Worsening crisis predicted along Thai border

By Ron Corben

BANGKOK: Aid workers are warning of a worsening refugee crisis along the Thai-Myanmar border where a Yangon government backed ethnic minority group has in recent weeks violently attacked undefended camps on both sides of the border.

The offensive, part of the Myanmarese army's bid to bring to heel the Karen Nation Union (KNU) -- a rebel group that has for 50 years engaged in a violent struggle for autonomy from Yangon -- started in January and more attacks are expected.

Torchings of several refugee camps by the military backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) have already left several thousand refugees homeless inside Thai territory.

A spokesman for the Bangkok-based Myanmar Border Consortium -- a non-governmental group that works with the refugees, estimates there are now up to 30,000 people on the move. They count among the 100,000 refugee population, comprising mainly of ethnic Karen and Karenni people in camps along the border regions.

He said the situation was deteriorating, and "there could still be more refugees. We could have a pretty big number here".

Recently, heavily armed DKBA troops forced the KNU to abandon its headquarters at Hte Ka Pler near the Thai border province of Umphang, 320 kms northwest from Bangkok.

The DKBA, formed in late 1994 by a splinter group of Buddhist soldiers from the predominantly Christian KNU, has threatened further attacks. "They have left threatening letters they will be back at the end of the month to burn the camps down," an aid worker at the Thai-Burmese border told IPS.

The KNU has suffered major reversals in recent years, starting with the fall in 1995 of Manerplaw, the longstanding headquarters of the Karens and base for other pro-democracy groups fighting the Yangon junta.

In recent weeks, the DKBA forces have launched terror attacks on the refugee camps after months of warnings to camp dwellers to return to Myanmar or see their camps destroyed.

On the night of January 28 and 29 three major camps inside Thai territory were torched by DKBA forces leaving at least 4,500 refugees homeless. One child and a Thai merchant were killed in that attack.

The DKBA also partially destroyed a refugee camp hosting close to 7,000 people close to the border town of Mae Sot, 480 kms northwest of Bangkok.

"The situation is moving very quickly. They have been expecting this (attacks) for a long time. The junta is very good at taking advantage of a specific situation when it arises," an aid worker in the town told IPS.

Aid agencies say the refugees are not only scared, but many are "deeply demoralized".

"The adults pity the children and the elderly, faced with a cultural and moral obligation to meet their needs; but they can't be met," one aid worker said, adding that the Thai government is turning a blind eye to the incursions into Thailand.

"They (the Thai military) are deliberately stalling to allow (the refugee issue) to be resolved by other means," the aid worker said.

Thailand was informed by Myanmar, through its Bangkok based Defense Attache Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Hann, of the impending attack on the KNU by the junta's forces.

Several attempts to move toward a cease-fire between the junta and Karen forces have repeatedly broken down. Just prior to the January attack, a Yangon delegation went to the KNU headquarters to negotiate a cease-fire but the KNU made clear it is unwilling to lay down arms till a concrete political settlement is reached.

Myanmarese dissident groups in Thailand say this is one reason for Yangon's show of force, the other being the KNU's role in organizing a meeting in the middle of January, of 15 ethnic groups from across Myanmar to discuss the political situation in the country, and debate on directions for change.

Among those present at the meeting were representatives of ethnic Wa, Karenni, Kachin and Mon groups with whom the ruling junta has signed cease-fire agreements over the last few years.

At the meeting, there was common support for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept the polls in elections in 1990.

The military-backed State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC) however ignored the election result, and has since then violently suppressed any opposition to its hardline rule.

In the meantime, the junta has tried to consolidate its hold on power across the country by reaching a number of cease-fire agreements with ethnic minority groups that like the Karen, were part of the struggle for an autonomous state.

As such, observers say that by killing or forcing the approximately 100,000 pro-KNU Karens back into Burma or into the folds of the breakaway Karen group, the DKBA, the military junta, hopes to break the back of the KNU.

The latest round of attacks represent "the end of the KNU in terms of its political and military clout", said an observer in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

Non-government aid workers say they have provided medicines, food, blankets, mosquito nets, mats, pots and pans and have distributed plastic sheeting for temporary shelter.

"The refugees sit and wait for a decision on their future, living in constant fear of further attacks," the Mae Sot aid worker said.

-- IPS