SUBSCRIBE|ADVERTISE | DONATION
Irrawaddy CONTACT US|FAQ
BURMESE VERSION



More Refugees Expected When DKBA Becomes Border Guard

By SAW YAN NAING Tuesday, December 8, 2009
COMMENTS (4)
RECOMMEND (243)
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
 
MORE
E-MAIL
PRINT

Thousands of new refugees from eastern Burma are expected to seek shelter in Thailand once the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) becomes a border guard force under the Burmese military regime, says the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a coalition  that assists refugees on the Thai-Burmese border.

Sally Thompson, the TBBC deputy director, noted that the joint offensive by the DKBA and Burmese government troops forced some 4,000 refugees, mostly Karen, to flee to Thailand when they attacked the Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 7 area in June.  

Karen refugees walk along a path on the Thai-Burmese border in June. (Photo: Getty Images)

Among those who fled were refugees seeking to escape forced army recruitment and force labor by the DKBA, instigated partly in order to reinforce  troop levels in preparation to become a border guard force battalion, Thompson said.   

“If they [the DKBA] decide to continue such recruitment, then we would expect to see more arrivals,” she said.

Once the DKBA becomes a border guard force, it is expected that it will join the Burmese regime in another offensive to capture KNU-controlled areas in Karen State along the Thai-Burmese border.

Jack Dunford, the executive director of the TBBC,  said refugee numbers will also increase because many internally displaced people have sought safe sanctuary in the remaining KNU-controlled areas.  

Another factor is whether the junta decides to wage military campaigns against the ethnic cease-fire groups that refuse to disarm and transform their troops into a border guard force,  Dunford said.  The regime has said border guard forces should be in place before the 2010 election.

In the TBBC's latest survey on Oct.  31, it said more than 3,500 villages and temporary gathering points in Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon states in eastern Burma as well as Pegu and Tenasserim divisions have been destroyed or forcibly relocated since 1996, including 120 communities between August 2008 and July 2009.

About 75,000 people have been forced to leave their homes during the past year and more than 500,000 Burmese are internally displaced, according to the survey.

“The scale of displaced villages is comparable to the situation in Darfur and has been recognized as the strongest single indicator of crimes against humanity in eastern Burma,” said the TBBC survey.

The TBBC provides food and shelter to some 150,000 Burmese refugees in nine camps along Thai-Burmese border.



COMMENTS (4)
 
Please read our policy before you post comments. Click here
Name:
E-mail:   (Your e-mail will not be published.)
Comment:
You have characters left.
Word Verification: captcha Type the characters you see in the picture.
 

Myanmar Patriot 4 UMPF Wrote:
10/12/2009
Today, a large number of Karens (DKBA) are playing ball with Than Shwe and hounding their own brethren out of their homelands.

COMMENT; what's wrong with that? It is not DKBA that is responsible for exodus of refugees. KNU is responsible. Since independence, for a long time Thailand treated KNU as 'buffer state' between itself and its former enemy Burma. In London, HM Shwebomin II was told by an English mercenary, we had learnt.
"The point is the Karen are too simple, naive and vulnerable and no longer know their stand nor a future but to follow the orders of those who wield power and flash money."

NONSENSE! There is a unity between overwhelming majority of Burmese people: Buddhism. Forget Panglong, legacy of divide-and-rule; forget disintegration. SPDC is doing well. ShuMaung never managed it. All he did was 'shoot to kill' and enslave everyone. You are on the wrong track. You do not have correct historical perspective. We are ONE people, ONE nation, ONE state. Simple!No Balkanisation.

Free Man Wrote:
09/12/2009
However, beginning in the mid 1970s, the Karen people have strongly and unwaveringly advocated for a federal union.

Therefore, it is factally wrong to assert the fore-mentioned statement.

From learning true history (not Ne Win-Than Shwe's version)to a harmonious, democratic, federal union.

Free Man Wrote:
09/12/2009
"Frankly Karens, except a handful, were loyal to the British colonialists and served their cause while the people of Burma were struggling for their country's freedom from British rule."

I would like to make clarification regarding the above statement.

The Karen people cooperated with the British because the British helpd alleviate the suffering of the Karen under Burmese fedualism. It was because they found peace, prosperity, progess and law and order under the British rule.

However, the Karen people were not the lackey of the British. For instance, they made their first official proposal for the formation of Kawthoolei (Karen State)within a federal arrangement in the early 1930s, which indicated that they did want to direct their own political destiny.

But the massacre of the Karen people in Mu Draw (Pah Pun) and the Delta Region by the Burma Independence Army (BIA)in the early 1940s forced the Karen to demand a total independent Kawthoolei.

To be continued.

George Than Setkyar Heine Wrote:
09/12/2009
Frankly Karens, except a handful, were loyal to the British colonialists and served their cause while the people of Burma were struggling for their country's freedom from British rule.

In the post independence era in 1948 Saw Ba U Gyi lead KNDO rebels were only seven miles from Rangoingon City Hall before they were driven to the Burma-Thailand borders.

Today, a large number of Karens (DKBA) are playing ball with Than Shwe and hounding their own brethren out of their homelands.

The point is the Karen are too simple, naive and vulnerable and no longer know their stand nor a future but to follow the orders of those who wield power and flash money.

Of course there is KNU, still refusing to bow their heads though bloodied until today while upholding late Gen. Saw Bo Mya's promise not to go into ceasefire or truce without political settlement.

Of course fleeing the country and settling in alien lands brings neither freedom nor democracy for the Karen in all of Burma today.








Thailand Hotels
Bangkok Hotels
China Hotels
India Hotels

More Articles in This Section

bullet NDF Leaders Told to Appeal Past Treason Charges

bullet New US Law Could Force PTTEP Disclosure

bullet US Senators Want UN Investigation of Burma

bullet Thai Minister's Statement Spreads Fear in Camps

bullet Burma's Generals Meet North Korea's FM

bullet USDP Constitution Maintains Junta's Policies

bullet USDP Assigns Constituencies to Ministers

bullet NLD Members Meet ILO Representative in Rangoon

bullet Burmese Rank No. 1 in Malaysia Detention Center Deaths

bullet US Wants Burma-North Korea 'Transparency'

 

Home |News |Regional |Business |Opinion |Multimedia |Special Feature |Interview |Magazine |Burmese Elections 2010 |Archives |Research
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.