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Thai-Burma clashes resume.
Thai-Burma Clashes Resume
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Monday, February 3, 1997 2:01 pm EST
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thai soldiers and
Burmese guerrillas exchanged mortar fire
along the border Monday, reportedly killing
four guerrillas and injuring three Burmese
refugees.
The skirmishes worsened a week of tension from
attacks by the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army, a guerrilla group supported by
Burma's military regime, against refugee
camps in Thailand that house ethnic Karens
loyal to anti-Rangoon rebels.
Thai television and fleeing refugees reported
clashes between Thai soldiers and the guerrillas
along the border.
Three refugees were reportedly injured by
guerrilla mortar fire at the Mae La camp, a key
target of the Buddhist forces. Thai troops
meanwhile lobbed mortar rounds at an estimated
400 guerrillas said to be massing near another
refugee camp further north.
No Thai casualties were reported.
The Karen National Union, which has battled
Burma's central government in Rangoon for a
half-century, claimed that its forces repelled
intruders from the Buddhist army over the
weekend.
Buddhist guerrillas last week crossed the Moei
River from Burma into Thailand and razed
two refugee camps, making about 8,000 people
homeless.
Most of the 25,000 Karens living at the Mae La
camp, fearing they would be the next
targets, fled to safer ground deeper in the
Thai jungle.
The Buddhist guerrillas have been cultivated by
the Burmese government over the past two
years to fight the KNU, which claims the
loyalty of most of Karens, who are largely
Christian.
The KNU is the largest ethnic insurgency group
fighting the Rangoon regime, seeking more
autonomy from the central government.
More than 70,000 people from Burma live in
refugee camps in Thailand.
The military has ruled Burma since 1962. The
current regime came to power in 1988 and
refuses to turn over power to democratically
elected representatives.
[Associated Press, 3 Feb 1997].
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