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BKK Post, March 2, 1998 Attack 'may



March 2, 1998
Attack 'may be linked to logging'
Karens may be irked by loss of income
Cheewin Sattha 
Mae Hong Son

Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said the attack on a Border 
Patrol Police base in Mae Sariang district by an armed Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army force on Saturday morning might be linked to the Salween 
logging scandal.

The renegade Karen soldiers might be dissatisfied over loss of income 
from providing protection to illegal loggers in the Salween National 
Park, he said.

Maj-Gen Sanan was in the province yesterday to get a first hand report 
on the Salween logging scandal from governor Phakdi Chompooming, the 
Forestry Department and military representatives.

Thailand's plan to relocate Karen refugees from inside the national park 
to a holding centre at Ban Mae Lama Luang in Sop Moei district might 
have also caused dissatisfaction, he added.

A national park employee, Boonchu Amornfaisanti, 26, was killed in the 
DKBA attack on the BPP base at Ban Ta Fang. Two villagers were wounded 
and three abducted.

The fate of the three abducted villagers could not be determined.

In the attack, a house, a mess hall and a sentry box of the army-trained 
rangers were burnt down. The intruders also robbed 10 houses and made 
off with over 400,000 baht in cash, valuables, rice and medicine.

Police initially believed the attack was mounted to get food and other 
necessities.

Meanwhile, the Karen National Union denied yesterday it authored a 
letter warning Thai authorities not to relocate the Karen refugees now 
camped at Mae Sariang District of Mae Hong Son.

Arthur Shwe, head of the KNU's Foreign Affairs Department, said the 
letter was believed to have been issued by a third party which stood to 
lose from the relocation of the refugees.

The author of the letter might also have sought to stir up a conflict 
between Thai soldiers and the KNU at the border, he said.

The KNU official said his army would not oppose the relocation of the 
refugees although the refugees did not want to move to a new place.

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