Daniel Pedersen

Death, trade and tragedy dog a common people in uncommon circumstances

Don Talenywun

Mizzima

August 06, 2009

It was just another day for the surgeons at Mae Sot General Hospital, in Thailand’s north.

Overnight, on July 18, a dozen Democratic Karen Buddhist Army soldiers have arrived, allies of Burma’s ruling military junta.

They have all stepped on landmines across the Moei River on Saturday and on Sunday morning they were in Thai hospitals.

By afternoon the amputations have begun, and doctors dressed in ankle-length rubber splash coats carried around power tools that resembled small chainsaws.

Even the doctors have lost count of the mangled, discarded legs.

In little more than two weeks, from June 2 to June 19, 98 DKBA soldiers were wounded and 38 killed.

During the same period, just eight Karen National Liberation Army soldiers were wounded.

Yet DKBA soldiers are still arriving at Mae Sot General Hospital and the private Porvor Hospital.

The DKBA has money to pay the bills and at times armed guards have been posted outside Porvor Hospital, to protect the wounded inside from potential attacks.

There is no accurate overall count of how many DKBA or Burma Army soldiers have been maimed during this year-long offensive.

This is the human consequence of the State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC) push to clear border regions of ethnic fighters before next year’s planned elections.

What is left for them, to become beggars in Thailand, or go home disabled and discarded in one of the world’s least-developed countries?

The wounded DKBA soldiers were forward troopers of a 1,700-strong force that attacked the Karen National Union’s Seventh Brigade, to the north of Mae Sot.

The Burma Army brought up the rear and provided artillery support as the DKBA soldiers were forced to wage war against their brethren.

The KNU force, vastly outnumbered, withdrew from its bases and left the DKBA to wade into minefields surrounding the empty camps.

But the offensive, launched from Karen State’s capital Pa-an, has been successful in the eyes of Burma’s ruling generals.

As they made their way towards the border,the DKBA emptied 20 significant villages and sent more than 4,000 refugees fleeing into Thailand.

Video footage from the Free Burma Rangers medical outfit shows DKBA soldiers torching villages along the way.

The KNU believes all of the refugee camps along the border are under threat of attack and strict curfews have been put in place.

Internal KNU documents list as one of the main reasons the DKBA launched such a major offensive against the Seventh Brigade was to “gain a wider springboard for the export of illicit drugs and other illegal activities”.

At Well Driving Service, Mae Sot’s only vehicle rental firm, the owner has felt the pinch of the “other illegal activities”.

Two months ago a Thai national and a foreigner with a UK passport rented a four-door, 4WD pickup, never to be seen again.

The passport was fake and Well’s owner heard on the grapevine his vehicle, sub-let from a friend, had been floated across the Moei River, the border in these parts, on a bamboo raft and sold to the DKBA.

Now has has a million-baht bill to pay.

Such motor vehicle thefts are commonplace in and around Mae Sot.

The KNU says the border offensive also helped to divert attention, if only momentarily, from Aung San Suu Kyi’s drawn-out show trial in Rangoon.

Many international observers are hailing this offensive, which began in earnest on June 2, 2008, and has so far spanned two brigade regions, as the end for the KNU.

KNU Vice President David Thackrabaw dismisses this as alarmist, or merely grist for the propaganda mill fed by Burma’s military intelligence.

“We have been [experiencing] bad times for so long that this bad time is not so very different from all the others, some [people] have exaggerated, they are SPDC elements, even within our own ranks,” he said.

“Some of them even argue that we should cooperate, that with economic development, human rights and democracy will come naturally, we do not believe this.”

Mr Thackrabaw said Thailand had not done the KNU any great favours of late.

Earlier this year the Thai military ordered all KNU and KNLA leaders off Thai soil.

The KNU was a once favoured buffer force between Thailand and Burma.

But when a major base camp fell in April, the Thai Army ordered villagers – suspected KNLA soldiers living part-time on the Thai side of the border – to dismantle their homes and depart forthwith.

For good measure, the DKBA burned a couple down first.

Mr Thackrabaw puts the changing attitudes of the Thai military down to pressure from business interests on both sides of the border, opportunistic grabs for cash and incumbent cronies installed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

He says the Thai Army’s actions along the border do not reflect government policy.

Even Thai politicians admit the military has charted its own course since the government’s troubles began late in 2005, with mass rallies calling for Mr Thaksin to step down.

Mr Thackrabaw says Mr Thaksin’s policy prevails for now.

“That was Thaksin’s policy, to gradually snuff out the insurgency against the SPDC,” he said, to clear the way for cross-border trade.

Asked what he thought the Thai motivations were for Thailand to progressively make things harder for the KNU to operate along the border he said simply “so they can have business relations with Burma”.

He said Thailand was particularly interested in Burma’s unknown, but undoubtably plentiful, resources.

“You know they have never properly prospected, above ground of course we can make reasonable estimates [of what'[s there], but the military regimes and the SPDC have never had enough time, with the communist uprising and the ethnic uprisings to properly prospect.

“There are also some ideas that there will be contract farming on the other side of the border, but close to the border.

“It was a project and policy of the previous government . . . and I feel that that policy is still in force, because when there is a change in government, normally a change in authorities follow, of local authorities, but not immediately.

“So I think that policy still has momentum.

“According to that policy the refugees are to be repatriated to the other side of the border and employed in contract farming and the Thai businesses have agreed to buy everything that is produced, agricultural produce.

“[This includes] sugar cane, beans, rubber, palm oil, so it is a very large project and the present government is probably not very enthusiastic about it because of the global financial crisis, they don’t want to invest in this prevailing atmosphere.”

“But the SPDC wants to make Burma a market, even some European countries want to see this happen, according to their market ideology.”

Mr Thackbrabbaw said he felt the Thai stance was somewhat cynical, in that towns such as Mae Sot consisted of wealthy micro economies practically built on the cheap labour of Burmese workers.

This cynicism was rooted in the fact that if the SPDC was able to continually strike more deals with Thai authorities while the Thais made survival harder for the ethnic armies, economic migrants would continue to flood across the border.

He estimated cheap Burmese labour contributed about five per cent to Thailand’s annual growth.

“But then you must understand that the problems of economic migrants is very difficult [for Thailand] to try and stop.

“You can get a shop assistant for say, 2,000 baht a month in Mae Sot, but that translates to about 100,000 kyat in Burma, which is the equivalent of a general’s wage. A mid-ranking military official would get about 60,000 kyat, a university lecturer would only get about 50,000 kyat.

Asked if people would be able to live well on that amount he said “not very well, but anyhow, you can live, perhaps you can even save – in Burma.

“Labourers [in Thailand] send about half of their earnings home to Burma, to their parents, or their brothers and their sisters to help support them.”

He said now the SPDC was looking to get its hands on a slice of that foreign income and would manage that with Thai assistance.

“Now they’re trying to make it official, so workers have to pay income tax.

“They will have to get a sort of passport to be able to work in Thailand.”

So did that mean they would be paying tax to both Thailand and Burma?

“Yes, Thailand’s will be an indirect tax and Burma’s direct, like an income tax.

“But this is not Thailand’s fault, any country with a large migrant workforce has the same problems, they have health problems, social problems, say they [a migrant worker] suddenly becomes unemployed, they might resort to petty crime for their survival so they [countries such as Thailand] have to prepare for that.”

But it seems change is brewing within the ranks of the DKBA.

Mr Thackrabaw says the DKBA was promised administration of Karen State when it split from the KNU in 1994, but today finds itself being used as a slave militia.

KNU intelligence agents and defectors report DKBA soldiers are constantly fed amphetamines, as many as 40 pills a day for frontline troops, possibly accounting for their massive casualties.

There are indications the DKBA leaders know they have been duped.

A letter of regret allegedly penned by a DKBA leader and distributed in refugee camps on the Thai side of the border apologised to the Karen people for the “black spot in Karen history” that the DKBA constituted.

It ended urging the KNU on to victory.

Defections in July by 70 DKBA soldiers and members of another splinter group working with the junta, known as the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, further suggests dissatisfaction within the ranks.

On July 9 and 10 the soldiers surrendered themselves to the KNLA’s Sixth Brigade, bringing with them 59 assault rifles, an M-79 grenade launcher, seven carbines, four pistols and 15 radios.

Among the defectors were two DKBA captains, a lieutenant-colonel and a colonel.

After debriefing and recuperation they may fight with the KNLA.

Sixth Brigade was hit hard last June at the top of the wet season and again in early January this year, forcing the withdrawal from two major base camps, that of 103 Special Battalion and 201 Battalion’s Wah Lay Kee stronghold.

The weapons, probably more welcomed than the men, are helping Sixth Brigade to rebuild, said one of its commanders, Colonel Nerdah Mya.

“They said the SPDC had ordered them to fight us and they no longer want to, so they organised themselves and defected as one group over two days,” he said, taking time out from overseeing construction of a new base camp.

Mr Thackrabaw said defecting soldiers were mostly so strung out on drugs they would be no use in the field until they had weathered a detoxification and rehabilitation programme.

And even then they might not recover, he said.

One of the reasons these men have become so disillusioned is their leaders’ agreement to transform from an army to a border security force.

That, argue many DKBA soldiers, means they are nothing more than a private security force for the much-loathed SPDC.

This is the SPDC’s ultimatum to ethnic armies still fighting in Burma’s interior: Join us before the 2010 elections and re-enter “the legal fold”, or we will obliterate you.

Despite the Thai military’s pro-Thaksin hangover, there appears to be a softening in light of the Seventh Brigade offensive.

In the last week of July another 500 people landed at a temple over two days near Mae Salid, in Tha Song Yang district.

More are spilling over irregularly as the DKBA seeks to forcibly increase troops numbers.

The Thai authorities are already pulling their hair out trying to find somewhere secure to place all of the refugees who have fled their homes since early June.

The total number of people who have desperately sought safe havens in Thailand is now more than 5,000.
International agencies are ready to care for them, but a coordinated approach is needed and having the population in one place makes that far easier.

One location, the deserted Eden Valley Academy School, offered vacant buildings with concrete slabs, roofs and walls, Agencies felt that with some sanitation work, expansion and construction of a pedestrian bridge a focal point – a new camp – as many as 2,300 people could be cared for indefinitely at the site.

That would take the number of camps along the border to 10.

In principle Thai authorities have agreed with the concept, but finding somewhere safe from DKBA attack is proving a challenge.

Where along the border can security be guaranteed and the site can accommodate such a massive influx of refugees? That is the problem facing Thai authorities.

But the KNU’s David Thackrabaw believes that the very fact Thai authorities are considering new sites suggests a softening in the formerly hard-edged attitude to distressed and dislocated Karen villagers from Burma.

“I think they are becoming more sympathetic to these refugees, they understand that it is not just because of fighting these people are leaving, that there are human rights abuses and an ethnic cleansing policy [in place across the border].

“I think Thailand is beginning to understand these people have to take refuge in Thailand for their very survival.

“It’s a scorched earth policy, burning down crops, burning down houses, these are not just human rights abuses, they are crimes in anyone’s terms and they are perpetrated by the SPDC and they use the DKBA to commit these crimes as well
“So the Karen population, the civilian population cannot survive [inside Burma].

“These are crimes, crimes against humanity,” he said.

ENDS

 

The misery of an unfortunate birthplace

Dan Pedersen

July 30, 2009

More than 200 people are living in pitiful conditions at the Safe Haven Orphanage on the Thai-Burma border.

About three quarters of them are newly-arrived refugees forced across the border by a rapacious campaign of forced recruitment into the armed forces of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, allies of Burma’s ruling military junta.

Most of them are children.

They live under thin plastic sheeting suspended over festering mud puddles alive with mosquitoes and larvae.

Until recently many of the children were suffering from malaria, but the Thai Public Health Ministry treated them.
But that does not stop new infections.

Water for the settlement is drawn from the Moei River, just below its confluence with the Salween River.

Both rivers are churning after two weeks of almost continuous rain and with no chemical treatment or filtering process for drinking water, the children are falling foul of all manner of ailments.

“One little girl has worms in her brain,” said an exasperated 25-year-old Brazilian woman who volunteered to teach English when she saw the already-poor conditions the children were enduring.

And that was before more than 150 more turned up.

Natcha Kehapeerasit, the displaced former principal of a school in Burma’s Karen State, is heavily pregnant but continues teaching her pupils who have come with her across the river.

“We have made a new school,” she says rubbing her belly as rain streams off the thatch roof of her tiny new home and gesturing to some bamboo poles holding up sheets of blue and white striped plastic.

Natcha says the children will likely call this place home until March 2010, when another school year ends.

Asked what is needed she replies simply: “Food, something to write with and notebooks.”

There is no mention of qualified teachers or extra clothing and the food requirements she reels off are simply rice, fish paste, salt and dried chillies, “because Karen people, they love chillies very much”.

What about sugar?

“No we don’t need sugar,” says Natcha firmly, “we have no need for it”.

There is no spare ground at the orphanage – rocks that jut from the earth and are too big to dig up take up the only space not occupied by people.

There is a narrow access track that winds through the rock outcrops.

It is in surprisingly good condition, but only because the myriad non-governmental organisations operating out of the nearest major town, Mae Sot, don’t come here.

“The Thailand-Burma Border Consortium gave us some of the plastic sheets,” said the Brazilian teacher, who washes in the river along with everyone else.

“But we haven’t seen UNHCR or anyone else like that, they just don’t come.”

About 45 minutes’ drive south, NGO 4WD vehicles adorned with logos from agencies the world over buzz in and out of Mae La refugee camp, delivering supplies and tending their particular projects.

Many refuse to cooperate with others when it comes to coordinating delivery of aid, insisting on delivering it personally.

The end result of such recalcitrance is duplication in some instances, while the children at Safe Haven Orphanage sleep with the mosquitoes, don’t have enough to eat and drink muddy water.

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.

ENDS

Villagers flee as DKBA attempts to press local population into military service

Don Talenywun

July 29, 2009

Whether more than 4,000 displaced villagers from Burma will be able to return home in the near future lies in the hands of the armies locked in battle in Karen State, says the latest situation report from an international agency.

Penned on July 23, the report’s author said another 200 people had fled into Thailand in the 24 hours before the report was written.

Reports from other sources suggested more than 400 people had crossed the Moei River in the 48 hours before that.

Behind this exodus is a push by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, an allied militia of Burma’s ruling military junta, to upsize to become a private border security force for Burma’s State Peace and Development Council.

The DKBA is looking to bolster troop numbers from 3,000 to 6,000 to fulfill its obligations to the SPDC according to a new agreement recently signed.

To gain these numbers a campaign of forced recruitment has begun in the Karen National Liberation Army’s Seventh Brigade region, which the DKBA and SPDC now control.

Villagers want no part of fighting with the DKBA, but many cannot afford to pay the cost of avoiding conscription and so they flee.

The KNLA abandoned significant, long-standing base camps in Seventh Brigade, separating into small bands of guerilla fighters, because its soldiers did not want to fight their own people.

The base camps no doubt would have been taken by the DKBA/SPDC alliance anyway, but more lives would have been lost.

As it stands most injuries, in the hundreds, and deaths, perhaps totaling more than 100 throughout the campaign’s duration, have come as a result of landmines.

All sides in this theatre of war use landmines.

Even the DKBA, which wants to draw on the human resource pool currently languishing in Thailand, has told Thai authorities it is not safe for civilians to make their way home because there are too many landmines.

Most of the newly-arrived refugees are in the Tha Song Yang region, to the north of Mae Sot.

The Tha Song Yang District Committee – consisting of district officials, border police, the military and UNHCR officials – has now decided to leave people where they are, in six relocation sites close to the Moei River, until the end of the wet season.

That makes it harder for non-governmental organisations to properly supply those dislocated people with emergency rations and does not take into account small clusters of people who have not gravitated to those six main sites.

Thai authorities are reticent to allow a new camp to be established – something major NGOs want – because it will add to civil administration duties, the military cannot ensure security and, as a nation, Thailand would have to acknowledge the Burmese junta is waging war against its own people.

ENDS

 

Battle report

June 1 to 30, 2009

Between KNLA and SPDC army troops

KNLA Areas	No. of clashes	SPDC		KNLA
				Items captured				Lost
		KIA	WIA	KIA	A-Rifle			Hand grenade
Bde-1	-	-	-	-	-			-
Bde-2	9	9	20	-	-			-
Bde-3	-	-	-	-	-			-
Bde-4	5	11	15	-	1			-
Bde-5	40	17	30	-	-			-
Bde-6	2	5	4	1	-			6
Bde-7	9	13	26	-	-			-
GHQ	4	1	4	-	-			-
Total	69	56	99	1	1			6

 

Between KNLA and DKBA troops

KNLA Areas	No. of clashes	DKBA			KNLA
					Items captured
		KIA	WIA	Surrendered	WIA	M-16	RPG-7	Rfl rounds
Bde-1	1	1	1	1	-	1	-	100
Bde-2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bde-3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bde-4		-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bde-5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Bde-6	1	1	1	2	-	1	1	114
Bde-7	59	100	218	-	8	-	-	-
GHQ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	69	102	220	3	8	2	1	214

 

Note:

Of the KNLA wounded in Bde-7 in actions against the DKB , 6 were due to accidents.

• Among the enemy KIA in Bde-2 were one brigadier general and one Bn commander
• In Bde-4, among the enemy KIA were one sergeant major and 3 sergeants
• In Bde-6, 3 DKBA trucks hauling rice were destroyed
• In Bde-7, among the DKBA WIA were one company 2IC, one 2nd Lt. & one corporal. Among the SPDC troops KIA was one sergeant. Among the WIA were one sergeant and one corporal

Abbreviations:
Bde = Brigade; GHQ = General Headquarters; MA-1, MA-2, MA-3, K-3 etc. = Myanmar Army assault rifles, designed by China and manufactured by SPDC; T-ceiver =Radio transceiver; M-79 = 40 mm grenade launcher of US origin; LM G = Light Machine Gun; AK = Assault rifle of Russian origin; RPG=Rocket-propelled Grenade Launcher; M-16 = Assault rifle of US origin; Bn = Battalion; Coy =Company; 2 IC = Second in Command; Maj. = Major; Capt.= Captain; Lt. = Lieutenant; 2nd Lt. = Second lieutenant; KIA = Killed in action; WIA = Wounded in Action.

Locations of KNLA Brigades:
Bde-1, Thaton District
Bde-2, Toungoo District
Bde-3, Nyaunglaybin District
Bde-4, Mergue-Tavoy District
Bde-5, Papun district
Bde-6, Kawkareik district
Bde-7, Pa-an District
GHQ Battalions, Kawkareik and Pa-an Districts.

ENDS

 

Senior commander allegedly expresses sorrow, claims militia duped by Burma’s military junta

Dan Pedersen

July 5, 2009

An open letter of sorrow and regret allegedly from a senior commander of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army is being circulated in Mae La refugee camp.

The letter, supposedly from Myaing Gyi Ngu and dated June 17, 2009, begs for forgiveness and understanding and issues a nation-wide apology to the Karen people.

It says the DKBA has been duped by the generals of Burma’s ruling military junta and its foot soldiers are now asking: “How can we say we support the four principles of Saw Ba U Gyi and fight for the Burma Army at the same time?”

Myaing Gyi Ngu says the DKBA leadership had no answer to this question for its soldiers.

He said the Burmese created the DKBA as a “religious army” and that should never have happened and constituted a “black spot in our Karen history”.

He goes further to say that what he is most ashamed of – working on the rationale that the DKBA is indeed a religious army – that it was unable to do anything to protect monks during the wholesale slaughter of September 2007.

“All people of Burma in the whole world were raising questions to us that why the DKBA, who were supposed to be for religion, couldn’t do anything to protect the religion and the monks?”

He said at the time the DKBA dared not show their faces and hid at home because they were supposed to be “for religion and the Karen people”.

But, putting aside even being “for Karen people” the DKBA “couldn’t even do anything to protect religion and monks while the Burmese Army was shooting them and killing them”.

He said the DKBA was even ordered to kill monks “if necessary”.

Myaing Gyi Ngu said he now knew why Mannerplaw (the former Karen National Union headquarters and stronghold lost in 1995) fell so easily.

“Later as I considered it, the KNU didn’t fight us because we are Karen; the fact is Karen didn’t want to kill Karen,” he wrote.

He said the DKBA was promised an independent state within a year of Mannerplaw falling.

“After that [promise] we, the DKBA, were conceited and proud of ourselves.”

But he said the promise was not fulfilled and instead DKBA leaders were given business opportunities and within Karen State it seemed like “we had the right to do whatever we wanted”.

As a result of this, he wrote, the Karen people learned about “gambling, began to use drugs and ran up debts of millions”.

He said much of the DKBA’s involvement in drug trafficking occurred under General Khin Nyunt (the former prime minister removed for corruption in 2004).

But he wrote the offer of becoming a border patrol force was a bitter pill to swallow and presented an excruciating choice for DKBA leaders.

He said what happened during Khin Nyunt’s time was well documented in the ruling generals’ intelligence files, with lists of names and activities.

So the DKBA had a choice: accept what the generals were offering or run.

He said the DKBA leaders were in big trouble.

“I am old. I am begging and apologise [but please] understand and forgive me.

The letter ended: “May the KNU and the Karen Liberating revolution have victory.”

Financial Times Burmese elite enjoy times of plenty

ENDS

Fear of attacks forces re-think

Don Talenywun

July 2, 2009

Plans to establish a new refugee camp near the Thai-Burma border to cope with an influx into Thailand of more than 3,000 people fleeing fighting in Burma have been abandoned.

Security concerns in the wake of the killing of a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander put paid to the plans for the new camp.

Colonel San Pyone, the DKBA’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999, died on June 26, when seven DKBA boats were attacked on the Moei River.

Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack.

The camp was to be in the Tha Song Yang region, at a place known as Ti Nu Koh, and built around the skeleton of an abandoned school.

But the Eden Valley Academy school’s proximity to the border, about 5km, and the fact there were two easy land approaches for DKBA troops meant the plan was shelved.

Attacks on civilians are anticipated in retribution for the DKBA commander’s death.

Because of the precarious security at Ti Nu Koh agencies responsible for critical infrastructure, food and clothing had asked the Thai Army to post armed guards around the old school should it be used as a temporary camp.

06Jul09 Update: Border Map & Populations (June 2009)

Thai security forces said they were undermanned, could not ensure security and recommended another site be considered.

All parties agreed to move the dislocated people into the massive Mae La refugee camp.

Anyone who wants to return home may do so, but Thai authorities will ask them to sign a form saying they have rejected refuge in Thailand of their own accord and have not been forced to leave.

This is to counter recent allegations of soldiers forcing those fleeing back across the border and to prove Thailand is willing to offer safe haven in a time of need.

An extreme Burma Army military offensive in the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade region has necessitated a rapid response from both Thai authorities and international agencies to deal with thousands of people forced over the border.

Karen village leaders, displaced along with their population, estimate more than 4,000 people have lost or fled their homes in recent weeks.

Free Burma Ranger video shot during the offensive shows DKBA soldiers torching schools and villages as they made their way towards the border, marked mostly in this region by the Moei River.

The headquarters of the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade, home to its 202 Battalion, has been abandoned and is now occupied by DKBA and Burma Army soldiers.

But a senior KNLA figure said the fight was far from over, claiming the abandonment of 202 headquarters was nothing more than a “tactical withdrawal”.

This has been a recurring tactic of the KNLA in recent times – to withdraw when severely outnumbered so as to live and fight another day.

Diagram of Academy [41kb]

 SPDC, DKBA offensive against KNU’s 7th Brigade

ENDS

Daniel Pedersen

July 2, 2009

One of Pado Mahn Sha’s alleged killers has met the same fate.

Former Karen National Union general secretary Pado Mahn Sha was assassinated on Valentine’s Day 2008 at his home in Mae Sot.

But who killed Colonel San Pyone, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999?

The Colonel, for whom arrest warrants had been issued by a Thai Criminal Court for his alleged part in Mahn Sha’s death, was shot to death on June 26 by parties unknown.

He was traveling in a military flotilla of seven boats.

Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack, which was apparently launched from both sides of the Moei River.

The prime suspects, of course, would be gunmen of the KNU.

But KNU vice president David Thackrabaw said the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, was not active in the area.

The attack occurred in KNLA Seventh Brigade region, an area recently ceded to the Burma Army and the DKBA.

Brigade 999 has a fearsome reputation among Karen villagers for forced recruitment, brutal treatment of its recruits and a murderous approach to the local populace.

But if the KNU did not kill San Pyone, then who did?

There is no motivation for the Thai Army to act in such a manner.

Some observers have suggested the Burma Army might have been behind the killing, citing a perceived need for the DKBA’s overseer to keep rogue commanders of its slave militia in line.

With the DKBA’s transformation into a border security force, senior military commanders will become increasingly irrelevant.

 SPDC, DKBA offensive against KNU’s 7th Brigade

ENDS

A human disaster is occurring and the world doesn’t seem to care.

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sariang, Thailand

People 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

Young mother, pregnant teenager victims of LIB 205 soldiers

Free Burma Rangers

Karen State, Burma

June 15, 2009

Two teenaged Karen women, one eight-months pregnant and the other a young mother, have been raped and killed by Burma Army soldiers. Naw Pay, 18, was eight months pregnant and Naw Wah Lah, 17, had a six month old baby.

The soldiers responsible are from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 205, led by Lieutenant Colonel Than Hteh and Captain Kyi Myo Thant.

These soldiers are taking part in the ongoing fighting around Ler Per Her IDP camp which is some 15 kilometers from where the rapes and murders happened.

When the soldiers arrived in Kwee Law Plo, Lu Pleh township, they found the men had already left because they were afraid of being forced to be porters for the army, making it easier for the soldiers to drag the women from their houses and rape and kill them.

On the same day, Burma army soldiers from LIB 81, led by Major Zaw Myint Oo and Captain Sein Toe Aung captured the Headman of Htee To Kaw village and five of his friends from Takreh township, Paan district. Where they are now is not known and some believe they may already be dead.

Every day five people from Htee To Kaw village are forced to work for the Burma Army, cooking food, carrying water and carrying up food and other supplies to the front line areas.

Hundreds have fled the villages near Ler Per Her in the last few weeks because of demands from the Burma Army and DKBA to be forced porters in support of the fighting.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) which fights alongside the Burma Army, has reportedly ordered villagers sheltering just across the border in Thailand to go back and live under their control. Some villagers reported they were afraid the DKBA will cross into Thailand and force them to go back.

On June 13 the DKBA captured the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) base of 21 battalion in Karen State the other side of the Moei River opposite Mae Salit village in Thailand. On June 15 the DKBA captured the KNLA bases of 22 and 101 battalions in Karen State opposite Noh Boh and Mae Plu in Thailand. The Burma Army and DKBA are expected to continue the attack on the KNLA 7th Brigade headquarters and the base of 202 battalion. Latest reports indicate Ler Per Her IDP camp is now under the control of the DKBA and Burma Army.

More than 600 people, mostly women and children are staying at Noh Bo temple, one of the seven sites where Karen IDPs from Ler Per Her and surrounding villages have fled to in Thailand.

 

The Free Burma Ranger’s (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human rights abuses, casualties and the humanitarian needs of people who are under the oppression of the Burma Army. FBR provides medical, spiritual and educational resources for IDP communities as they struggle to survive Burmese military attacks.

For more information, please visit www.freeburmarangers.org

ENDS

OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

June 15, 2009

1. The Mirror (Kyemon), the Burmese language newspaper and mouthpiece of the SPDC military junta, published a long statement issued by the SPDC Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that the EU Chairman’s statement was based on false information given by the insurgent groups.

2. Regarding the statement of the SPDC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have to say that the SPDC is attempting again, with barefaced lies, to mislead the international community. The SPDC fails to know that though the place where the attack took place is distant and hard for it to reach, the place just on the other side of the border is easily accessible to all the World media, with modern equipment of communication, at any time in any season.

3. The information the EU Chair based its statement on was gathered by professional and independent journalists of the Free World and personnel of the diplomatic missions, who release reports only after confirming the facts with all available sources. All the journalists present in the area easily learned the fact that the military attacks against the KNLA 7th Brigade are made by the combined forces of the junta and its ally, the DKBA. They knew even the details that the forces participating in the attacks were troops from DKBA Brigades 333, 555 and 999 and the SPDC army IB-88, LIB-202, LIB-203, LIB-205 and LIB-210, under the SPDC army Div-22.

4. The SPDC statement tried to play the worn out “due-to-colonial-divide-and-rule” card in its statement, in an attempt to place all the blame on colonialism for all the problems it has caused. All the problems in the country are due to extreme racism, militarism and feudal practices of all the regimes in power, starting from the time of independence, including the SPDC.

5. The immediate cause of the flight of thousands of Karen IDPs into Thailand for refuge is due to the lobbing of hundreds of heavy weapon shells a day by the SPDC troops, in and around areas where the Karen IDPs were hiding. The primary cause of the emergence of Karen IDP and refugees for many years has been the scorched-earth and ethnic cleansing policy of the SPDC, and widespread human rights violations by its troops.

6. In closing, we call upon the SPDC military junta and its ally, the DKBA, to stop perpetrating crime against humanity, genocide and war crimes, and widespread human rights violations, immediately, and start the process for the resolution of war and conflicts by peaceful means, as called for by the international community.

 

Central Executive Committee

Karen National Union

For further information contact -

• VP – Mobile: (66) 087 207 9296

• GS – Mobile: (66) 086 215 0367

ENDS

Karen leader explains reaction by Thai authorities

Office of the supreme headquarters

Karen National Union

Kawthoolei

June 12, 2009

During the past several days the Burma Army has intensified attacks on villages in central Karen State, eastern Burma. Villagers have been forced to flee their homes, thousands remain displaced and many are trying to seek refuge in Thailand. KNU vice president David Thackrabaw comments on “the business” behind this human catastrophe.

“ We received a letter without a letterhead and without a signature”, said Thackrabaw.

“It appears, well it says it’s from Taskforce Four, so we take it as unofficial.”

“But to be on the safe side, most of the KNU leaders have gone back to their own side, to their own side of the border.

“Those few that remain are here for medical reasons,” he said.

Q: What sort of stock did you put in that recommendation considering there was no letterhead and there was no signature?

A: “Well I think the local Thai authorities came under pressure from the Burmese regime and also I think the local Thai authorities came under pressure from the business people, they want to maintain good trade relations.

“I think the business [community], or military, on the other side complained about the KNU presence in Mae Sot town.

“But we removed them all and all are operating on the other side of the border.”

Q: When you say business, would you consider them legitimate businesses?

A: “Yes, most of them are legitimate, say for instance exporters of textiles and other consumer goods and [that generates] a large income for Thailand. They are legal, and there are also some ideas that there will be contract farming on the other side of the border, but close to the border.

“It was a project and policy of the previous government led by Khun Thaksin (Shinawatra, the former prime minister deposed by military coup in 2006).

“And I feel that that policy is still in force, because when there is a change in government, normally a change in authorities follow, of local authorities, but not immediately.

“So I think that policy still has momentum.

“According to that policy the refugees are to be repatriated to the other side of the border and employed in contract farming and the Thai businesses have agreed to buy everything that is produced, agricultural produce.

“[This includes] sugar cane, beans, rubber, palm oil, so it is a very large project and the present government is probably not very enthusiastic about it because of the global financial crisis, they don’t want to invest in this prevailing atmosphere.

Q: When you say that Thai businesses have much to gain from cross border trade with Burma, why is it so heavily weighted towards profit for Thailand?

A: “Thailand is importing gas, from offshore gas fields and there is also logging of teak, now when they export they profit.”

Q: For Thailand to be generating such profits, would that mean there is a lack of equity on a global scale for product bought from Burma? Surely for Thailand to be able to sell it on at a profit they must be getting it very cheap from Burma?

A: “But they import a lot of gas, for instance all the taxis in Bangkok run on gas [so that may push the price down].

“I don’t know the exact details [of the Thai-Burma deal], but I think there may be [price] adjustment depending on the global conditions.

“But whatever, the junta is gaining large amounts of foreign exchange from gas exports.”

Q: You said before Taskforce Four, that’s a purely Thai unit?

A: Yes, it’s purely Thai, a detachment of the Third Army stationed at Mae Sot.

Q: And the Third Army, their territory stretches quite a way doesn’t it?

A: Yes, it goes all the way up to Mae Hong Son and in the south it goes as far as Kanchanaburi, it takes in much of the border line.

Q: With the current situation with the Thai authorities, do you think the civilian administration in Bangkok is aware of it.

A: No I don’t think they are aware of it, we think it is purely local.

Q: So it wouldn’t be policy as such?

A: No, not central policy, it’s a local policy.

Q: Do you think that indicates that perhaps the military and the civilian administration are going in different directions?

A: Yes, sometimes it is like that, but the military, like I said, sometimes it is influenced. But we have had people talk to the central administration and it is not central policy. And anyhow, in a country like Thailand, they have local authorities who have a lot of say in local matters.

Q: The building of this second friendship bridge, what do you think is the driving force behind that?

A: Well, because they have business so good, they want to build another bridge, that’s according to press reports. The one in existence is getting old so they want to have a new bridge and it’s going to pass through the DKBA camp not far from the border.

Q: And do you have any idea of the exact location?

A: Yes, it’s known as Koko and it’s about seven or eight miles downstream from the present bridge and remember the river flows from south to north in this area, the Moei River.

Q: Are there unofficial trade routes already established there.

A: Unofficial? Yes a few I think, but not a large trade volume, there are some banned commodities crossing in that area, I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but some suspect the DKBA is exporting to Thailand illegal drugs, like amphetamine. With that money they buy consumer goods and sell some of them to the people inside. By that I mean in the towns and cities, consumers.

Q: With the DKBA earning obviously large revenues from such illicit activities, how is the KNU faring?

A: The KNU on the other side is not engaged in those activities, so the KNU income is very small, very limited, we have a few mining activities, a few logging activities and cross-border trade tax, or duties, is not much.

Q: Do you have any tax gates?

A: Yes a few.

Q: Are they arranged with the Thais?

A: No, not with the Thais, it’s on our own soil, not on the Thai side, so it’s quite free.

Q: What sort of percentage of tax is applied to, say, timber coming across?

A: Timber, it depends on timber sales and whether the KNU gets the sale, and the money from the sale as a revenue and a small tax that goes with that.

Q: Does the SPDC get any of that tax?

A: In some areas, yes, [not KNU areas] the DKBA share with the SPDC, because the DKBA are involved in logging, so the DKBA pays something like half of it [their profits] to the SPDC troops in the area. It’s more local than national.

Q: Have you heard that in some cases the DKBA might hold back those payments, in a bid to set up their own developments?

A: No the DKBA is heavily dependent on the SPDC, they are like SPDC puppets and they are levying tax on logging, they are working for the SPDC.

Q: What about talk of these attempts – not from you but from [Colonel] Nerdah – to reconcile the DKBA, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council and the KNU?

A: (Laughs) Well I think it’s not very realistic because the Peace Council as well as the DKBA, they’re puppets, total puppets of the SPDC. They have very little independence and probably the DKBA and the Peace Council believe, there are some rumours going on that the KNU, it is so weak.it is ready to make ceasefire or to surrender like them. They are defectors, they are traitors to the KNU. Partly this is because they are weak in their thinking, they don’t have a revolutionary ideology. All they have is their money and their business, whereas the KNU struggle is for the Karen people. It is not for the KNU officials or for the KNU as an organisation. Our struggle is for the freedom of the Karen people and their rights. In other words the KNU struggle is for a just peace. There are kinds of peace that are still totally controlled by the SPDC. It is a peace of no military clashes, but they are not free to protect their own people. They are not free to do anything good for their own people.

They are working for the SPDC. And if the SPDC no longer wants them, then they must do as the SPDC bids them to do. First the SPDC will try to disarm them, because they will see that they are no better than a militia organization, so they will try to disarm them and then reform them as a border security force or something like that. That is what the SPDC is trying to do now, and some lower-ranked people have come to realise that they have been duped by the SPDC, so they want to come back, a large number want to come back. They want to come back to rejoin the KNU, but we will have to see.

Q: So how do you feel about one of your own going around and attempting to reconcile these disparate groups, would reconciliation be welcomed?

A: If it is not controlled by the SPDC, then of course we shall see what is best. But mostly they want to do business, especially the peace council. The so-called peace council want to do business and they are afraid of the KNU attacking them. We try to let them know that they have been duped. Only a few at the top are benefiting by defecting to the SPDC side. And if they don’t come back then we have to hit them, we will have to fight them one day, because they are working for the SPDC.

Q: Do you think it might be a little early to be talking about reconciling with Htin Maung, in the grander scheme of things it wasn’t that long ago he split?

A: He is corrupt, he absconded with a lot of money, the district’s money, the brigade money and income from logging, he absconded with it.

Q: So are these wounds too fresh to be considering reconciliation?

A: Yes it’s too early – he should have been hanged in the first place for his treachery to the cause of the Karen people. And even if there is a real change of heart, he should be tried.

Q: So I guess there would still be elements within the KNU who would be out for blood. Does that mean talk of reconciliation is a little premature?

A: It was a plan by the SPDC. It was all planned by the SPDC to sow dissension, to divide the KNU. This is my personal opinion, if there is overture then the EC [KNU executive council] will have to decide. There will be a collective decision about whether we should talk or not talk. This is serious. There has been a lot of open defiance of the elected leadership of the KNU.

Central Executive Committee
Karen National Union

For further information contact -

VP – Mobile: (66) 087 207 9296

GS – Mobile: (66) 086 215 0367

ENDS

OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

KAREN NATIONAL UNION

KAWTHOOLEI

June 12, 2009

1. The Karen National Union welcomes the statement by the European Union of 11th June 2009, calling on the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to refrain from seeking military solutions against ethnic minorities, and to respect international humanitarian and human rights law.
2. The KNU believes that the situation in Karen State and other ethnic states is a serious crisis that has been ignored by the international community for far too long. The situation warrants international intervention, including by the European Union and United Nations Security Council.
3. The new military offensive against our people should be halted immediately, and Burmese Army’s soldiers should withdraw from Karen state.
4. The KNU repeats its call for the SPDC to enter in genuine dialogue. The KNU stands ready to enter into such dialogue at any time.
5. The KNU is a democratic organisation committed to human rights and democracy in Burma. We are working towards a Federal Burma where all people live in peace, democracy and harmony.

Central Executive Committee

Karen National Union

For further information contact -

VP – Mobile: (66) 087 207 9296

GS – Mobile: (66) 086 215 0367

ENDS

Attacks continue on Karen in Ler Per Her refugee camp area

Free Burma Rangers

Karen State, Burma

June 12, 2009

Villagers continue to flee and thousands remain displaced as attacks intensify against Karen villagers and resistance in Pa-an District, central Karen State, eastern Burma.

Seven mortars fired by the Burma Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) landed in Thailand on June 8 and 9 according to reports received by the Free Burma Rangers.

On June 8 three mortars landed close to Ta Zu Nya, opposite a position held by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the resistance force of the Karen National Union (KNU). Four landed close to Mae Salik village in Tha Song Yang province, Tak district, western Thailand on June 9.

 

Key Developments

• Villagers continue to flee and thousands remain displaced as attacks intensify against Karen villagers and resistance in Pa-an District
• Mortars fired by the Burma Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) landed in Thailand on June 8 and 9
• Intensity of fighting at the frontline increased on June 12 in the KNLA 21st battalion area

 

The fighting at the frontline increased on June 12 at 8:30am to 9:30am at the KNLA 21st battalion area (opposite Mae Salik village). The Burma Army and DKBA continuously mortared the area and are reportedly planning to attack KNLA 22 and 101 battalion areas opposite Mae Salik. Some 200 mortars landed in the areas under attack. 60mm, 75mm and 32mm shells were fired.

On June 11, the Burma Army and DKBA attacked the KNLA 22 and 101 battalion areas at 1:25pm and rained 20 mortars on the area. The KNLA resisted this attack and drove them back a short distance. The DKBA Special Tactical Command led by Ner Kha Mwe brought up more soldiers for continuing attacks on this area.

In total there are reported to be some 3,521 people who have fled across the border to U Thu Hta, Noh Bo, Mae Salik and Mae Salik Noi (Kray Hta) in Thailand as a result of the fighting.

The attacks on Ler Per Her and the surrounding area began on June 5 with most leaving Ler Per Her Internally Displaced People camp by June 7. On June 9, 12 more families arrived in U Thu Hta, bringing the total at that location to 1,410. They are from Mae La Ah Kee, Mae La Ah Hta, Per New Pu, Wa Mee Kla and Pyo Pawan Lay.

Relief efforts are being coordinated in Thailand by the Karen Refugee Committee with assistance from FBR, Partners Relief and Development and other NGOs. FBR and Partners have sent in clothing, medical supplies, food and blankets. The Thailand Burma Border Consortium has also provided food, shelter, cooking implements, blankets and other relief supplies to those displaced.

Karen villagers fleeing from Ler Per Her

Medicine is also being provided by some Thai authorities in cooperation with medical treatment by Karen medics. Thai soldiers have also provided 100 tarps to the displaced people.

The KNLA are deploying 101, 22, 21, 202 battalions and soldiers from the 7th Brigade Headquarters.

The Burma Army battalions involved are Light Infantry Division 22 of Tactical Operations Command 222, Light Infantry Battalions 201, 202, 203, 205, 210 and Infantry Battalion 81. LIBs 338 and 339 remain at their base camps. (There are ten battalions in each Military Operations Command with usually only seven deployed. There are ten battalions in each LID and approximately 120 to 150 soldiers in each Burma Army battalion).

The DKBA, a proxy army of the Burma Army, is deploying 333 Brigade led by Mg Kyi, 555 Brigade led by Pya Pya and 999 Brigade led by Pah Nwee. In these attacks, Mg Chi Thu is the tactical commander. The DKBA is armed with 61mm, 81mm, and 82mm mortars, and .5 machine guns. The aim of the DKBA is to displace villagers who resist their control, control additional territory and crush KNU resistance in their areas.

 

The Free Burma Ranger’s (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human rights abuses, casualties and the humanitarian needs of people who are under the oppression of the Burma Army. FBR provides medical, spiritual and educational resources for IDP communities as they struggle to survive Burmese military attacks.

For more information, please visit www.freeburmarangers.org

ENDS

Reprisals if soldiers’ demand for food in support of attack on refugees not met

Free Burma Rangers

Karen State, Burma

June 10, 2009

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which fights alongside the Burma Army, has threatened to shell Thai villagers if they do not supply food to them in support of their attack on Ler Per Her refugee camp. Noh Bo village is a few kilometers away from Ler Per Her camp on the Thai side of the Moei River.

The DKBA and Burma Army began an attack on Ler Per Her refugee camp on June 7, raining shells on the area around the camp. The DKBA made the threat to shell Noh Bo villagers after beginning shelling in Burma opposite Noh Bo at 8am on June 8.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which fights alongside the Burma Army, has threatened to shell Thai villagers if they do not supply food to them in support of their attack on Ler Per Her refugee camp. Noh Bo village is a few kilometers away from Ler Per Her camp on the Thai side of the Moei River.

On June 7, DKBA soldiers also launched an attack on the KNLA 7th Brigade Headquarters opposite Mae Salik in Tak Province north of Mae Sot. The DKBA and Burma Army soldiers have reinforced at Mae Tha Waw and are expected to continue attacking.

Partners Relief and Development and Free Burma Rangers are providing help to some 3,521 refugees who have fled the camp at Ler Per Her. They are supplying food, clothes, plastic, tarps and mosquito repellant. Villagers who have fled are particularly facing problems with malaria, Acute Respiratory Infections and diarrhea.

24 soldiers from the Burma Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army have been killed or injured in the fighting. In three days of fighting, no casualties have been reported among the Karen National Liberation Army soldiers trying to prevent them overrunning 7th Brigade HQ and Ler Per Her refugee camp. FBR received reports that shelling lasted all day on June 9 and began again at 8am on June 10, particularly in the areas opposite Noh Bo and around the 7th Brigade Headquarters.

More Attacks in Northern Karen State

Meanwhile in northern Karen State, the Burma Army attacked in the Ho Kee and Ha To Per villages in Tantabin township, Toungoo district on June 5.

More than 100 villagers have fled into the jungle since the attack began. Khin Maung Sin took over as commander of the Military Operation Command 5 and leader of Kler Ler camp after the previous commander died.

The Free Burma Ranger’s (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human rights abuses, casualties and the humanitarian needs of people who are under the oppression of the Burma Army. FBR provides medical, spiritual and educational resources for IDP communities as they struggle to survive Burmese military attacks.

 

The Free Burma Ranger’s (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human rights abuses, casualties and the humanitarian needs of people who are under the oppression of the Burma Army. FBR provides medical, spiritual and educational resources for IDP communities as they struggle to survive Burmese military attacks.

For more information, please visit www.freeburmarangers.org

ENDS

15-year-old gang-raped, villager has hands cut off

Free Burma Rangers

Shan State, Burma

June 4, 2009

A 15-year-old girl was raped by 12 Burma Army soldiers in Shan State according to information from the PaO National Liberation Organization.

The soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 426, including battalion commander Nyunt Oo, raped the girl on May 14 in an orange grove where she had been working.

She is now in Taunggyi hospital.

Soldiers from the same LIB cut the hands off U Khun Lon, 35, from Kawn Tai village, Tan Yaan village area, Hsi Hseng district, southern Shan state, on May 18.

The 13 soldiers forced the villagers together, tortured them and accused them of communicating with the resistance groups.

Another man called Win Bo was hit several times with the butt of a rifle and seriously injured.

The soldiers also burned down a house and took Win Bo and a further 18 villagers to Chee Ta Lee temple and tied them up.

An attack on Burma Army soldiers on May 3 in the same area left 12 of these soldiers dead.

U Khun Main, 43, headman of Pan Nyo village in Sai Khow village area, also Hsi Hseng district, was cut around his head with a machete and beaten with rifle butts on May 23 by soldiers under Captain Sun Aung from the same LIB. He was seriously injured and is confined to his bed according to the PNLO.

On May 20, the LIB 421 led by Major Yae Htut came to Daw Na Kalu village on the Shan/Karenni border and stole from the villagers. They took five and a half kyat Tha of gold (worth approx US$2,619) and 11 silver coins worth about US$70 and 1.57 million kyat in cash (worth approx US$ 1,246).

The soldiers also stole animals and told the villagers in East Paung Chaung they could not leave the village between 6pm and 6am.

According to information from the PNLO, since May 24, LIBs 425 and 426 are not allowing the PaO National Organization to go east of the road connecting Ho Pong and Hsi Hseng and are arresting anyone in camouflage clothes.

Some 500,000 PaO live in Shan State. The PNO signed a ceasefire with the SPDC in 1991, but soldiers of the PNLO continue to fight for independence.

ENDS