also part of our new doctrine, but implementing these across the force means forming a centralised, homogenous programme using the same hardware, so battalions can carry out very similar coordinated operations, even if they are hundreds of miles from each other.

We’ve changed tactics, out of necessity we must make our weaknesses our strengths,” said Brig-Gen Hsar Gay.

“It’s quite contrary to previous doctrines, where we [the KNLA] wasted a lot of ammunition engaging the enemy in firefights.

“We created the section in 2001 and have since used it to pioneer new tactics that will be employed increasingly in the field by all of our troops,” he said.

“These are unorthodox tactics – behind-the-lines missions and Claymore ambush warfare – that are ideally suited to our outgunned army.”

“The Americans used these tactics as part of their ambush doctrine during the Vietnam War, but only as an ambush initiator, followed by a lot of small arms and machinegun fire, or even heavier weapons.

“But in Karen State we’re doing the opposite – the Claymores, stake and bounding mines are the main weapons and small arms fire is used only for self-defence or if the opportunity to seize enemy weapons and equipment presents itself and covering fire is needed,” he said.

“Our Second and Third brigades are using special warfare tactics with great success, particularly multiple Claymore and boobytrap withdrawals, that’s why the SPDC casualty figures are so high in those brigades.

“But now Sixth Brigade and Seventh Brigade are becoming more capable.

“We’ve trained NCOs [non-commissioned officers] and specially-selected soldiers from most brigades, but the better the tactics are understood by battalion and brigade commanders, the more easier and effective implementation is.”

While the logistical benefits are fairly obvious – the potential loss of life is minimised using small teams, valuable ammunition is preserved and premium weapons carried – there are also direct political benefits.

Earlier this year, frustrated by border warfare marked by shelling and heavy machine-gun fire, Thai authorities ordered leaders of the Karen National Union and its armed wing, the KNLA, off Thai soil.

Things had got out of control and pressuring the side perceived to be weaker – the KNU – was identified as the quickest solution to calm the border region and facilitate trade.

The DKBA, allied with the Burma Army and pitched against the KNLA, was running rampant up and down the border, launching attacks against the KNLA from Thai soil and terrorising Thai villages thought sympathetic to the KNU.

The KNLA tactics of small teams trekking through the jungle for days with one target in mind and avoiding fighting on the borderline will ease relations with the Thais as the matter will be considered an “internal affair” for the Burmese to deal with, said Brig-Gen Hsar Gay.

“The border fighting creates the false impression the KNLA is supported from the other side [the Thai side] of the border.

“It’s important not to affect Thailand’s security interests,” he said.

“And it also shows the KNLA’s ability to fight the Burma Army deep inside areas they claim to control.”

The DKBA broke with the KNLA in the mid nineties, claiming religious persecution of Buddhists by the largely Christian leadership of the KNU.

From its days as a rag-tag bunch of deserters it has developed into a formidable military force.

The DKBA is also one of the few ethnic minority armies to agree with Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, and its proposal to form Border Guard Forces from disparate armies controlling areas of Burma.

However, the DKBA is not seen to have the loyalties of the greater Karen population.

Its submission to the will of the SPDC does not augur well with people hard done by for decades at the hands of the Burma Army.

There is little doubt a small band of KNLA specialists on the run from a larger unit of DKBA pursuers would be given sound advice on local conditions or a sock of rice by villagers in a bid to render their mission successful.

Such sentiments are not lost on DKBA foot soldiers.

And now, with their transformation into a border guard force, the DKBA are being issued with badges to be sewn into their uniforms bearing the motifs of the Burma Army.

This is creating dissension in the ranks according to one venerated retired KNLA soldier.

“The [DKBA] brigades are now operating independently of one another, doing what they wish, employing tactics of their own making, following allegiances held by their commanders,” he said.

At a clandestine meeting in Thailand, a commander of another breakaway military clique, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, said both the SPDC and DKBA had plans to attack a KNLA stronghold opposite northern Thailand, across the Salween River “as soon as the rain stops and things dry up”.

Tay Lay Mya, a son of former KNU general Bo Mya and a surprise defector from the KNLA earlier this year, said both the SPDC and DKBA had their sights set on KNLA Fifth Brigade in coming months.

The once-traditional time for major military offensives by the Burma Army is the dry season, which begins late in the year, about November, and continues through until April.

Both sides are now well-advanced in their preparations for heavy fighting.

One senior KNLA commander involved in these preparations predicted as many as 2,000 refugees Karen could flood out of Burma during the dry season as the battles ensue.

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OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

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Summary report

August 1 to 31, 2009

Between KNLA, SPDC and DKBA troops

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Restrictions fueling frustration, anger and violence

MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Umphang, Tak, Thailand

September 28, 2009

Trouble is brewing among the refugees of Burma’s war.

Stranded in northern Thailand, fed on rations donated by international community, unable to travel freely and not allowed to work, the populations of the camps strung out along Burma’s border are ready to blow.

Umpheim Mai refugee camp is on tenterhooks, with violence threatening to break out among residents at any time.

A football game on Saturday afternoon descended into crowd violence at game’s end, with gangs of young men attacking each other.

Some camp residents described it as a mini riot.

The current trouble started earlier this month, with a murder of a Burmese resident when he allegedly failed to pay for a cow he had already taken possession of.

When it became obvious he could not pay, the owner is said to have sought his money back, only to find the potential buyer had already slaughtered the beast.

A dispute escalated rapidly from a verbal stoush among two groups of men into physical violence.

Whatever ensued, the alleged “buyer” is now dead.

The camp, situated in Thailand’s in Tak province to the south of Mae Sot and officially home to about 15,000 people, spent months earlier this year on high alert and these latest events have done nothing to ease ethnic tensions.

Residents for months waited in anticipation of an attack by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a militia allied with the Burma Army, the armed wing of Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council.

Rumours ran wild that the remote camp would be destroyed, with much of the population packed up and ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

It only takes a rumour for a large group of isolated, traumatised people to react unpredictably to minor events.

Law and order in the camps has long been a taboo subject with Thai authorities, lumbered with policing communities that would not exist but for a grinding war of attrition in Burma’s ethnic minority-dominated north.

Thai authorities maintain stringent guidelines for allowing Burmese citizens to become part of the camps, requiring them to be fleeing fighting orchestrated by soldiers of the state.

Thai authorities do not recognise soldiers of the DKBA as soldiers of the Burmese state, creating a propensity by the Burma Army to use allied ethnic militias where it can, and paint the conflict as an ethno-centric struggle for power among rival warlords.

Economic migrants or those fleeing human rights abuses or forced labour do not qualify as refugees, inadvertently creating a vast pool of people who have quietly slipped over Burma’s borders and become part of an illegal workforce.

This workforce, satisfied to work for as little as half the wage of a Thai worker, is estimated by some organisations to number as many as two million.

But for those who do qualify as people who have literally run for their lives, containment in a refugee camp and the inability to achieve anything for themselves results in a frustrated existence.

In Umpheim Mai refugee camp on Saturday that frustration bubbled over into mob violence.

“Football is banned now,” said one refugee.

“And rumour from on high is that the Palat [Thai camp commander] may close the gates [put the camp into total lockdown].

“Things are not good, I’ve never seen it like this before, there is a definite vibe in the air,” said the refugee resident.

“Thai patrols through the camp are random now and the soldiers are clipped up and ready to go [carrying live ammunition in the event they have to quash a riot or mob violence],” he said.

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The Sangha has given Burma's junta an ultimatum or face the probability of a repeat of the 2007 Saffron Revolution - Photo: PPDD

Another Saffron Revolution could erupt if demands not met

People’s Partner for Democracy and Development

Anna Malindog

  Mae Sot, Thailand

September 30, 2009

A week from now, Burmese monks will again challenge the repressive regime in Burma and again demand from the Burmese military junta the following:

• A public apology for the atrocities the junta has committed against the monks
• The release of all monks now imprisoned

The Sangha has given the military regime an ultimatum: That by October 2, it must have delivered, granting these demands, or face the probability of a repeat of the 2007 Saffron Revolution protests on October 3.

Should the junta fail to meet the demands the monks will once again march and dominate the streets of Burma.

The lack of expectation on behalf of the monks has already led to preparations being made for the protests.

The monks have little doubt the junta will deny the people of Burma peace, freedom and democracy for as long as it can.

This is a battle of wills. The determination of the monks remains steadfast and they will act on behalf of Burma’s people.

The people’s dissatisfaction with decades of oppression will come to a head this week. The monks say they are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the people of Burma and intend to occupy streets in urban areas across the territory.

The monks ask for support for their aspirations and solidarity.

This is a conscious effort by the Sangha to facilitate changes in the country, It is a sacred mission and the deepest desire of the Burmese monks to free their country from the yoke of atrocities, brutality, and the bondage of a military regime.

The demand remains the same – peace and freedom for Burma.

The question for the international community is: How can it support the monks on October 3 and during the days following.

Rather than statements – mere words – it is time for action.

The monks face a hostile opponent in Burma’s generals.

It is now up to the world’s common people to demand peace, freedom and justice for Burma.

Anna Malindog is executive director of the non-governmental organisation, Peoples Partner for Democracy and Development.

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Two DKBA soldiers killed, two seriously wounded in daring operation

MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

September 29, 2009

A special KNLA squad, formed from Sixth Brigade’s 201 and 103 battalions, took construction machines out with two kilograms of TNT - Photo: Steve Sandford

The special KNLA squad, formed from Sixth Brigade’s 201 and 103 battalions, took the machines out with two kilograms of TNT.

The depot is on the western side of the southern reaches of the Dawna Mountain Range, about five days’ walk from the Burmese border town of Myawaddy.

KNLA forward scouts strapped the explosives beneath the engines and remotely detonated them at 1am on September 21.

Soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a militia allied with the Burma Army, gave chase after the explosions rocked their depot.

The KNLA soldiers evaded their pursuers, from the DKBA’s 907 Battalion, for more than two hours, and then led them into a claymore booby trap, killing two and seriously wounding another two.

The earthmoving machines were being used to build a new military road.

The D6 Caterpillar was estimated to be worth about three million Thai baht and the excavator two million baht.

They were the only two machines stationed at the depot.

DKBA Battalion 907 was instrumental in the offensive against KNLA Seventh Brigade during June and July this year that forced more than 5,000 Karen civilians across the Thai border.

Battalion 907 has since been deployed to the Sixth Brigade region.

The formation of a demolition squad specifically to destroy the machines would seem to be an extension of Karen National Union Vice President David Thackrabaw’s declaration earlier this year that the KNLA had to start operating “deep behind enemy lines”.

The KNLA has endured serious territorial losses in the past 12 months.

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Remnant population of KNU Seventh Brigade struggle on

MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

September 16, 2009

Despite their tough living conditions the children at the orphanage aren’t unhappy – they simply forge on.

Individual donors are starting to assist new refugees at Safe Haven Orphanage.

About 200 people have gathered on the grounds of Safe Haven, many of whom are children.

They fled Karen State, finally giving up their shaky hold on homes constantly in danger of attack, during an offensive by the Burma Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

The DKBA and Burma Army troops seemed determined to displace the majority of people living in the Seventh Brigade region, suspecting them of supporting Karen National Liberation Army soldiers somehow.

A child yet to be registered squats in the rain in July, after the main offensive thrust by soldiers of the DKBA and SPDC. A cluster of about 200 people found their way to the grounds of Safe Haven Orphanage after the attacks.

But much of the KNLA guerilla force left the area before the enemy arrived.

They left landmines behind them however, and many of the DKBA dead and wounded, which both numbered in the hundreds according to the KNU, fell foul of these booby traps.

But left in limbo were the civilians who lost their homes.

With no shelter at the height of the rainy season they trod up and down mountains, finally crossing the Moei River to relative safety in Thailand.

For now they are allowed to stay where they are, but the chances of establishing a new camp for between 5,000 and 6,000 people displaced is almost nil, because nowhere is secure along the border.

“Gloria”, biological mother to eight children with one on the way and the guardian of another two adopted kids, teaches a small class at Safe Haven.

DKBA are camped not far from Safe Haven, just over the other side of the river in view of anyone from the Thai side.

For now they have not attacked the camp and donors are providing the necessities of life, but mostly things that can be carried so all is not lost in the event of an attack.

More help is needed, mosquito nets and sleeping mats are most important.

Money is urgently needed to buy food and essential items for basic living.
This is an open appeal to anyone who can afford to help these people, victims of an ongoing campaign of genocide to force them from their home country.

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One DKBA captain killed, two SPDC soldiers wounded by landmines

MIZZIMA

Don Talenywun

  Mae Sot, Thailand

September 16, 2009

A former Karen National Liberation Army captain who defected to the Burma Army has been killed in an attack by his former battalion.

Captain Ta Baw, who defected to the Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council last year, was killed on Saturday September 5 during an ambush by soldiers of KNLA Sixth Brigade’s Battalion 201.

After the former KNLA commander defected to the SPDC earlier this year he was set to work with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

He retained his rank of captain.

Neither side considered his defection as being of any great significance.

He walked away from the KNLA alone and without a weapon, yet leaked intelligence to the DKBA and SPDC about Wah Lay Kee’s defences, 201’s former base camp, before it fell earlier this year.

Wah Lay Kee was lost on April 28 this year, when the KNLA pulled out after a 14-day siege that left many dead and scores injured.

Neither side lamented Captain Ta Baw’s death.

While he died during an ambush, he was killed by landmines – he stepped on one mine, then staggered onto another.

DKBA Captain Ta Baw died of blood loss in the field.

Two SPDC soldiers were also wounded in the same skirmish, one later dying.

The attack occurred in the Kanelay area of Karen State, in the mountainous area between Wah Lay Kee and Umphiem Mai refugee camp, to the south of Mae Sot.

Colonel Nerdah Mya, a KNLA commander, said the SPDC nor the DKBA would be sorry Ta Baw was dead.

“They don’t care,” he said.

“It’s just another dead Karen, better we die fighting each other in their eyes.”

Just out of the field this morning (September 14), Colonel Nerdah backed a claim made last week by Karen National Union Vice President David Thackrabaw that DKBA leaders were feuding.

“That’s right, they know that if the KNU is eliminated then they will be next,” he said.

“They’ve got to be smarter than that, surely.”

An anticipated attack on KNLA Fifth Brigade, near Mae Sariang, across the Moei River, has not yet occurred.

After the KNLA’s rapid defeat in Seventh Brigade, during June and July, commanders expected a rapid advance to Fifth Brigade.

It has not yet happened, but an attack on Fifth Brigade headquarter is expected soon.

That brigade is better armed than Seventh Brigade and morale is high.

Thackrabaw last week said Seventh Brigade was the KNLA’s weakest, still reeling after former Brigadier-General Htein Maung’s defection in 2006 to form the KNU/KNLA Peace Council.

Peace Council vehicles, once boldly emblazoned with the militia’s name, still move around Mae Sot, but have been stripped of all markings, some observers suggesting they too have fallen foul of Thai authorities.

Thailand early this year demanded all KNLA commanders and senior KNU figures leave safe havens in Thailand, upping the pressure on the ethnic army, that has in the past enjoyed cordial relations with senior Thai military figures.

But that was when the KNLA held much more territory.

These days the Thais deal with the DKBA.

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Peace walk for Burma

Dear All

Greetings from Maesot!

You are all invited to participate and join the Peace Walk for Burma. This will be on the 21st of September, 2009.

Please read the following information:

Purpose: To commemorate the International Peace Day. And pray for peace in Burma, Thailand and the world while commemorating the 18th of September 2007 peaceful monks protest in Burma.

Activities:

• 9:00am to 9:30am, 30 minutes of prayer (inter-faith payers led various spiritual and religious leaders).
• 9:30am to 11am, Walk from pagoda outside of Maesot check point to the City Park for some lunch and media interviews and other activities in connection to the Peace Walk.
• 1pm to 4pm, Walk around Maesot and to the border (Myawaddy Bridge). At the bridge the monks will lead the recitation of Metta Sutta and prayer for Peace by other religious leaders from various faiths.

The Calls for the Peace Walk:

• Peace in Burma: no to civil war
• No to nuclear enrichment in Burma

The Slogan of the Peace Walk:

“May all beings not fight each other… may all beings be happy and peaceful”.

If you need directions on how to get to the venue of the meeting, place call Raul at +66 (0) 847532671, he can help you get to the place and give you the right direction.

Please share this information to all.

Everyone is welcome to attend and to walk with monks. I am indeed encouraging everyone to be in solidarity with the Burmese Buddhist monks in their quest for the promotion of peace, justice and freedom for Burma, and we can all show this through our participation in the Peace Walk.

Hopefully, we will see you in the Peace Walk. Thank you.

If you have questions then you can directly contact Ashin Sopaka at +66 (0) 846683556 or email him at mettamail@gmail.com.

“May all beings not fight each other… may all beings be happy and peaceful”.

If you are not in Thailand or in Maesot, you can stage or organize a similar event in the place where you are to show solidarity and concern about the situation in Burma.

You can also issue statement that states solidarity to the said event and the cause by which the Peace Walk for Burma is based on.

you need further information, publicity materials, please let us know and we are more than happy to provide you with electronic copies of the poster, post cards, t-shirt designs etc. Thank you!

Let us promote the cause of the Burmese People: Peace, justice and freedom for Burma.

In Solidarity,

Peoples Partner for Development and Democracy (PPDD)

Mobile: +66 (0) 84 330 8550

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