Wired News on Jan. 29 & 30, '95

[aung@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on Jan. 30, '95
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Karen refugees dazed by speed of Manerplaw assault   

    By Robert Birsel 

    MAE TOELA, Thailand, Jan 30 (Reuter) - Thousands of Karen refugees,
stunned by the lightning Burmese assault on their jungle settlements last
week, are picking up their lives as unwelcome guests in the mountains of
northwestern Thailand. 

    Many of the 6,000 people spread out through the bush near Mae Toela
seemed bewildered by the speed with which the Burmese forces had attacked and
seized their former homes at the Karen guerrilla headquarters of Manerplaw on
Friday. 

    ``We are very sad about the situation at our home,'' said a young woman
preparing rice on a fire on Sunday. 

    ``We don't know when we can go back. We must wait,'' she said, adding
that until last week she had been a trainee nurse at a hospital in Manerplaw,
280 kms (175 miles) southeast of Rangoon. 

    Initial fears that Burmese forces might cross the border or shell the
refugees from Manerplaw, which lies within easy artillery range to the west,
have eased. 

    Thai troops have moved into the area in force to seal the border and
prevent any spillover of the continuing clashes between the guerrillas and
Burmese troops. 

    Thailand has said the refugees can only stay temporarily and must go home
as soon as it is judged safe for them to do so. 

    The displaced Karen, many of them the families of guerrillas, were
putting up shelters with bamboo poles cut from the forest and whatever
plastic and other materials they could find. 

    Surrounded by bundles of possessions, many people took refuge from the
midday sun in their fragile new homes while others cooked rice or washed in
nearby streams. 

    Relief workers said the main priority for the refugees was sanitation and
warned that sickness could sweep through the population unless latrines were
dug and clean water provided. 

    Karen people have been seeking refuge in Thailand since 1984 when the
Burmese army began launching regular offensives against guerrilla strongholds
in a long stretch of territory in southeastern Burma. 

    Robert Htwe of the Karen Refugee Committee said that with the latest
influx there were now almost 70,000 displaced Karen people in Thailand. 

    The fall of Manerplaw and the loss of stretches of territory along two
border rivers not only sent thousands of people fleeing into Thailand but has
also cut off almost 10,000 others who were already in camps in Thailand but
were entirely dependent on resupply by boat, relief workers said. 

    Relief workers said that with clashes continuing on the Burmese banks of
the rivers it was too dangerous to use the waterways for resupply. 

    ``We thought we had logistical problems before, but this has changed
everything,'' said a refugee worker who asked not to be identified. 

    Many if not all of the people now cut off will have to pack up and trudge
through the forest and build new camps closer to roads where they can be
guaranteed supplies. 

    No one in the vicinity was willing to speculate about what might happen
in the longer term. 

    Relief workers said there was often a difference between what Thailand
regards as safe conditions for repatriation and those which refugees view as
being safe. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-01-30 02:39:02 EST
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Burmese consolidate grip, Karen vow to fight back   

    MAE SOT, Thailand, Jan 30 (Reuter) - A joint force of 5,000 BurRmese
government and Karen breakaway troops are overrunning the jungle base of the
Karen National Union (KNU), Thai and Karen sources said on Monday. 

    But more than 2,000 Karen fighters who crossed the border Moei river to
hide in dense bush on the Thai side vowed to regroup and recapture their
abandoned positions. 

    ``We are only spending a short time here to regroup and adjust our
strategy, then we will fight back and regain our positions,'' a Karen
officer, hiding in jungle opposite the Karens' former Nohta camp, told
Reuters on Monday. 

    In a statement from its new jungle hideout, the KNU on Monday confirmed
that its 46-year struggle for autonomy from Rangoon would continue. 

    ``The KNU solemnly reaffirms that it will resolutely continue the
revolutionary struggle...for the establishment of a new federal union of
Burma based on equality and self-determination, the statement said. 

    Thai border police said more than 5,000 soldiers of the Burmese
government and breakaway Democratic Kayin (Karen) Buddhist Organisation
(DKBO) controlled Manerplaw and the riverbank corridor to Nohta 30 km (18
miles) to the south. 

    About 400 Buddhist rank and file soldiers mutinied against the mainly
Christian leaders of the KNU in early December, leading to the formation of
the DKBO which joined Burmese troops in the latest offensive. 

    The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, formed by
members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) who also used
Manerplaw as headquarters, said the ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC) had used 10,000 troops in the attack. 

    It said the DKBO had placed soldiers in each SLORC regiment, showing them
the routes and paths around Manerplaw, ``and because of that Manerplaw could
fall in so short a time.'' 

    ``The Burmese troops plundered all of the Karen property in Manerplaw,''
a Thai border police source told Reuters. 

    He said most of the buildings including living quarters had been burned
to the ground. 

    Burmese troops had seized about 20 vehicles including trucks, 10-wheel
heavy transports and jeeps. Electrical equipment, television sets, cooking
utensils, clothes and sewing machines were seen scattered on the Burmese side
of the river on Sunday, the source said. 

    ``This was evidence that Bo Mya ordered his followers to evacuate in a
hurry,'' he added. 

    The Karen officer said General Bo Mya, the KNU commander, had ordered the
guerrillas to abandon the Nohta camp on January 25, one day before the
Manerplaw stronghold was evacuated. 

    ``General Bo Mya ordered them to torch down and abandon the camps after
he found that the DKBO were spearheading the fighting. He did not want to
shed the blood of fellow Karen,'' a Karen source said. 

    During five days of fighting at Nohta, the Karen suffered 15 guerrillas
killed and more than fifty wounded, he added. 

    A Thai army source said on Sunday that at least sixty Karen guerrillas
had been killed in fighting in Manerplaw before the guerrillas abandoned the
camp. He said no details of other casualties were available. 

    The sound of gunfire at Manerplaw has died down since Sunday but sporadic
shelling of the Karens' second largest camp at Kaw Moo Ra continued, Karen
sources said. 

    More than 1,000 Karen guerrillas and Burmese dissident students are
preparing to defend Kaw Moo Ra, the last major position of the rebels,
located on the Moei west bank about 120 kms (75 miles) south of Manerplaw and
opposite the Mae Sot district of Tak province in Thailand. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-01-30 04:52:04 EST
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Fm: Zz