Attack on Mawker Camp (up-date)

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

March 23, 1998
7:00 p.m.

	According the Karen Refugee Committee and border sources, the attack on
Mawker, a Karen refugee camp, about 40 kilometers to the south of Maesod in
Tak Province, Thailand, by a combined force of DKBA and SPDC army troops
took place, at about 1:30 a.m. this morning (23-3-98). The attack lasted
for about an hour. Like in the attack on Huay Kaloke camp, which took place
on (11-3-98), the attackers fired their heavy weapons comprising of 60 m.m.
mortars, RPG7s, M79 grenade launchers and rifle-launch grenades, in
addition to small arms, at the camp indiscriminately. 
	It was said that the attackers burnt down 50 refugee houses and two
Buddhist monasteries, before retreating, when the Thai troops guarding the
camp, returned fire. Had there been no resistance, more houses would have
been burnt down, said the witnesses of the attack. The camp has been home
to 9,000 refugees with about 2,000 houses.
	Reportedly, 15 refugees, young and old, were wounded and 5 were said to be
in serious condition. The medical NGO of France, MSF, took all the
seriously wounded to Maesod hospital for treatment, whereas the less
serious ones were given treatment at the camp clinics. According to the
report reaching the CCT at the time of writing this message, one seriously
wounded, a woman, succumbed to her injury, at the Maesod hospital.