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Thai-Burma clashes resume.




			Thai-Burma Clashes Resume 
			*************************

                        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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