[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
BKK Post, March 2, 1998 Attack 'may
- Subject: BKK Post, March 2, 1998 Attack 'may
- From: burma@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 10:06:00
March 2, 1998
Attack 'may be linked to logging'
Karens may be irked by loss of income
Cheewin Sattha
Mae Hong Son
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said the attack on a Border
Patrol Police base in Mae Sariang district by an armed Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army force on Saturday morning might be linked to the Salween
logging scandal.
The renegade Karen soldiers might be dissatisfied over loss of income
from providing protection to illegal loggers in the Salween National
Park, he said.
Maj-Gen Sanan was in the province yesterday to get a first hand report
on the Salween logging scandal from governor Phakdi Chompooming, the
Forestry Department and military representatives.
Thailand's plan to relocate Karen refugees from inside the national park
to a holding centre at Ban Mae Lama Luang in Sop Moei district might
have also caused dissatisfaction, he added.
A national park employee, Boonchu Amornfaisanti, 26, was killed in the
DKBA attack on the BPP base at Ban Ta Fang. Two villagers were wounded
and three abducted.
The fate of the three abducted villagers could not be determined.
In the attack, a house, a mess hall and a sentry box of the army-trained
rangers were burnt down. The intruders also robbed 10 houses and made
off with over 400,000 baht in cash, valuables, rice and medicine.
Police initially believed the attack was mounted to get food and other
necessities.
Meanwhile, the Karen National Union denied yesterday it authored a
letter warning Thai authorities not to relocate the Karen refugees now
camped at Mae Sariang District of Mae Hong Son.
Arthur Shwe, head of the KNU's Foreign Affairs Department, said the
letter was believed to have been issued by a third party which stood to
lose from the relocation of the refugees.
The author of the letter might also have sought to stir up a conflict
between Thai soldiers and the KNU at the border, he said.
The KNU official said his army would not oppose the relocation of the
refugees although the refugees did not want to move to a new place.
------------------------------------------------------------------------