Burmese Army might be targeting UWSA: Observer

by Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - After having overrun and occupied the Kokang area in north-eastern Shan State and driving away its leader, the Burmese military junta might have initiated its move against one of the largest ceasefire groups, the United Wa State Army, an observer said.

Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN), who is close to UWSA, said Wa leaders in Panghsang in eastern Shan state have received a letter from the Burmese Army demanding the extradition of Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng and three others. The junta had issued arrest warrants against them.

“Nobody is sure where Peng and his group are staying right now. It is absurd that the Burmese Army has demanded that the Wa hand over Peng. It seems to me that the junta is starting to pick on the Wa,” Khuensai said.

The letter dated September 1, 2009 was received by Wa leaders in Panghsang on September 2. Worried over the issue, the Wa leaders sat at a meeting on Thursday morning and decided not to respond to the letter, he added.

“The Wa leaders believe that the demand could be a point to pick by the junta and so decided to remain silent without replying to it,” said Khuensai.

He said, whichever way the Wa replies, the junta could find fault. Even by remaining silent, the junta could still find fault and find reasons to launch an attack.

Peng Jiasheng, the once supreme leader of the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), also known as the Kokang Army, was forced to flee Loa Kai, capital of Kokang region, after the Burmese junta issued an arrest warrant for him along with three others including his brother on charges of running an arms and ammunition factory and trafficking.

Peng’s flight left his deputy Bai Suoqing and a few other MNDAA soldiers, who support the junta. The MNDAA was later reformed with the help of the Burmese Army and Bai was appointed the new leader.

“When I asked Wa leaders about the whereabouts of Peng, they told me that he would most probably be with his son-in-law but did not deny or agree that Peng might be in Wa controlled area,” Khuensai said.

According to the Wa leader’s response, Peng and his troops are most likely to be with the Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) or Mongla, whose leader Sai Leun is Peng’s son-in-law.

While the information on the junta’s demand to the Wa to extradite Peng cannot be independently verified, a Sino-Burma border based military analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw said, he does not believe any such demand has been made.

“I have not heard of the demand but I think it is unlikely and Brig Gen Win Maung commander of the Regional Operations Command (ROC) in Lao Kai has no such power to make the demand as the case is to be handled by the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he added.

But he said, in connection with the conflicts last week in Kokang region, Burmese Deputy Home Minister Phone Shwe and a team of delegates, earlier this week, visited Kun Ming, capital of China’s North-western province of Yunnan, and met regional Chinese officials.

Aung Kyaw Zaw said, while the junta is determined to neutralise ethnic armed groups, particularly the ceasefire groups, in eastern Shan State, the UWSA might not be the first target to choose.

Observers agreed that the junta is unlikely to declare war on the UWSA, which is believed to have up to 20,000 soldiers, but use different tactics including ‘divide and conquer’ by exploiting the differences between the leaders, Wei Hsueh-kang and Bao You-Xiang.

READ MORE---> Burmese Army might be targeting UWSA: Observer...

A Visit to Refugees on the Salween River

A KNU soldier at a checkpoint on the Salween River. (Photo: Saw Yan Naing/The Irrawaddy)

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Ban Mae Sam Leap, Mae Hong Son Province — When you enter Mae Sam Leap, a Thai border village on the Salween River, you see a lively market area where goods are exchanged.

Located on the opposite side of the river is a Burmese government military post.

In this border area, the Salween River serves as a border line in northern Karen State in eastern Burma and Mae Hong Song Province in Thailand.

The river landing area is crowded with boats used to transport trade products. The village is crowded with Thai soldiers, traders, travelers and even Burmese soldiers who cross to the Thai side to visit and buy food and other supplies.

Mae Sam Leap is one of the border points where Thai-Burmese traders exchange goods. Before the Karen breakaway group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), split from its mother organization, the Karen National Union (KNU) in 1995, the exchange of trade goods was robust.

Border trade along the Salween River and Mae Sam Leap area dropped drastically because of repeated DKBA attacks against Karen villagers and KNU troops in the area.

In recent years, the trade activity has picked up again, in spite of continued military clashes.

It took about four hours riding in a long boat to reach the U Wei Hta refugee camp, also known Ei Tu Hta Zone 6.

During the ride, we passed deep jungle, huge trees and beautiful, secluded valleys, and we saw military posts of both government troops and KNLA soldiers.

The talk on the boat among local villagers was of a coming military offensive in September by junta and DKBA troops against the KNU

Arriving at Ei Tu Hta Zone 6, Saw T’kwel, the zone leader, briefed me on the camp and introduced me to a few villagers. One Karen schoolgirl stood out.

Thirteen-year-old Naw Taw Oo Paw said her father was killed by junta soldiers in her village of Kaw Tu Tun in Taungoon District in early 2006. She described her family’s 25-day trek to the border.

She and mother, and her three sisters, survived on boiled rice. She had one change of clothes. She slept on the ground at night with a piece of bamboo as a pillow, trees as her shelter and one blanket to fight off the cold.

They cooked only at night, she said, to avoid sending up plumes of smoke, alerting the junta’s soldiers to their whereabouts. They dried their wet clothes by the fire.

Her father was killed by government soldiers after they entered her village, she said.

“They did not bury his corpse,” she said, softly. “It was like killing an animal. I feel very sad when I think about it. I hurt because I don’t have a father like others.”

Starting to cry, she said, “Now my mother has to work to support us.”

Taw Oo Paw said her dream is to be a teacher so that she can help the many internally displaced Karen children whose lives have been interrupted by the junta’s troops.

She is among 4,000 Karen refugees who now live in the Ei Tu Hta camp, all driven from their village by government offensives.

Saw T’kwel said, “The refugees who come to the border because of these attacks have seen murders, lootings, extortion and force labor committed by the junta’s soldiers.”

The Ei Tu Hta refugee camp was established in April 2006 after major government offensives in Taungoon and Nyaunglebin districts.

If the anticipated September government offensive occurs, young girls like Taw Oo Paw will be joined by more of their fellow Karen children.

READ MORE---> A Visit to Refugees on the Salween River...

KIO trains administrative staff

by Myo Gyi

Ruili (Mizzima) – The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which has refused to transform itself to a Border Guard Force (BGF), is imparting military training to departmental staff members now into administrative work, in the areas under its control.

“The staff members are from the Education, Immigration, Police, Administrative, and Health Departments. Teachers from the Education Department have not been included. There are about 300 staff members in the Administrative Department. They are being summoned for training in batches leaving only a skeleton staff to take care of the concerned offices,” a KIO source said.

It is learnt that after the training, all trainees will be equipped with small arms.

The Burmese Army is deploying more combat units in Don Phon Yan and Nam San Yan, which are not far from the KIO headquarters in Lai Za.

The junta is trying to force ceasefire armies based along the Sino-Burma border to transform into a Border Guard Force but all the groups have rejected the junta’s proposal. Following this the relation between the Burmese Army and ceasefire groups has soured and there is palpable tension between them.

READ MORE---> KIO trains administrative staff...

Junta’s ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first

S.H.A.N. - Knowing the ceasefire groups’ major concern is the border closure imposed by China, Burma’s military leaders are pushing the Laogai-based Kokang army to the limit until it sees no choice but to shoot thereby incurring the wrath of Burma’s giant neighbor, according to reports coming from the Sino-Burma border.

For example, says one, the Burmese military is crowding Kokang positions on the strategic mountain northeast of Qingxuehe (Chinshwehaw). While the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), as the Kokang Army prefers to be known, still occupies the higher peaks, lower peaks are being taken one by one by the Burma Army. “They stopped shoving us only when we told them we didn’t want them to stray into minefields surroundings our places,” a Kokang officer was quoted as saying.

China has reportedly warned both sides not to fire first. Accordingly, the Peace and Democracy Front (PDF), of which Kokang, Wa, Mongla and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDAK) are members, has long adopted at least two principles that they believe China would approve:

• Not to shoot first
• Not to secede from Burma

“Laogai is now a ghost town,” said a local, “because nine out of ten of its population has left.”

The current crisis that arose amid Naypyitaw’s demand that all the ceasefire armies transform themselves into Border Guard Forces is said have started when 3 of the top members informed earlier to Naypyitaw that their top leader Peng Jiahseng was involved in the production of drugs and arms.

The three had also accused Peng of favoring kinfolks over the others. The upshot of it was the demand by Naypyitaw to send on investigation team to Kokang and when the latter had tried to stall the move, the former arrived in the territory in force on 8 August which sparked the present stand-off.

Sources in Wa, so far left strictly alone by the junta since June, say attack on any member organization of the PDF will be regarded as one against the grouping and as such will retaliate accordingly.

The new constitution, drafted and approved by Naypyitaw, has promised both Wa and Kokang self-administrative status.

Kokang declared opium free in 2003 followed by Wa two years later. But both are still reported in drug-related news stories.

READ MORE---> Junta’s ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first...

China Warns Commander to Avoid Instability in Shan State

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

Chinese officials have warned the junta’s northeastern military commander not to create instability in Shan State bordering with China, according to sources on the Sino-Burmese border.

Two Chinese officials from Yunnan Province met with northeastern commander Aung Than Htut in Loigai Township on August 10.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst based on the border, said the Chinese officials told the commander they were worried about a migration of refugees from Shan State into China, if armed clashes between junta troops and ethnic armed groups break out.

About 10,000 people, including Kokang and Chinese migrants, reportedly entered China earlier this month after tension increased between government troops and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a Kokang ceasefire group.

The two Chinese officials expressed their views forcefully, according to the source.

Tension have increased following an attempted raid by 70 government troops on the home of the MNDAA chairman, in search of illegal drugs. About 300 Kokang troops blocked the government troops on their way to the residence, sources said.

Chinese officials reportedly told Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye of the Burmese army, to handle border area conflicts among the ethnic armed ceasefire groups peacefully during his visit to China in June, according to sources.

The government is trying to force ethnic armed groups, the Wa, Kokang and Monglar, in Shan State to transform their forces into a border guard force under the military government.

The three groups have refused the offer, increasing tensions. The junta has deployed more troops in the area as a result. Some analysts say that the government appears to be preparing an offensive against the armed ethnic groups. Other sources say they believe government troops will not mount any immediate offensives in Shan State because of China’s concern and the upcoming national election in 2010.

The three ethnic armed ceasefire groups have formed an alliance to support each other if there are clashes with government troops, said sources in Shan State.

READ MORE---> China Warns Commander to Avoid Instability in Shan State...

Border guard pressure could ‘threaten peace’

(DVB)–Armed conflict will reignite in Burma if the ruling junta continues to force ceasefire groups to transform into border guards, a key armed ethnic group warned yesterday.

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) said in a statement that it is keen to maintain its 14-year-old ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government, but will not accept the dissolving of its armed units before self-determination is achieved.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has embarked on a campaign to transform ceasefire groups into border guards in an attempt to reduce their numbers and return them to the ‘legal fold’.

Ceasefire groups have said however that agreeing to the proposals would weaken the groups and effectively make them subordinated wings of the Burmese army.

“Our Central Executive Committee has decided not to go along with the plan to transform us into a border militia as it promises no insurance for the people of Mon state and to ourselves,” said the NMSP’s Nai Hong Sa Boung Khine.

He added however that pressure from the junta had eased recently regarding border guard transformation.

The NMSP also said in its statement that existing peace in the country will be seriously threatened should the authorities resort to coercion to achieve their objective.

The public declaration by the NMSP followed a similar announcement by another influential ceasefire group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

The KIO said it agreed in principle with the border guard proposal but suggested that step should be taken only when the nation is at peace and after a popularly elected democratic government is in place.

”No one likes the idea about the border guard force,” said James Lum Dau from the KIO. “When the majority is opposing it and only one party likes the idea, it is not practical to be pushing for a result.”

Reports surfaced last month of a campaign by the junta to use religious leaders and influential businessmen to convince ceasefire groups in Kachin state to become border guards.

According to a resident of Kachin state’s capital Myitkyina, government officials had been meeting with church pastors and business owners to help put pressure on the KIO.

Reporting by Aye Naing

READ MORE---> Border guard pressure could ‘threaten peace’...

Dhaka Delegation in Naypyidaw for Border Talks

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

A delegation of Bangladeshi experts on border issues met with Burma’s foreign minister in Naypyidaw on Friday to discuss an territorial dispute between the two countries, according to Burma’s state-run media.

The Burmese-language Myanma Alin newspaper reported that talks with the Dhaka delegation focused on efforts to reach an agreement on disputed maritime boundaries. The delegation, led by retired commodore Khurshed Alam, an expert on maritime affairs, arrived in Naypyidaw on July 29.

The meeting comes as rival claims to offshore deposits of natural gas have raised tensions between the neighboring countries. Earlier this month, Bangladesh raised the stakes of the conflict when it granted nine offshore gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal to two foreign oil firms, ConocoPhillips and Tullow Oil.

Tin Soe, an editor with the Bangladesh-based Kaladan News Network, said that the Burmese military regime told Dhaka that three of the offshore gas blocks belong to Burma.

“The delegation has to go Burma because they are worried about a disagreement with the Burmese government over the offshore exploration contracts,” he said.

Dhaka has said that it wants to discuss multiple issues with Burma, including the border dispute and the repatriation of Rohingya refugees. It has recently sent four delegations to Burma, but has made little progress on either issue.

In October 2008, the junta’s No 2, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, also visited Bangladesh to discuss maritime boundaries, trade and economic ties between the two nations.

After the trip, however, tensions between the two nations grew over the issue of maritime boundaries, prompting both countries to step up their military defenses in the Bay of Bengal.

In March of this year, Burma set up a 200-km fence along the border, claiming that it was to prevent human trafficking of Rohingya people.

There are nearly 30,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma’s Arakan State living in two makeshift camps in Cox’s Bazar District in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Many more are believed to live outside the camps.

In early July, about 400 crude dwellings belonging to Rohingyas living near the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar were destroyed or relocated, and an estimated 1,000 people were forcibly evicted by Bangladeshi police and camp management, said the UNHCR.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who face severe discrimination in Burma. Many have fled the country to escape human rights abuses, including forced labor by the Burmese army. They also face abuses in Bangladesh. Right groups say that many Rohingya have died while traveling by boat to Thailand or Malaysia in search of work.

In June, the Burmese regime agreed to allow the Bangladesh government to repatriate Rohingya refugees. However, Dhaka said it fears the Rohingya will return if there is no improvement in the human rights situation in Burma.

READ MORE---> Dhaka Delegation in Naypyidaw for Border Talks...

Snr-Gen Than Shwe rejects KIO's demands

by KNG

The Burmese military junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe has responded curtly and rejected the latest demands of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said sources close to Naypyitaw, the capital of the country.

The military ruler was responding to the KIO's demands to the junta early this month regarding direct power sharing in the new Kachin State government after next year’s elections, where members of KIO have to be included in the administration, legislation and the judiciary.

Snr-Gen Than Shwe has said that the KIO's demands cannot be met at this point of time because the country's new constitution cannot be amended. If the junta has to give into KIO's demands, the constitution needs to be rewritten, he reportedly said, the sources added.

Naypyitaw sources said, Snr-Gen Than Shwe also rejected the other KIO demand to transform its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to a Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF), which will be formed with only ethnic Kachins and not be controlled by the junta. The regime had proposed transformation of the KIA to a battalion-level Border Guard Force (BGF).

Snr-Gen Than Shwe has made it clear that he cannot negotiate any military or political demand of the KIO except the co-operational agenda between the two, Naypyitaw sources added.

"We proposed what we want to the junta, just as it proposed what it wants from the KIO," Dr. Manam Tu Ja, the Vice-president No. 2 of KIO and former leader of KIO delegates to the junta-run National Convention told KNG last week.

In the midst of growing tension between the KIO and the junta, both militarily and politically, the junta's Northern regional (Kachin State) commander Maj-Gen Soe Win met Kachin church leaders for the second time on the KIO's latest demands in Kachin State's capital Myitkyina yesterday. The meeting followed a suggestion by Rev. Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum, former general secretary of Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and a current peace mediator.

Political circles in Myitkyina said, the junta is mobilizing Kachin church leaders with small cash and food donations, granting cell phones, GSM mobile phones and landline phones so that church leaders can influence and pressurize the KIO/A on the BGF issue.

According to Kachin political analysts in Myitkyina, till now, the KIO has been enjoying a level of political and military rewards from the junta for supporting the National Convention for drafting the country's constitution and the referendum on the new constitution.

Now, the KIO is suffering because of the rewards that it took, where it is increasingly being pressurized to accept the BGF by the junta, said the local political analysts.

Meanwhile, Kachin people inside Burma and overseas have suggested that the KIO/A wage war if necessary against the ruling junta until Kachins and people of the country achieve democratic rights.

READ MORE---> Snr-Gen Than Shwe rejects KIO's demands...

DKBA ramps up civilian abuses and set sights on Brigade 6

IMNA, Mon Son

Karen people are fleeing in droves to Thailand as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Association (DKBA) commits ongoing human rights abuses.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) recently reported on the tense situation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Thailand-based Karen Refugee Committee (KRC).

According to the report, about 200 Karen people have reached the Tha Song Yang district, Tak province in the last 24 hours alone, mainly taking temporary shelter at the Mae U Su site.

The report also detailed DKBA abuses such as forced recruitment, portering and the extortion of money, food, and livestock. Such abuses have become push factors for Karen migration and the creation of many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

This month the DKBA and the Burmese army have launched a joint offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU), the main political party of the Karen people. Brigade 7 area has already fallen and the combined forces are now targeting Brigade 6, which includes 18 villages between Three Pagodas Pass Township and Kyainnseikyi Township.

The general secretary of the KRC said, “The number of Karen people arriving in Thailand has increased to 500 people [in the Tha Song Yang district]. Since [fighting began] between the KNU and the DKBA, Karen people have fled to Thailand. Karen people are seeking shelter from the NGOs and the Thai government.”

According to a July 19th story by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, the Burmese military’s Southeast Command (SEC) has begun using a variety of internal tactics in Karen State, including using DKBA name registries to require two baskets of rice per household, with a 10,000 kyat penalty for failing to provide this.

READ MORE---> DKBA ramps up civilian abuses and set sights on Brigade 6...

Protest against cross-border road project

By Hseng Khio Fah

(Shanland) -Local populace along the Thai-Burma border last week staged a protest against a joint road project between a Thai firm and the Burma Army, according to local sources reports.

On 10 July, villagers in Ban Hintaek (Ban Therd Thai), the former stronghold of the late Mong Tai Army (MTA) leader Khun Sa, in Chiangrai’s Mae Fa Luang district, held a demonstration against the road project of Saraburi Coal Mining, a subsidiary of Ital-Thai, that had been granted concession by Burmese authorities to extract coal from Shan State East’s Mongkok sub-township, Monghsat township, 70km north of Chiangrai border towards the end of 2008.

The protestors argued that the road project could affect local village life, endanger the environment, promote drug trafficking and place local people’s lives at risk as the proposed area is operated by the anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ and the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

Tensions between the Burma Army and the UWSA have been on the rise since April, when the latter was called upon to become border security forces under the former’s command.

“Without their permission, we won’t dare agree,” a participant in the protest who requests anonymity said.

At the same time, the SSA South’s Lt-Col Gawnzeun, Commander of the Kengtung Front based at Loi Gawwan, 10 miles east of the proposed border pass also told SHAN, “I don’t believe they (the Thai company) will go ahead with the road construction without informing us in advance.”

The deposit in Mongkok is anticipated to boast at least 150 million tons of raw coal, one third found to be Grade A. It would take 40 years long to deplete the fields even with 200 ten wheelers working each day to transport the diggings, according to an official from the company.

In exchange for the coal concession the Burma Army had insisted that the company construct the Mongkok-Maejok route to the diggings despite the existence of a shorter 100 km route inside Burma’s Tachilek to Thailand’s Maesai.

The road is proposed to be built across Maejok on the Burmese side of the border to Thailand’s Hmong Kaolang. It will be roughly 60 km inside Burma and at least 90 km inside Thailand until it connects with the national highway at Pasang, between Maesai and Chiangrai.

The proposed road would be able to transport 5,000 tons of coal per day, according to a security source.

On 21 May, the company held a public meeting with 200 villagers of Ban Hintaek to seek their approval.

“About 300 villagers will get jobs as drivers if the project is approved,” a local villager quoted an official from the lobby team as saying.

Since 1996, the Burma Army has made abortive attempts to dislodge the SSA from its border base, the last time in 2005.

Read Also:
Junta wants Thai company to build strategic road...

READ MORE---> Protest against cross-border road project...

Wa crashes, militia booms

S.H.A.N.

The growing tensions between the Burma Army and the ceasefire groups since April have practically put a stop to the United Wa State Army’s drug operations along the Thai-Burma border, according to an informed source from eastern Shan State.

“All those previously working with the Wa in Mongton, Monghsat and Tachilek (the three townships facing Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai) are either closing shop or moving up to the north,” he said.

The resulting vacuum is being filled up by the junta-backed militia forces that are being expanded, trained and armed by the Burma Army to be employed in the event of war with either the UWSA or Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’, or both. The best known among them are Punako and Kya Tey in Monghsat township and Nampong in Tachilek township.

Each of them is said to have one heroin factory in their respective areas assigned by the Burma Army. “Anyone who wants to grow poppies has to get himself/herself registered with the local militia,” he said. “And if any of them needs a starting capital, they will furnish it on condition that the loan will be repaid in kind. The crop is also not to be sold to outsiders except those authorized by the group concerned.”

The “king of kings” among them appears to be Punako, led by Ai Long, his younger brother Kyaderh and their brother-in-law Kya Ngoi. The group first came to the attention of the Thai media when its drug market cum transit point at Maejok, opposite Hmong Kaolang, Mae Fa Luang district, Chiangrai province, was overrun by the SSA ‘South” on 8 February 2002. (Saraburi Coal Mining, a company from Thailand that had won a local contract in Monghsat has been recently assigned by the Burma Army to build a road across the Maejok-Hmong Kaolang border)

Aside from producing and trading in drugs, the group is also running a protection racket for drugs coming from outside its territory. “Not unlike Naw Kham (who is running another racket in the Golden Triangle, between Burma, Laos and Thailand),” he remarked. “Also like Naw Kham, the group is also paying kickbacks to the junta commanders from the local up to the regional command.”

One of the trio, Kya Ngoi, is often seen playing golf with the Military Operations Command (MOC) #14 commander in Monghsat. “While the Burmese commander has only 4 armed bodyguards, he always comes to the golf course with around 10 bodyguards of his own,” he said, “leading to a joke that he must be senior to the MOC commander.”

The Wa, meanwhile, are not completely out of the game. “Their high quality heroin and yaba (methamphetamine) are coming to Thailand via the Mekong and Laos,” he maintained. “With ready cash, you’ll be able to buy any amount you wish to order.”

According to the official media, the regional command in Kengtung, 160 km north of Tachilek, put to the torch drugs worth K 20,177 million ($ 20 million) on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June. Much to the surprise of observers, no flippant statements against the ceasefire groups, all of whom are reportedly involved in the trade were issued by Naypyitaw.

President Barack Obama has called the War on Drugs, waged since 1971, an “utter failure”, according to Newsweek, 1 June 2009 issue.

READ MORE---> Wa crashes, militia booms...

Victory over KNU, new order on Thai-Burma border

by Brian McCartan

Mae Sot, Thailand (Mizzima) - The victory of the Burmese Army and its proxy, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), in attacks on bases of the Karen National Union (KNU) last month, puts the regime in firm control of a major portion of its border with Thailand for the first time in 60 years. Success brings with it a whole new order of forces along the border.

Burmese and DKBA forces took the border camps of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the KNU, after a month-long battle in June. The fighting was relatively light with many of the 200 Burmese and DKBA casualties the result of landmines. Fighting, the threat of landmines and fear of being taken as porters by the attackers resulted in over 3,500 Karen villagers fleeing their homes to take refuge on the Thai side of the border.

The Burmese regime and the DKBA have big plans for the border now that it is under their control. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has long aimed to establish several economic zones along the stretch of the border from Myawaddy north to the confluence of the Salween and Moei Rivers. One of these special economic zones is slated for construction on the outskirts of Myawaddy and another to the east of the township capital of Hlaing Bwe.

Past Thai governments have given their verbal support for these plans, although little money has of yet been put into them. Now that the area is in firmer control and the threat from the KNLA reduced, the economic zone plans may be dusted off again. Burma hopes to entice Thai investment and develop an otherwise economically poor area, while Thailand sees the economic zones as a way of using cheap Burmese labour without having to deal with a large influx of migrant workers. At one point, the area around Hlaing Bwe was also seen as a potential repatriation point for Karen refugees in the Mae La refugee camp.

A component of the DKBA’s acceptance of the junta’s border guard programme is that the DKBA will be allowed to keep, and possibly even expand, its economic activities. Although details of the concessions are still unclear, notes from internal DKBA meetings in May and June seen by Mizzima, indicate that the DKBA is moving some of its tax gates and setting up new units as a part of a major expansion. Certain officers, including Colonel Maw Tho who is already heavily involved in legal and black market trade with Thailand from his base in Myawaddy, will be reassigned to specifically economic activities.

A greatly expanded DKBA taking control of a large portion of the border is likely to make Thai security officials nervous. Following the fall of the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in January 1995, DKBA troops carried out a reign of terror along the border, burning refugee camps, kidnapping and sometimes killing Karen and Thai civilians, looting Thai shops along the border and even attacking Thai army and police forces. Although the attacks largely stopped in 1998, occasional incursions have taken place since.

This year DKBA incursions increased as it made itself felt along the border. In January 2009, DKBA troops burned down field huts, stole livestock and looted houses along the border in Umphang district of Tak province. During and immediately following the recent attacks on the KNLA’s 7th Brigade, Karen sources say DKBA troops crossed the border several times to demand rations for their troops and to eat and drink in local shops around Mae Salit.

An ambush on June 26 on the Moei River that killed five DKBA soldiers including Colonel San Pyone and wounded another 20 has many Karen worried about possible retaliatory attacks. San Pyone is widely believed to have been the leader and triggerman in the assassination of KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha La Phan on Valentine’s Day last year. The KNLA military officers claim it was not a revenge attack because they have no troops in the area. This leaves open the possibility of involvement of the KNU/KNLA Peace Council, another splinter Karen group, the SPDC or Thai security forces. Whoever carried out the attack, the incident shows that despite greater DKBA and government control, stability is far from assured.

The transformation of the DKBA into a border guard under the central command of the Burmese Army may bring some stability, even if it costs the regime a scapegoat for cross-border incursions. The SPDC has been careful in the past to blame all cross-border attacks on the DKBA and say that it has very little influence on the group’s actions. Recent fighting against the KNLA’s 7th Brigade was described in the state-run media as Karen-on-Karen fighting. With the DKBA’s transformation into a border guard force within the Burmese Army, this pretext will no longer be possible.

One area Thai security forces will be keen to keep a watch on is the effect greater territorial control and legitimization as a unit of the Burmese military will have on the DKBA’s drug trafficking activities. Karen military sources allege the DKBA operates several amphetamine, or yaba, laboratories in areas near the border. While DKBA production and trafficking activities are not at the same level as groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Shan State, Thai narcotics officials and opposition sources say the DKBA moves both yaba and heroin through its border camps near Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass. The group’s transformation into a border guard unit would make the military regime directly complicit in any continued drug activities.

Recent media reports describing the KNU as all but finished following the loss of its border camps last month are rather premature. KNLA sources say that they intend to continue to operate as guerrilla units in north central Karen State. The loss of the central border region, however, will make it harder for the KNU to communicate and supply its units as well as arrange supplies for villagers and internally displaced villagers that it cares for. The KNLA still has the bulk of its forces in northern Karen State as wells as in parts of Pegu Division and Mon State as well as maintains forces in areas of southern Karen State and Tenasserim Division.

Within Karen State itself, firmer control by the DKBA and Burmese government means that many Karen who still sympathize with the aims of the KNU will now be forced to work with the new rulers. Human rights monitors in the area for several years have said the greater DKBA presence has made their work much more dangerous. DKBA threats of retribution have made many villagers afraid to speak out about abuses.

A KNU source says that greater DKBA control will have little effect on Karen representation in the 2010 elections. The DKBA is different from other ethnic insurgent groups in that it has no political wing. Minutes of a May 7 meeting of DKBA commanders indicate that the DKBA has been told they may participate in politics, but in order to do so, DKBA members, or any other Karen, must either form a new political party or contest the election as an individual. KNU source, however, say it is irrelevant since the SPDC has already decided who the winning candidates are.

The KNU’s position in central Karen State has certainly been greatly weakened by the loss of its border camps last month. Whether firmer government and DKBA control of the area will translate into greater peace and development for the local population is far from clear. Fighting with the KNU in this area may be almost over, but new border tensions may only be beginning.

READ MORE---> Victory over KNU, new order on Thai-Burma border...

Thailand raises surveillance near Moei River

by Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai (mizzima) - Security officials in Thailand have beefed up surveillance on Moei River, in the wake of clashes with ethnic Karen armed men, who were trying to cross over to Thailand.

A villager from Tak province, who lives near the border, told Mizzima that Thai military personnel have raised the surveillance level along the Moei River, which is also the border between Thailand and Burma. Thai security officials increased surveillance after a Thai soldier had a minor skirmish with an ethnic armed group, who were trying to cross over to Thailand.

The skirmish took place on Saturday, as Thai military personnel in Mae Sot District of Tak province met a group of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers, who were crossing over into Maeku Luang Village. The clash, reportedly, went on for about 10 minutes.

Following the incident, Thai officials inspected the area and found that two DKBA soldiers – a man and a woman – had bullet injuries and were later sent to the Mae Sot Hospital, while two other soldiers fled from the scene into Thailand. Officials also found a number of weapons at the spot. The Thai military are on the lookout for the other two armed men.

The incident followed a severe attack on a DKBA boat, by unidentified armed men on the Moei River, which left 16 DKBA soldiers, including senior level officials dead.

According to a report on a Thai news website, Manager, on Sunday, Pol Lieutenant General, Surasri Suntornsarntoon, Commander of the Sixth Royal Police Office, visited the area in Mae Sot and followed up on the investigations into the attack on the DKBA boat, in which Colonel San Pyone, Commander of DKBA’s Battalion 7 of the Brigade 999, was also killed.

Colonel San Pyone, had earlier been accused of having links with the murder of Pado Mahn Sha, former Secretary General of the Karen National Union (KNU) in Mae Sot district last year. In the event of his death, the police would withdraw the arrest warrant, against San Pyone, which had been issued by a Thai Criminal Court, it had been stated.

However, the officials still beefed up surveillance because local villagers said that they found armed men crossing over into Thailand and fighting is still continuing in the area.

The situation near the Karen State border with Thailand this year has drawn a lot of attention from the local and international community, because several thousand local Karen villagers in Burma fled to Thailand and many of them are suffering from ill-health and malnutrition.

Currently, international non government organizations have donated more medicines for malaria patients, which is the main disease among the current batch of refugees, who took shelter in Thasongyang district of Tak province, together with respiratory diseases.

The Thailand government expected that the number of new Karen refugees was about 3,000, but local NGO workers believe that the real number is much higher and would increase due to the tension from the clashes near the Moei River.

READ MORE---> Thailand raises surveillance near Moei River...

Senior DKBA commander killed in ambush

(DVB)–A senior figure in the pro-Burmese junta militia Democratic Karen Buddhist Army has been killed in an ambush by the opposition Karen National Union as clashes continue near the Thai-Burma border.

Five fellow Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers were killed alongside Colonel San Pyone, commander of Battalion 7 of the Brigade 999, on 26 June, while around 10 more were injured.

A source close to the DKBA said that seven boats carrying more than 20 DKBA members from the overrun Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 7 headquarters was ambushed at about 8am on 26 June.

"There must be about 20 casualties, but about six people died on the spot," he said, adding that the corpses of San Pyone and others were taken to the DKBA base in the Shwekokko area of Karen state.

The DKBA has said that the attack was carried out from Thai territory, but this was refuted by the KNU.

“The shooting did happen but not on the Thai side. It happened on the other side [in Burma],” said KNU spokesperson David Thakabaw.

“[KNU] troops retreated from the bases but there are small groups still operating around the bases."

The DKBA have been fighting alongside the Burmese army during an offensive against the KNU that began on 2 June.

Last week the KNU’s strategically important Brigade 7 base was overrun by Burmese troops, although the KNU told DVB that the loss would make the Burmese army more susceptible to ambushes.

Many Karen civilians have fled the conflict this month, with around 4000 arriving in Thailand.

Many have reported instances of forced recruitment into the army either as porters or to act as minesweepers.

The UN has sent staff to the refugee areas to assess the fallout of a conflict that has attracted international attention.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

READ MORE---> Senior DKBA commander killed in ambush...

KIA lance-corporal disappears on way home

Lance-corporal So Ba Du of the Special Gorkha Squandron of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) disappeared while returning home from the squandron base in Laiza headquarters to Myitkyina in Burma's northern Kachin State on June 7, said KIA sources.

by KNG

The incident comes at a time of mounting military tension between Burma's ruling junta and the KIA after the latter was pressurized to transform to a battalion of the Border Guard Force (BGF) by the regime.

Lance-corporal So Ba Du is a Gorkha (Nepali). He was returning home in Myitkyina to attend a relative’s wedding after he was given leave by the KIA, said Laiza KIA sources.

Lance-corporal So Ba Du was detained on the Balaminhtin Irrawaddy River Bridge and was checked because he was a Gorkha soldier of the KIA by Burmese soldiers at the bridge checkpoint, KIA Laiza sources said.

According to the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA, the Burmese junta does not like the close relationship and cooperation between the KIO and Gorkhas. The Gorkha soldiers in KIA are always monitored by the junta, added KIO sources.

In April, Gorkha families in Myitkyina were summoned and checked by agents of the junta's military intelligence, the Military Affairs Security Unit (Sa Ya Pha). Young girls were put in prison cells for over a week following their return from Laiza after attending the May Daw festival, said sources close to them.

KIA sources said, KIA soldiers are being harassed in different ways while traveling. It has no idea how many KIA soldiers have been secretly arrested by Burmese troops.

The KIO informed the ruling junta on June 21 that it would like to transform the KIA to a "State Security Force" instead of a "Border Guard Force" as proposed by the junta.

Local reliable sources said, the KIA and Burmese troops are both on high alert and are on standby in the event of a resumption of civil war.

At the moment, the three other smaller Kachin ceasefire groups which split from the KIO/A--- the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group in Kachin State, and Kachin Defense Army (KDA) in northeast Shan State have agreed to transform their forces to the "Border Guard Forces", said sources.

READ MORE---> KIA lance-corporal disappears on way home...

Cross-border DKBA attack leaves two Karen dead

(DVB)–Two Karen refugees in Thailand who fled ongoing fighting in eastern Burma have been shot dead in what appears to be a cross-border attack by Burmese pro-junta militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), who are fighting alongside the Burmese army in its offensive against opposition Karen National Union (KNU), have reportedly been pressuring Karen in Thailand who had fled the offensive.

Three DKBA soldiers entered Thebayhta village in Thailand’s Tha Song Yan province on the evening of 23 June and reportedly questioned two Karen men about KNU activities.

A villager in Thebayhta said that when the two replied that they knew nothing, the soldiers shot them.

One of the men, Mah Kloh, 36, died on the spot while the other, Er Khlay, 28, died yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, refugees have been told that homes and villages in Burma’s eastern Karen state will be confiscated if they do not return.

According to a Karen youth group helping the refugees, nine families comprising 54 members in Thailand’s Mae Thrit village were told that they had to go home, despite many voicing fears that they will be caught in the clashes.

The Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) said on Monday that Thai authorities had similarly been telling Karen to leave the country, although some observers speculated that Thailand was reacting to pressure from the DKBA and Burmese government.

Around 4000 Karen are thought to have fled Burma since the offensive began on 2 June. Thai authorities have reportedly given a verbal promise to help 4000 displaced villagers although no definite plan has been set out, said the KWO secretary.

According to the KWO, Karen villagers face the prospect of being forced to walk in front of troop patrols as minesweeper, while rape of women is a real threat: last week two Karen women, both teenagers, were raped and murdered by the Burmese army.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

READ MORE---> Cross-border DKBA attack leaves two Karen dead...

Burma sends mortars to Shan State

By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News

The Burmese government has reinforced Burmese forces in Mong Tong Township, Shan State, due to growing tension with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), according to sources close to an armed group in Shan State.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rival Shan State Army-South (SSA) said seven M120 120 mm mortars were sent to reinforce Burmese Infantry Battalion No 65 on June 20.

The battalion is based in Nakawngmu village, Pong Pa Khem Sub-Township, Mong Tong Township, in eastern Shan State, which is about 29 kilometers from the Thai-Burma border.

The source said the reinforcement may have been made in preparation for a possible military offensive against the UWSA if tension with the group continues growing. (JEG's: on the other hand, it might be for some other purpose :-) )

According to a source on the Sino-Burmese border, the mortar reinforcements have been made close to UWSA military region 171, where Burmese army leaders have put pressure on the UWSA to withdraw from strategic positions in southern Shan State along the Thai-Burmese border. However, UWSA leaders have refused to withdraw its troops from the area.

The UWSA has rejected a request by the Burmese junta to turn their forces into border guards. The group, which is the most powerful ethnic armed ceasefire group in Burma, has 23,000 troops.

Mai Aik Phone, who is an observer of the UWSA, said the group was watching closely the current attempts by the Burmese military to transform ethnic armed forces into border guards. The UWSA, meanwhile, has warned its people to prepare for the worst. However, they said that they would try to negotiate with the Burmese government before fighting.

Due to heavy pressure on the Burmese government by the international community over the ongoing trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese government would be unlikely take any direct action against the UWSA for the moment, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, the Burmese Army launched a military offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) early in June. The joint troops of the Burmese Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) seized the headquarters of KNLA Brigade 7, which was a main base near the Thai-Burma border. The attack has forced an estimated 4,000 Karen people to flee to Thailand.

The Burmese junta is trying to transform all ethnic armed ceasefire groups in the country into border guards ahead of elections they plan to hold in 2010.

However, many ethnic armed ceasefire groups do not want to live under the control of the Burmese Army, and they have refused to disarm and become border guards.

Under the junta’s scheme, the Burmese military will have more control over the armed ceasefire groups. Each border guard battalion would consist of 326 troops, including 30 from the Burmese army. Three of these would be Burmese officers with administrative positions.

The Burmese military junta No. 2 Gen Maung Aye visited China to talk about the ethnic armed ceasefire groups in Shan State last week.

The Sino-Burmese border sources said that Gen Maung Aye failed to persuade China to put pressure on the groups. (JEG's: of course, the Chinese know their "faithful" partners)

China refused to use its influence in the area because it wants a stable border in Shan Sate in order to run oil and gas pipelines through the area, according to the sources.

Beijing is scheduled to begin constructing the pipelines, which have to pass through areas of Shan State controlled by the ethnic armed groups, in September 2009.

Seventeen insurgent groups have signed ceasefire agreements with the ruling generals since 1989, according to official Burmese reports.

READ MORE---> Burma sends mortars to Shan State...

Karen women beg Thai government not to repatriate them

By The Nation

A border relief organisation on Monday accused the Burmese soldiers and their allies of raping women fleeing battles inside the country and called on the Thai government to halt forced repatriation of ethnic Karen women and children, citing humanitarian and security reasons.

In a statement issued Monday, the Karen Women Organisation said it was "very concerned about the current situation of repeated forced repatriation of the families recently arrived to Thailand in Tha Song Yang by Local Thai authority since June 16, 2009"

" We are particularly concerned for the security and safety of women and children who just ran away from fighting in their areas. KWO fear that women are vulnerable to rape if they are forced to return and the children are already tired of running," the statement said.

KWO said at least two Karen teenage girls raped and killed recently.

"Thai authorities should at least wait and see the situation. Forcing back these people during the rainy season and to the place where they still have every reason to fear for their lives is inhumane and a violation of their rights." said Dah Eh Kler, the Secretary of KWO.

"These people just fled to the border a few weeks ago with fear and fresh memories of their attacks," she said.

In the Monday statement, KWO called on the international communities to "do whatever they can to stop the possible forced repatriation by the Thai local Thai army."

The organisation called on the Thai government and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to "urgently develop a procedure of obtaining proper informed consent from villagers, for decisions about returning to their villages or asking for refuge in Thailand."

Nearly 3,500 people, mostly women and children, from 20 villages along the ThaiBurmese border have fled into the Thai side of the border to escape heavy fighting since June 2, 2009.

READ MORE---> Karen women beg Thai government not to repatriate them...

Junta deploys more troops along Shweli River

Written by KNG

More troops have been deployed along the Shweli (Ruili in Chinese) River in northern Shan Sate in Burma since early this month by the ruling junta, said local sources.

Over a dozen ferry stations are located along the Shweli River (N'Mau Hka in Kachin) and Burmese troops are stationed at these stations, a local eyewitness told KNG today.


The river divides Shan and Kachin States. Strategically Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers cross the river on their way between the general headquarters in Kachin State and its 4th brigade in northeast Shan State, said local residents.

At the moment
No. (33) Light Infantry Division from Ywataung in Sagaing Division,
No. (58) Infantry Battalion (IB) from Waingmaw town and
No. 437 Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) from Momauk (N'mawk in Kachin)
are operating in the area along the left and right flanks of the river, according to local travellers.

Except No. (33) Light Infantry Division, different Infantry and Light Infantry Battalions are operating there in rotation for short periods, said local sources.

No. 12 and No. 27 KIA battalions are based in the north of the river. The KIA’s 4th brigade and its three battalions are stationed in the south west of the river, said KIO sources.

KIA officers in the area feel deployment of Burmese troops could be aimed to check KIA soldiers from crossing the river from the different ferry stations along the river and isolate the KIA 4th brigade from the headquarters in Kachin State.

The KIO has been pressurized to convert its armed-wing the KIA into a battalion of a "Border Guard Force" since April. The KIO has been given a deadline of October to respond to the junta proposal, said KIO sources.

As a response to the junta, the KIO is now into two missions---

launching a civilian and organizational awareness campaign on transforming the KIA
while KIA troops have been ordered to stand by for defensive action against the Burmese Army as in the pre-ceasefire period.

READ MORE---> Junta deploys more troops along Shweli River...

Joint Force Focuses Offensive on KNLA Brigade 7 Headquarters

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

A joint force of troops from the Burmese army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a ceasefire militia group, has focused its offensive on the headquarters of Brigade 7 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), according to Karen sources.

In response, KNLA Brigade 7 has increased its mortar shelling of the joint force, said the sources.

The clash between the two armed groups has been intensifying around the KNLA Brigade 7 headquarters since early this week, with heavy shelling being carried out by both sides.

The joint force, which earlier vowed that it would take over the KNLA Brigade 7 headquarters by June 16, is still facing stiff resistance.

On June 17, fighting and mortar shelling continued for almost an entire day without interruption, according to Saw Steve, a relief worker who is also a leader of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People, whose units operate in the fighting zone.

“KNLA Brigade 7 is not going to lose its headquarters easily,” he added.

The combined force has already taken over three military bases belonging to Battalions 21, 22 and 101 of KNLA Brigade 7.

Sources from the Karen Nation Union (KNU), the political wing of the KNLA, said that they allowed the three military bases to be captured because they did not want to kill fellow Karen soldiers who were fighting alongside Burmese troops.

The KNU claimed about 20 soldiers from the joint force were killed and about 50 were injured, while five KNLA soldiers were hospitalized in Mae Sot, a Thai border town.

Sources said that the fighting is expected to intensify further as KNLA Brigade 7 seeks to defend its headquarters.

The joint force started its offensive against KNLA Brigade 7 in the first week of June. Fierce fighting between the two sides since then has forced about 4,000 Karen refugees to flee to Thailand for safety.

The DKBA split from its mother organization, the KNU, and reached a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime in 1995.

The KNU has been fighting for autonomy for six decades and has never signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military government.

READ MORE---> Joint Force Focuses Offensive on KNLA Brigade 7 Headquarters...