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Myanmar Deploys Troops
at Rebel Base BAW WI, Thailand (AP) — Myanmar deployed extra troops at the God's Army jungle base after the rebels inflicted fresh casualties near the border with Thailand, a dissident radio station reported today. A Myanmar battalion joined another already in place at the God's Army camp at Ka Maw Pa Law, which was overrun on Thursday, journalists from the Democratic Voice of Burma radio station reported. There was no word about the two 12-year old twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, who lead the ragtag army of 100 mostly ethnic Karen fighters. The twins are said to hold mystical powers making them invincible in their battles against the Myanmar military. Gunfire was heard Friday by Thai soldiers patrolling the border, which is about a day's march from Ka Maw Pa Law. But today the area was quiet, said Col. Kannath Nikornyanant from the Surasi Thai border taskforce. He said rebel fighters were being pushed north away from their base, but were clinging to the hilly forests around near the border. Over 300 Karen refugees have fled to Thailand in recent days, where they were given temporary shelter from the fighting one mile inside the border, he said. It was not immediately clear if they had come from the village of Ka Maw Pa Law or nearby areas, where guerrillas from a much larger rebel group — the Karen National Union — have also been fighting Myanmar troops. About 1,070 refugees escaped to Thailand over a week ago, fleeing heavy clashes in a Karen union enclave in Myanmar. They now stay at a camp near Ba Wi, a Thai village four miles from the border. The Democratic Voice of Burma, which has good contacts with opposition groups inside military-run Myanmar, said three battalions of 500 to 1,000 troops were moving against the God's Army. Two were now in place at the rebel's former base. Friday's hit-and-run attacks by God's Army guerrillas left 15 Myanmar troops dead and 24 wounded, the radio's reporters said. The guerrillas are more familiar with the hilly terrain around Ka Mar Pa Law. There were no figures for rebel casualties, and the information could not be independently confirmed. If true, the report marks a change in fortune for the rebel group after a disastrous week. On Monday, 10 fighters, including some from an allied group known as the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, traveled from Myanmar and took hundreds of patients and staff hostage at a hospital in the western Thai town of Ratchaburi, 40 miles from the border. The desperate bid to pressure Thailand into allowing them to retreat from Myanmar ended with Thai commandos killing all 10 rebel gunmen and ending the 22-hour seige. Since then Thailand has tightened security on its border, fearful God's Army will launch revenge attacks. Hoax bomb threats have rattled the normally serene provincial center. Police were searching vehicles on the road from the frontier to Ratchaburi and were manning sandbagged bunkers at new checkpoints. Ten ethnic Karen were arrested along the Thailand frontier in the past week,
said Thayakthan Phothikaew, chief of Suan Phung district at the border. They
were deported back to Myanmar, as police did not believe they were refugees
fleeing fighting, he said. |