The Brave faces of the Karen, the E

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

Subject: The Brave faces of the Karen, the Economist, Feb. 22, 1997

The Economist, Feb. 22, 1997

The brave faces of the Karen

Umphang, Thailand

Half a century seems long enough for any war; long enough to have been born
into the conflict and to have brought children and grandchildren into it.
But the thousands of refugees from Myanmar's Karen ethnic group who have fld
into Thailand this month still do not expect to see peace soon.  About 3,500
are camped in ditches along the road from the Myanmar border to the Thai
town of Umphang.  IN makeshift shelters of bamboo, banana leaves, matting
and blankets, they are waiting to be moved farther from the border. Many
have fled before, but this time do not expect to go home.  They have brought
all the belongings they can carry through the jungle Some led their cattle,
now snapped up by Thai traders.

They fled when they heard the mortar fire of the advancing Burmese army.  It
has been waging an offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU), the
biggest and oldest of the ethnic insurgencies along Myanmar's borders.  The
KNU-controlled market town at Sakan Htit fell to the government on February
12th.  The group's temporary headquarters at Htiker Pler was abandoned and
burned the next day.

The KNU has been in insurrection since 1949.  In the dry season, the
military junta in power in Yangon often attacks.  Some 80,000 refugees were
already in Thailand before the latest assault, which KNU officials say is
the biggest since it lost its headquarters at Mannerplaw in `995.  They
insist they will continue to fight, waging what they call a "defensive
guerilla war".  But after the current campaign, directed at KNU pockets of
control dotted along the 1,500 mile (2,500 kilometre) border, they are
likely to be bereft of territory in Myanmar, and hence of a source of funds.

There are also signs of a split in the movement's leadership.  Some senior
members criticise its veteran leader, Bo Mya, for being too uncompromising.
It was the collapse, on January 31st, of peace talks that seems to have led
to the latest offensive by the junta.  Others believe it may have been
provoked by meetings in January of the KNU and several other ethnic groups,
seeking to rekindle a united front against the junta, and voicing support
for the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.  The junta has signed ceasefire
agreements with 15 ethnic groups.  Some are likely to break down soon.  That
threatens the junta's ability to entrench army rule across the country.

For the new refugees, however, the prime concern is security.  Even in
Thailand they may not be safe from the junta's soldiers and members of a
group called the democratic Karen Buddhist Association.  It broke away in
1995 from the KNU, many of whose leaders are Christian.  In January,
soldiers from the breakaway group crossed the border and burned down two
Karen refugee camps near Maesot.  Thailand has provided shelter, but, as
relations with Myanmar improve, seems reluctant to offer protection.  Nor do
the refugees want to contemplate life back home under the junta, which is
widely accused of atrocities against those it defeats.  As Em Marta, a KNU
leader, puts it: "For the civilians, there is no future really; but we have
to keep on struggling for our national survival."



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