Daniel Pedersen

Mizzima

Bern Smith

Mae Sot

An exodus of refugees in numbers never before seen along the Thai-Burma border could begin within days, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council has warned.

In a plea to the “international community”, the Peace Council this week said 6,000 to 10,000 people could initially be evacuated, but if the Burma Army made a clean sweep of its capital, as many as 100,000 people could be affected.

The KNU/KNLA Peace Council signed an agreement with Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, in 2006 when it broke away from the Karen National Union.

Since then it has developed a capital on the western side of the Dawna mountain range, at Hto Kaw Ko, and its leaders have entered into business arrangements with the Burma Army.

Peace Council leaders have been consistently accused of switching sides merely to enrich themselves.

Earlier this year the SPDC demanded ethnic groups transform themselves into Border Guard Forces, taking orders directly from the Burma Army.

The KNU/KNLA Peace Council has repeatedly refused to become an armed wing of the Burma Army and steadfastly refused to fight troops of the Karen National Liberation Army. But now the SPDC has demanded the Peace Council begin obeying orders or be declared an “unlawful or illegal organisation”.

Burma Army Lt-Gen Ye Myint has met with Peace Council leaders and delivered an ultimatum: Join forces with us by Sunday or the population of Hto Kaw Ko will be displaced and your capital destroyed.

In a move that could be perceived as tactically unwise, Peace Council leaders say they dismissed the demand on the spot and began preparing to defend themselves.

The Peace Council is well armed – this correspondent has seen truckloads of brand new M-60s and M-16s and many thousands of rounds of ammunition in their possession.

A spokesman for the Peace Council said: “If the Burmese determine to breach and violate the peace agreement and initiate war, then the Karen will have no choice but to do everything in their power to defend [themselves].

“However [if the] safe area [Hto Kaw Ko] is no longer considered safe, the children and families may have to cross over the border into Thailand.

“Acceptance by the Thais is not certain,” the spokesman said.

Elements of the KNLA last night declared that they would flank KNU/KNLA Peace Council units if they were forced to evacuate to the Thai-Burma border.

KNLA Colonel Nerdah Mya, eldest son of the late KNLA General Bo Mya, said: “We are all Karen and the people must be defended.”

He said his men would certainly help the Peace Council forces if they were attacked by the Burma Army and found themselves in danger of being overwhelmed.

Colonel Nerdah’s primary concern was for the civilian population, he said.

By all accounts it is unlikely the Thais will accept thousands of Peace Council refugees pouring over the border. While contingency plans have been made for three sites around Mae Sot – at Tha Son Yang, Phop Phra and Umphang – there are strict conditions for people seeking refuge in Thailand.

Anyone who comes across the border must be directly fleeing fighting and no combatants of any side, or their families, will be given food or shelter.

The Thai Third Army, which controls an area from Kanchanaburi in the south to Mae Hong Son in the far north, maintains the dispute between the SPDC and the Peace Council is an “internal affair”, one for the Burmese to sort out amongst themselves.

While NGO workers along the border are treating the situation developing between the Peace Council and the Burma Army as a serious matter, they remain sceptical that 100,000 people might flee Burma.

Faced with reduced capacity because international donors are becoming fatigued by more than six decades of fighting in Karen State, the organisations providing for refugees are hoping they are not inundated with tens of thousands of new arrivals from Burma.

But, should the Burma Army make a clean sweep from Hto Kaw Ko to the Thai-Burma border, the number of people fleeing could well dwarf last year’s exodus to Tha Son Yang.

Last year, during June and July, about 6,500 people ended up on the Thai side in Tha Son Yang district when the KNLA lost its Seventh Brigade region to the Burma Army-aligned militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

What followed was a disaster, as people clustered in small groups along the border and NGOs scrambled to keep up with simple needs, such as sanitation, food and shelter.

ENDS

Mizzima

By Bern Smith

August 15, 2010

The Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge, spanning the Moei River between Mae Sot and Myawaddy, is open – at the right price and under the cover of darkness.

Thai traders in Mae Sot have told Mizzima that trucks laden with goods can pass over the bridge if the right people are paid the right money.

Shipments must be arranged via Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander Chit Thu and Thai authorities must be paid, the traders said, on condition of anonymity.

The bridge was closed by Burma in early July, allegedly because of moves by Thailand to construct a wall along its side of the river, beefing up security along the international border.

The Tak Chamber of Commerce has since demanded the Thai government intervene and negotiate with the Burmese, claiming 20 days of closure had cost Thailand revenue of 20 billion baht.

Thai promises to supply construction materials and pay labour costs to build a structure on the Burmese side initially seemed to have healed the rift between the two neighbours.

But then, say Thai business sources, the Burmese side upped the ante, demanding 50 new trucks also be handed over as part of the deal to re-open the bridge.

It seems Thai pragmatism and the desire by the DKBA to make money to supply its bitterly-divided fighting force has since spurred new arrangements.

Now shipments can pass across the Friendship Bridge late at night, or as Thai sources say, “always about midnight”.

Thai authorities are now charging an extra baht per kilogram for goods passing across the bridge, making the total 21 baht per kilogram.

Thai businessmen said with breakaway elements of the DKBA fighting against the Burma Army, the Karen militia’s need for money was greater than ever.

The Karen National Liberation Army’s Colonel Nerdah Mya confirmed smuggling activities were occurring, but said it was not the DKBA behind the operation.

He said certainly such movements across the bridge in the dead of night would have to be approved by Chit Thu but, “You must remember that Chit Thu has already signed an agreement with the SPDC, he is SPDC.”

Colonel Nerdah said the movements across the unmanned bridge were not political, but rather “people just trying to make money”.

But the facts are inescapable.

The SPDC ordered the bridge closed in protest against a Thai plan to bolster security along its international border.

In what could only be considered bilateral blackmail, Burmese authorities then demanded construction materials and money from the Thais to reopen the bridge.

The Tak Chamber of Commerce then supplied the cement and promised to pay labour costs for the Burmese to build their own wall along their side of the Moei River.

But the bridge remains closed, and the SPDC, troops of which have vice-like control of Myawaddy, is now allowing illicit illegal international trade across the bridge.

ENDS