NEWS - Pro-Rangoon troops attack Th

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Subject: NEWS - Pro-Rangoon troops attack Thai village in retaliation

BANGKOK POST - August 29, 1999

BORDER

Pro-Rangoon troops attack Thai village in retaliation
Following arrest of three colleagues

Supamart Kasem

One man was wounded when pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
soldiers
attacked a border village before dawn yesterday, apparently in
retaliation
for the arrest of three of their men.

About 20 armed men crossed the border to Ban Rai Don Chai in Tambon Mae
Dao
of Mae Sot district at about 4am and fired on shops and a border
observation
post with rifles and M79 grenade launchers for nearly an hour.

Malik Nakacharn, 44, a shop owner, received a shrapnel wound in the leg
and
was later admitted to Mae Sot Hospital.

About 70 villagers fled to safety, so did three defence volunteers
manning
the border observation post.

They retreated across the border after a 200-strong force of military,
police and volunteers led by Col Chaluay Yaempochai, chief-of-staff of
the
Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force, arrived at the scene.

Villagers said the DKBA soldiers were led by Capt Win Naing who
frequently
visited the village to buy motorcycles for sale in Burma.

About a month ago three Karen soldiers came to the village carrying
firearms
and hand grenades and were arrested by Mae Sot police. Capt Win Naing
asked
police to release his men, but they refused.

It was speculated the DKBA may have planned to take some villagers
hostages
to bargain for the release of the three soldiers.