BKK POST: Defection of senior of

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

April 28, 1998


                                    



                         THAI-BURMESE BORDER

              Defection of senior
              officer rocks KNU

              Beginning of the end of movement seen

              Supamart Kasem 
              Tak

              The defection of a senior Karen National Union officer to the
              Burmese junta with over 200 followers indicates the KNU is
              now at its lowest ebb in over 50 years, sources said.

              KNU members, Thai authorities, and those involved in
              Thai-Burmese border problems wonder if it is the beginning of
              the end of the KNU, which was founded in 1947.

              Padoe Aung San defected early this month. He was a close aide
              of KNU president Gen Bo Mya, a central committee member
              and the forestry minister responsible for raising KNU funds from
              border logging.

              He was also responsible for obtaining weapons. He is thought to
              have handled hundreds of million of baht a year when the KNU
              was at its strongest over 10 years ago.

              "He had a house in Mae Sot and Chiang Mai and shares in many
              Thai businesses ... He had close links with former Thai military
              personnel, influential people and businessmen along the Thai
              border," a logging source said.

              Thai border security officials believe Padoe Aung San defected
              because he was worried about his safety. He is said to have
              feared death threats made by the Democratic Karen Buddhist
              Army (DKBA) after fleeing from Htee Ter Khi to Ban Mae
              Woei, in Tak province, in 1995 after the KNU headquarters in
              Manerplaw and other camps opposite Mae Hong Son's Sop
              Moei district were overrun. 

              He had also been accused of corruption and although he had
              tried to clear his name other KNU members asked Gen Bo Mya
              to dismiss him.

              Padoe Aung San was also contacted by the DKBA after it was
              given the go-ahead by Rangoon to press ahead with logging
              interests.

              Sources said he was believed to have been involved in illegal
              logging in Tha Song Yang national forest reserve in 1997 and in
              the Salween forests.

              He defected to the State Peace and Development Council on
              April 6 and was promptly roundly condemned by the KNU.

              An article on the Internet, released in the name of anti-Rangoon
              Karens, accused him of leaving the KNU with 28 million baht
              and compared him to a dog turning on its master.

              A KNU source said Padoe Aung San was born in 1937 in
              Karen state, the third child of Buddhist parents. He received an
              education under the Seventh Day Adventists and became a
              primary school teacher in 1959. 

              While a teacher he worked undercover with the KNU. Facing
              arrest in 1967, he fled to join the KNU in the jungle. His first
              post was as a superintendent in the forestry ministry. In 1980 he
              became forestry minister.

              Padoe Aung San was close to Gen Bo Mya, being a school
              friend of the Karen leader's wife.

              He has three daughters and two sons.

              While with the KNU he supervised a high school. A number of
              his students and family members followed him when he defected.

              On April 17 he received a hero's welcome in a ceremony
              chaired by SPDC first secretary Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt in front of a
              crowd at Pa-an, the capital of Karen state.

              Also present were 213 followers who defected with 51 rifles,
              one mortar, and more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

              At a subsequent press conference in Rangoon, Padoe Aung San
              said Karen refugee camps in Thailand were sanctuaries for KNU
              soldiers who frequently crossed the border to attack Burmese
              soldiers. He said many refugees were killed for failing to obey
              the KNU.

              Most Karen refugees wanted to return to Burma but did not
              dare to do so for fear of being killed. At the same time,
              non-governmental organisation workers tried to persuade them
              to remain on Thai soil so they could get donations. Most of the
              cash donated to the refugees went to the NGOs and some Thai
              authorities, he charged.

              Padoe Aung San accused Gen Bo Mya of being dictatorial. He
              had sacked Mahn Ba Zan, the KNU chairman in 1976, without
              calling a meeting of the executive committee. He had also once
              ordered the killing of a student who accidentally shot a soldier,
              without an investigation. 

              Sources said this was not the first sign of rifts within the KNU.
              Many Young Turks had called for Gen Bo Mya to step down.

              Deputy Defence Minister Gen Wattanachai Wuthisiri shrugged
              off Padoe Aung San's accusation that Thailand had assisted the
              KNU.




                                     




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