Karen Military Clash Forces Evacuation of Thai Village

Fighting broke out on Monday between troops of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and its breakaway group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), forcing the evacuation of a Thai border village.
One KNLA soldier was reportedly killed when DKBA forces backed by Burmese army units overran a KNLA base [perimeter outpost-Ed].
Maj Shee Lay of KNLA Battalion 201 told The Irrawaddy: “The DKBA took over one of our Battalion 201 bases. One of our soldiers was killed, one injured and one was arrested. They seized some of our weapons.”
The fighting continued through Monday as the KNLA, military wing of the Karen National Union, attempted to retake the base.
Across the nearby border, in the Pob Phra district of Thailand’s Tak Province, the village of Phadee was evacuated and a Thai army group was sent to the area to investigate.
Monton Sawangnaphalai, chairman of Tak Province’s Roumtaipattana sub-district office, responsible for Phadee village, told The Irrawaddy that children and elderly people were being given priority in the evacuation. Phadee has a population of more than 300.
The fighting in neighboring Karen State broke out before dawn on Monday. Maj Shee Lay said his KNLA battalion was regrouping for an attempt to retake the base, occupied by about 30 DKBA soldiers of Battalion 907.

Saw Yan Naing and Sai Silp
Irrawaddy
30-6-08

Karen rebel killed in action

Fresh fire fights between Burma Army troops and Karen forces have begun. A Karen soldier was killed in action this morning in skirmishes in Kawkareik Township.

Combined forces of the Burma Army and 'Democratic Karen Buddhist Army' (DKBA), which split from the 'Karen National Union' (KNU) fighting for autonomy, attacked a KNU outpost in Wawlaykhe [Waley Kee] region 45 kilometres south of Mae Sod on the Thai-Burma border in the wee hours of the morning.

"We caught one soldier of the Burma Army and lost one of our soldiers in the encounter," KNU, the political wing of the 'Karen National Liberation Army' (KNLA), Information Department in-charge Pado Saw Hla Ngwe told Mizzima. 

The combined enemy forces comprising 40 soldiers attacked a KNLA outpost manned by just seven soldiers. The encounter lasted about two hours, Pado Saw Hla Ngwe said.

'Wawlay' [Waley] is an old outpost of the KNLA and KNU could not confirm whether this outpost was overrun by the enemy or the enemy withdrew.

Mizzima
30-6-08

OFFICE OF THE SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
KAREN NATIONAL UNION
KAWTHOOLEI

KNU Statement on recent media accusations regarding foreign individuals

It has been brought to the attention of the Karen National Union that a number of U.S. based individuals have made claims to be militarily supporting and training the Karen National Liberation Army and as such have been openly discussing their support with a number of media outlets.  
The Karen National Union would like to clarify that it does not in any way endorse, encourage, or seek the support of these individuals or their claims of representation. In making such erroneous claims they have tarnished the reputation both of the Karen National Union and The Karen National Liberation Army and we feel it our responsibility to request that they desist from such actions in the future.
While the Karen National Union welcomes all those who seek to support our struggle in striving towards founding a genuine federal union comprised of all the states of the nationalities in Burma. We feel some individuals have incorrectly portrayed out actions as an attempt to form a separate republic and in doing so have also suggested that the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army are pursuing separate goals.
We would like to confirm that the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army are united and steadfast in our endeavours. We have never sought nor needed the support of foreign individuals or countries and we repudiate the suggestions by some that we have. The struggle of the Karen is a just one and we are more than capable to continuing it without such aid.

Central Executive Committee
Karen National Union
Date:   28 June, 2008.

Human rights group accuses Myanmar military of killing, torturing ethnic Karen civilians

While Myanmar’s ruling military fails its people suffering after a devastating cyclone, it is committing crimes against humanity in a brutal campaign against ethnic Karen civilians, an international human rights group said Wednesday.
The London-based Amnesty International said the Karen in eastern Myanmar are being killed, tortured and forced to work for the military while their villages are burned and their crops destroyed.
An estimated 147,800 Karen people remain refugees in their own land because the junta forcibly relocated them from their villages to camps, in efforts to stamp out a decades-old rebellion by a segment of the Karen community seeking autonomy from the central government.
“These violations constitute crimes against humanity … involving a widespread and systematic violation of international human rights and humanitarian law,” an Amnesty report said.
The government has repeatedly denied similar allegations in the past, saying it was only engaged in security operations in Karen State aimed at wiping out “terrorists.”
Amnesty said the continuing campaign is the fourth turbulent episode in the country’s recent history.
The others include a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests last September, a recent referendum on a constitution designed to perpetuate military rule and “a humanitarian and human rights disaster in the wake of Cyclone Nargis,” it said.
The international community has sharply criticized the junta for barring foreign aid workers from areas worst hit by the cyclone and itself providing little help to survivors.
Amnesty said that unlike in earlier campaigns against the Karen National Union, the key rebel group, the current one that began 2 1/2 years ago has “civilians as the primary targets.”
The group said it documented cases of more than 25 Karen civilians killed by the military in Karen State in the two years since July 2005.
One farmer working in his field in Dweh Loh township was beaten and shot by soldiers after he told them the location of a rebel camp. Another farmer told of a civilian detainee being stabbed in the chest and then dropped down a mountain slope “just like an animal.”
“If they found us they would kill us, because for the Burmese army the Karen and the Karen National Union are one,” a 35-year-old villager in Thandaung township told Amnesty. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Arbitrary arrests, sudden disappearances, forced labor and portering for the military continue to be widespread, Amnesty said. A woman from Tantabin township said she and other porters were forced to act as human minesweepers, and that some stepped on mines.
To purportedly separate civilians from the armed rebels, villagers have been forcibly relocated from their homes into camps where men, women and children are also forced to work for the military.
Often the villages they left behind were torched.

AP
5-6-08
Image: Mae Li Ki village burned down by Burma Army on 10 May 2008 - FBR