DON TALENYWUN Mae Salid, Mizzima

Fear of attacks forces re-think
Plans to establish a new refugee camp near the Thai-Burma border to cope with an influx into Thailand of more than 3,000 people fleeing fighting in Burma have been abandoned.

Security concerns in the wake of the killing of a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander put paid to the plans for the new camp.

Colonel San Pyone, the DKBA’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999, died on June 26, when seven DKBA boats were attacked on the Moei River.

Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack.

The camp was to be in the Tha Song Yang region, at a place known as Ti Nu Koh, and built around the skeleton of an abandoned school.

But the Eden Valley Academy school’s proximity to the border, about 5km, and the fact there were two easy land approaches for DKBA troops meant the plan was shelved.

Attacks on civilians are anticipated in retribution for the DKBA commander’s death.

Because of the precarious security at Ti Nu Koh agencies responsible for critical infrastructure, food and clothing had asked the Thai Army to post armed guards around the old school should it be used as a temporary camp.

Thai security forces said they were undermanned, could not ensure security and recommended another site be considered.

All parties agreed to move the dislocated people into the massive Mae La refugee camp.

Anyone who wants to return home may do so, but Thai authorities will ask them to sign a form saying they have rejected refuge in Thailand of their own accord and have not been forced to leave.

This is to counter recent allegations of soldiers forcing those fleeing back across the border and to prove Thailand is willing to offer safe haven in a time of need.

An extreme Burma Army military offensive in the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade region has necessitated a rapid response from both Thai authorities and international agencies to deal with thousands of people forced over the border.

Karen village leaders, displaced along with their population, estimate more than 4,000 people have lost or fled their homes in recent weeks.

Free Burma Ranger video shot during the offensive shows DKBA soldiers torching schools and villages as they made their way towards the border, marked mostly in this region by the Moei River.

The headquarters of the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade, home to its 202 Battalion, has been abandoned and is now occupied by DKBA and Burma Army soldiers.

But a senior KNLA figure said the fight was far from over, claiming the abandonment of 202 headquarters was nothing more than a “tactical withdrawal”.

This has been a recurring tactic of the KNLA in recent times – to withdraw when severely outnumbered so as to live and fight another day.

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Earlier:

Don Talenywun
Mae Sot

An open letter of sorrow and regret allegedly from a senior commander of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army is being circulated in Mae La refugee camp.
The letter, supposedly from Myaing Gyi Ngu and dated June 17, 2009, begs for forgiveness and understanding and issues a nation-wide apology to the Karen people.
It says the DKBA has been duped by the generals of Burma’s ruling military junta and its foot soldiers are now asking: “How can we say we support the four principles of Saw Ba U Gyi and fight for the Burma Army at the same time?”
Myaing Gyi Ngu says the DKBA leadership had no answer to this question for its soldiers.
He said the Burmese created the DKBA as a “religious army” and that should never have happened and constituted a “black spot in our Karen history”.
He goes further to say that what he is most ashamed of – working on the rationale that the DKBA is indeed a religious army – that it was unable to do anything to protect monks during the wholesale slaughter of September 2007.
“All people of Burma in the whole world were raising questions to us that why the DKBA, who were supposed to be for religion, couldn’t do anything to protect the religion and the monks?”
He said at the time the DKBA dared not show their faces and hid at home because they were supposed to be “for religion and the Karen people”.
But, putting aside even being “for Karen people” the DKBA “couldn’t even do anything to protect religion and monks while the Burmese Army was shooting them and killing them”.
He said the DKBA was even ordered to kill monks “if necessary”.
Myaing Gyi Ngu said he now knew why Mannerplaw (the former Karen National Union headquarters and stronghold lost in 1995) fell so easily.
“Later as I considered it, the KNU didn’t fight us because we are Karen; the fact is Karen didn’t want to kill Karen,” he wrote.
He said the DKBA was promised an independent state within a year of Mannerplaw falling.
“After that [promise] we, the DKBA, were conceited and proud of ourselves.”
But he said the promise was not fulfilled and instead DKBA leaders were given business opportunities and within Karen State it seemed like “we had the right to do whatever we wanted”.
As a result of this, he wrote, the Karen people learned about “gambling, began to use drugs and ran up debts of millions”.
He said much of the DKBA’s involvement in drug trafficking occurred under General Khin Nyunt (the former prime minister removed for corruption in 2004).
But he wrote the offer of becoming a border patrol force was a bitter pill to swallow and presented an excruciating choice for DKBA leaders.
He said what happened during Khin Nyunt’s time was well documented in the ruling generals’ intelligence files, with lists of names and activities.
So the DKBA had a choice: accept what the generals were offering or run.
He said the DKBA leaders were in big trouble.
“I am old. I am begging and apologise [but please] understand and forgive me.
The letter ended: “May the KNU and the Karen Liberating revolution have victory.”

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The Burma quandary

Both Thailand and its Association of South East Asian Nations partners must have sighed in frustration when news broke of the latest exodus of innocent civilians from Burma.
Both are under more pressure as a result of Burma’s violent push to its much-maligned 2010 show elections.
ASEAN must deal with new criticisms of its stance on Burma, a maverick member-state and a significant trading partner to some countries within the bloc.
For years accusations of being an irrelevant talkfest have clouded ASEAN’s reputation.
Yet it is easy for the West to call on ASEAN to impose economic sanctions targeting Burma, but far more difficult to impose them upon a hostile neighbour.
Thailand, as the current ASEAN chairman, has been dealt a double blow from this latest round of attacks.
It must show leadership at ASEAN level and it must cope administratively with thousands more people displaced from their home country.
For the better part of the past 50 years Thailand has had refugees huddled on at least one of its international borders.
In contrast precious few people have had reason to flee Thailand not of their own making.
– Don Talenywun

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Who killed San Pyone?

One of Pado Mahn Sha’s alleged killers has met the same fate.
Former Karen National Union general secretary Pado Mahn Sha was assassinated on Valentine’s Day 2008 at his home in Mae Sot.
But who killed Colonel San Pyone, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999?
The Colonel, for whom arrest warrants had been issued by a Thai Criminal Court for his alleged part in Mahn Sha’s death, was shot to death on June 26 by parties unknown.
He was traveling in a military flotilla of seven boats.
Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack, which was apparently launched from both sides of the Moei River.
The prime suspects, of course, would be gunmen of the KNU.
But KNU vice president David Thackrabaw said the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, was not active in the area.
The attack occurred in KNLA Seventh Brigade region, an area recently ceded to the Burma Army and the DKBA.
Brigade 999 has a fearsome reputation among Karen villagers for forced recruitment, brutal treatment of its recruits and a murderous approach to the local populace.
But if the KNU did not kill San Pyone, then who did?
There is no motivation for the Thai Army to act in such a manner.
Some observers have suggested the Burma Army might have been behind the killing, citing a perceived need for the DKBA’s overseer to keep rogue commanders of its slave militia in line.
With the DKBA’s transformation into a border security force, senior military commanders will become increasingly irrelevant.