BKK Post, March 24, 1998 .DKBA INCU

[burma@xxxxxxxxxx]

March 24, 1998 .DKBA INCURSION 

Army told to protect border at all costs

Order follows latest raid on refugee camp 
Tak


The Thai army has been ordered to use all military means possible to 
counter pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army attacks following 
another cross-border raid on a refugee camp.

Mawkier refugee camp in Tak's Phop Phra district was attacked early 
yesterday. One refugee was killed, nine others were wounded and four 
Thai soldiers also wounded.

"The army chief [Army Commander Gen Chettha Thanajaro] is enraged with 
the latest cross-border assault and has ordered the Third Army to use 
all kinds of military means in countering the aggression," said an army 
source.

The source expected fierce fighting to follow the sending of special 
units from the army's rapid deployment forces into the border area.

In yesterday's attack some 40 DBKA troops crossed into Thailand and 
raided the camp. Four Thai soldiers were taken hostage during the raid 
but some 10 intruders were thought to have been trapped behind Thai 
soldier lines following the attack.

Karen refugees said 40-50 DKBA soldiers opened fire with M79 grenade 
launchers and rifles at about 1 a.m. Another group inside the camp then 
set fire to shelters while most refugees were sleeping.

U Saw Ma, a Buddhist monk, said the DKBA threatened to attack the camp 
about a week ago if the refugees refused to return to Burma.

While he was praying in a hut used as a religious centre, three mortar 
rounds landed in the camp, forcing the monks to flee for their lives. 
The intruders, who are thought to have been in the camp for some time 
before the attack, threw molotov cocktails at the huts, setting them on 
fire.

Mortar and rifle fire injured nine refugees, three seriously, including 
four women and three children. The wounded were later taken to Phop Phra 
hospital.

After the 10-20-minute attack soldiers deployed outside the camp fired 
more than 30 mortar rounds at the raiders who fled towards the border 
from the south of the camp. A unit was dispatched to block the attackers 
near Ban Valley.

Phop Phra district chief, Chatchai Soisangwan, and a team of defence 
volunteers with fire engines, tried to put out the fire two hours later. 
By then 50 huts had burned down leaving more than 200 refugees homeless.

Mr Chatchai said the damaged sections were in Zone 6 and 7 for Muslim 
refugees.

Mawkier camp houses 8,881 Karen refugees who fled from Burma after Karen 
National Union camps were seized by Burmese troops a few years ago.

Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force commander Col Chatchapat 
Yamngarmriab said a company of infantrymen had been deployed at several 
border crossing points after the DKBA threatened to attack more camps. 
The Thai soldiers fired mortar rounds at the attackers after they opened 
fire on the camp.

Col Chatchapat thought 10-20 DKBA soldiers had infiltrated the camp 
before the attack. The raiders are thought to have sneaked across the 
border between Ban Mae Okhu and Ban Ya Pho, about three kilometres south 
of the camp.

In another incident, one DKBA soldier was killed and two others captured 
by Thai Border Patrol Police near Huay Kalok camp in Mae Sot district 
early yesterday.

The officers spotted them at about 2 a.m. and ordered them to stop for 
questioning. When they tried to run off the BPP opened fire.

In the past the DKBA has carried out scores of attacks on Karen refugees 
taking shelter in Thailand, believing that the displaced population 
harbours and supports rebels of the rival KNU.

In an attack earlier this month, four refugees were killed and thirty 
injured when a camp was hit with volleys of mortar rounds. Another was 
almost completely razed when about 200 unidentified troops stormed it 
and set fire to 1,000 dwellings.

One woman was injured in a separate attack a week ago in the Mae La 
camp, which came amid reports that more than 100 Burma-backed troops had 
infiltrated Thai territory and were poised for a fresh attack on the 
camps.

Thailand admitted on Friday that a lapse in security led to the 
cross-border attack which left four dead.

"We accept we were inactive," National Security Council chief General 
Boonsak Kamheangridirong said.

The comments came as ambassadors from Britain, Australia and the United 
States toured camps on the border zone in a show of international 
concern over the attacks.

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, which spoke 
out as president of the European Union, have criticised Burma's military 
authorities for waging what they call a campaign of terror against 
refugees in Thailand.

Some NGOs have also criticised the Thai military for inadequately 
protecting the border camps, prompting the authorities to announce the 
removal of refugees from one of the affected camps to safer areas.

A top Burmese general at the weekend told Thai army chief Gen Chettha 
that Rangoon troops were not involved in the recent spate of attacks. 
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the State Peace and Development 
Council (SPDC), formerly the State Law and Order Restoration Council, 
also said the Thai army could take any action deemed necessary to 
counter the raids and they had no control over the Karen renegades.

However, relief workers and refugee sources dismissed the insistence 
from Rangoon that its troops were not involved in the raids, and took 
fresh aim at the Thai security arrangements for the refugee camps.

"It seem that the Thai authorities are not able to protect the camps 
properly," a refugee official said.

"They were warned of the possibility of an attack on Mawkier but were 
not able to prevent it, only firing back once the raiders had left Thai 
territory." Bangkok Post/AFP



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