Mizzima: Villagers displaced due to

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Villagers displaced due to fighting in Karen State

New Delhi, April 17, 2000
Mizzima News Group

In a letter sent out to the media, a relief group working for Burmese
refugees in Thai-Burma border has appealed for international attention
and support for the Karen villagers who were recently displaced from
their village in Karen State of Burma.

US-based Burmese Refugee Care Project said that nearly four thousand
Karen villagers fled from Mae Po Hta village in Karen State due to the
fighting between Burmese government troops and Karen guerrillas
belonging to Karen National Union (KNU) in the first week of April. The
villagers were able to bring only the clothes on their backs on their
flight into Thai territory. While most of these villagers are currently
taking shelter in a Thai village, some 2-km from Mae Po Hta, the rest
are scattered in the jungles in Thai-Burma border.

Although some relief organizations in the area such as MSF (Doctors
Without Borders) and Burmese Border Consortium (BBC) are providing
medicines and basic food to the refugees, the condition of the refugees
is still in bad shape. ?There is a long building, part of an old school,
where the majority are sleeping on a cement slab or on hammocks strung
outside. Others have situated their families under makeshift lean-to?s
with donated plastic tarps to provide shade. Their only water supply for
bathing and washing is a small stream, and they are boiling this unclean
water for drinking. There are no toilets as such..,? said a statement of
Burmese Refugee Care Project.

It further said that Burmese government troops and DKBA troops have
burned down the Mae Po Hta village on April 4 and some people were
injured due to landmines laid down by the DKBA/Burmese troops. DKBA
(Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) is a splinter Karen military group
which mutinied against the mainstream Karen National Union (KNU) in
1995. Burmese government in Rangoon is backing it.