India Times - Myanmar rebels report shelling by Thai army, ask help for refugees

[TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Myanmar rebels report shelling by Thai army, ask help for refugees
BANGKOK: Two small rebel groups under attack from Myanmar government troops
said Saturday that their joint camp had been shelled by the Thai army in
apparent retaliation for a land mine explosion that killed four Thai
soldiers.

A faxed statement signed by the two groups, the Vigorous Burmese Student
Warriors and God's Army, did not say if there had been any casualties from
the shelling.

It expressed "heartfelt sorrow" for Wednesday's land mine deaths and said
the groups did not regard the Thai army as their enemy.

It also said the land mine was inside Myanmar, contrary to claims of the
Thai army.

The statement did not say when the shelling took place, but Thai newspapers
had reported the shelling of rebel-held territory on Wednesday, immediately
after the land mine blast.

The Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, on whose letterhead the statement was
published, is a tiny group of Myanmar student exiles whose sole known
activity to date was to take over the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok for 26
hours in October last year.

Allowed safe passage out in exchange for the release of several dozen
hostages, the dissidents took refuge with a fringe Karen ethnic guerrilla
group called God's Army, which is led by two 12-year-old boys believed by
followers to have mystical powers.

The statement said that the Kamaplaw region where the groups are based has
recently been under attack from three Myanmar military columns, sending
ethnic Karen refugees fleeing in to Thailand.

It said government troops are continuing their offensive, and requested Thai
authorities "to stop attacking our bases as well as to help out refugees
fleeing from the war with humanitarian concerns."

Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai told reporters Friday that if the five
student radicals from the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors wanted for the
embassy takeover escape to the Thai border they will be immediately
arrested.

Thai troops and border police are closely monitoring the stretch of its
frontier with Myanmar opposite the ongoing clashes between Myanmar
government forces and ethnic Karen rebels, the Thai army spokesman Col.
Somkuan Sangpattaranetr said Friday.

According to the Thai army, its troops have fired warning artillery shots to
keep the fighting off Thai soil, but on Wednesday some 100 Karen fighters
intruded over the border.

The four Thai troops were killed by a land mine explosion as they chased
them back toward Myanmar. The sensitive area of the Thai-Myanmar border at
Suan Phung district, in Ratchaburi province, 150 kilometers (95 miles) west
of Bangkok, has been sealed off by Thai military since fighting began last
week.

The five-decade Karen resistance to rule from Yangon has flagged in recent
years, but isolated guerrilla units of the main Karen National Union army
still fight in remote areas of eastern Myanmar close to Thailand. (AP)