Statement of KSWC on SLORC's trops

[saeliw@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Statement of KSWC on SLORC's trops attacking a refugee camp.

KARENNI SOCIAL WELFARE COMMITTEE
P.O. BOX 17, MAE HONG SON, 58000, THAILAND. TEL. +66-53-611453,611691

STATEMENT OF KSWC ON SLORC'S TROOPS ATTACKING A REFUGEE CAMP

At 2:07 AM January 3, 1997, Burmese Army Light Infantry Battalion No. 84
consisting of 40-50 soldiers brazenly walked right into Camp#2, an unarmed
refugee encampment in Thailand and slaughtered defenseless people. Camp
Two's 7,000 civilians huddle in crowded shacks that cling to the walls of
a narrow canyon-valley. In the dead of night while families slept the
soldiers of Burmese army, cold bloodily set up mortars and lobbed shells
into the flimsy leaf and bamboo structures that surrounded them.

Fortunately the rugged character of the landscape prevented a more serious
massacre. But the sad ruth of the matter is that 19 year old Ei Pyin will
never breath again. She awoke amid exploding shells and tried to flee,
only to be out down by flying shrapnel, Broken bone, plus missing chunks
of mussel and meal were all that were let of her legs. Pieces of steel
piorced her chest and the resulting bleeding was fatal.

If was a similar fate for Ai Pun, a 30 year old father of two. His wife
and children narrowly escaped. Ten other villagers were seriously wounded
in the hailstorm of bullets and shrapnel. The traumatized children and
fightened parents will spend countless nights awake fearing further
attacks. Like fish in a banel there is no escape for them.

The refugees living in Camp#2 and surrounding camps are civilians that
have been forced to leave their homes and country in panic from Burmese
Army terror. Now in noutral Thailand they must again ondure the ever
present fear of never feeling safe from the repression.

The Karenni Social Welfare Committee is seeking urgent help for the
unfortunate victims of this senseless slaughter, (food and medicine). The
tyranny and terror that the SLORC is inflicting on the populations of
Burma Karenni can not be tolerated. Bankrupt and then voted out of office
in a democratic election, (called by the international community) make a
mockery of the world's resolve to protect human rights and strive for
non-violence, The world community was duped by SLORC into doing business
with them at a time when they were destitute and had lost their power to
force the population to bide their will.

"Constructive Engagement", as this policy called, has had the opposite
effect on the dictatorship of what was intended, buoyed by the profits of
squandered natural resources the military has bought billions of dollars
in weapons and turned them against their own people. Lobbying by
unscrupulous foreign business interests has created a policy that has
encouraged spent despotism to cling to power through terror.

In an attempt to restore some hope of the peaceful democracy the
population has so bravely stood for tan avert SLORC turning the country
into a perpetual basket case that the world will have to support, we beg
an embargo against all trade with this renegade regime. Ei Pyin would
still be alive if it were not for the mistaken policy of Constructive
Engagement. The only answer left is a ban on all trade with SLORC and
their terrorist regime.


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
KARENNI SOCIAL WELFARE COMMITTEE.

January 4, 1997