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Wired News on March 20, 1995



Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on March 20, 1995
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Burmese guards fire on Bangladeshi fishermen   

    COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, March 20 (Reuter) - Burmese frontier guards on
Monday shot and wounded two Bangladeshis fishing on the Naf border river,
Bangladesh security officials said. 

    They said the two were rescued by other Bangladeshis fishing nearby. 

    Bangladesh will send a protest note to the Burmese authorities on
Tuesday, the officials said. 

REUTER
Transmitted: 95-03-20 11:57:54 EST
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Burma's Shan rebels attack northeastern Burma town   

    BANGKOK, March 20 (Reuter) - Fighters loyal to Burma's opium rebel Khun
Sa on Monday raided a Burmese army barracks in a northeastern town, the
latest in a series of guerrilla attacks aimed at deflecting a government army
offensive. 

    Some 60 fighters from Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) staged the
early-morning raid on a Burmese army barracks and military guest houses in
Tachilek, a bustling border town opposite the Thai town of Mae Sai, rebel
sources and Thai officials on the border said. 

    The rebels, firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles,
attacked for about one hour before withdrawing, one MTA official said. 

    Burmese troops kept up an artillery barrage in the direction of the
retreating rebels for several hours after the hit-and-run raid, the guerrilla
source said. 

    Casualties on both sides were not yet known, he said. Seven MTA
guerrillas crossed into Thai territory during the attack and were disarmed
and detained by Thai forces, he said. 

    A senior local Thai government official in Mae Sai said Thailand had
closed the border on Monday. 

    Tachilek's market, where hundreds of foreign and THai tourists go
sightseeing and shopping every day, was completely closed and the town's
streets were deserted, he said. 

    The attack was the latest in a spate of guerrilla raids since Burmese
forces began an offensive against a guerrilla base in mountains 25 km (15
miles) west of Tachilek last week. 

    MTA guerrillas ambushed a Burmese army unit at Tachilek's airfield on
Saturday and destroyed a bridge near the town of Kengtung, on the main road
linking Tachilek with central Burma and China, on the same day, the
guerrillas said. 

    The rebels blew up another bridge on the road nearer Tachilek last Friday
and killed several government solders with another bomb on a road on
Thursday, they added. 

    Guerrilla officers say they are trying to harass government forces and
prevent reinforcements reaching troops locked in battle with the MTA in the
mountains. 

    The guerrillas say Burmese forces are trying to clear them from the
economically important eastern section of Shan state. 

    MTA commander Khun Sa says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the
independence of Shan state. Burma's military government says he is a
drug-trading bandit and must be destroyed. 

    Khun Sa, who says he only taxes opium traders in his area of control in
the opium-growing Golden Triangle region, has been indicted in the United
States on narcotics-trafficking charges. 

REUTER
Transmitted: 95-03-20 00:46:59 EST
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