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SLORC Troops Attack Manerplaw, Dawn



Subject: SLORC Troops Attack Manerplaw, Dawngwin As Buddhist

SLORC Troops Attack Manerplaw, Dawngwin As Buddhist, Christian
Karens Clash

Manerplaw,  December 10 -- The Burmese military today launched a
surprise attack on the headquarters of the Karen National Union
(KNU) at Manerplaw and on Dawngwin where the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front is headquartered.  The attack is timed to
coincide with reports of a growing tension between the Christian
and Buddhist members of the Karen National Union.

The ruling military junta knowing that the conflict provided an
unprecedented opportunity for it to make some progress in its
military campaign against the KNU appears to have suddenly
abandoned its widely propagandized efforts for cease-fire with the
Karens.

The internal strife within the Karen National Union reportedly
started last year when some KNU Christian officials stopped a
Buddhist monk from building a pagoda on top of a hill near
Manerplaw.  The Karen officials stopped the project for security
reasons as the construction site was too close to a restricted war
zone.

The Buddhist monk who headed the pagoda project was from a
monastery near the junction of the Salween and Moei rivers and is
revered by the Buddhist Karen community in the Manerplaw area. The
banning of the project angered the Buddhists.  The Buddhist monk
was also reported to have been preaching the Karen Buddhist
community to become vegetarians and told them to stop supporting
any one bearing arms.

The Burmese Army exploited the situation. It conscripted members
of the Christian Karen community as porters to carry war supplies
while the Buddhist Karens were spared from this. This further
aggravated the tension between the local Christians and
Buddhists.

To defuse the situation, General Saw Bo Mya, chairman of the Karen
National Union, requested the Buddhist monk to come to Manerplaw
for discussions but the Buddhist monk refused.

On December 4, about a 300-strong faction of the Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA) headed by a Buddhist Non-commissioned
Officer Kyaw Than took control of an area between Taw-lae-hta and
the junction of Moei and Salween rivers, north of Manerplaw, and
demanded that the Karen officials who stopped the pagoda project
be transferred.

The faction however retreated southwards on December 11 when KNU
soldiers from Manerplaw headquarters retook control of the area
and the checkpoints along the Salween River.

General Saw Bo Mya in an effort to mediate the conflict sent his
team of negotiators to the area.  The negotiating team has
succeeded in securing a truce between the two sides which were
earlier reported to have exchanged fire a number of times.

Because of the clashes, some Karen troops defending Mae-Nyaw-Khei
opposite Hti-Pa- Wai-Kyo (a hill-top on Sleeping Dog range
occupied by the Burmese Army during the Manerplaw offensive in
1992) were mobilized and moved to different strategic areas.

The Burmese Army took advantage of the situation and occupied
Mae-Nyaw-Khei.  Artillery shells are being launched on to
Manerplaw from Mae-Nyaw-Khei which is just four miles west of
Manerplaw.

The Salween river between Mae-Nyaw-Khei and Manerplaw is a natural
barrier preventing an all-out attack on Manerplaw from the west.
But the foothold on high grounds has enabled the Burmese military
to bombard Manerplaw without an actual assault.

Analysts say the Burmese Army will launch a ground assault on
Manerplaw from the north and this strategy will involve the
occupying of the headquarters of the ABSDF at Dawngwin.


The movement of the units of the 1st Brigade away from the
frontier positions to the junction of the Moei and Salween rivers
gave the Burmese Army a chance to easily penetrate the Dawngwin
area.

A military column under Tactical Operations Commander Colonel
Thura Aung Ko from the Papun-based Southeastern Military Command
is now reported to be at Lae-Toe, 10 kilometers from the ABSDF
headquarters in Dawngwin, and poses a threat to the 700 Burmese
student dissidents residing there.

The 400-strong frontier column is backed by about 1,000 reserved
forces from the 19th Infantry Regiment and the 340th and the 434th
Light Infantry Regiments.

The Burmese military authorities are reported to be inciting
Buddhists in Papun area and providing them with food rations to
join forces with the KNLA muntineers.