Mizzima, Mae Sot, Larry Jagan, June 18 - Burma’s largest active ethnic rebel group has been forced to abandon its stronghold on the Burmese border with Thailand after weeks of fierce fighting with government troops and rival Karen guerrillas.
The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), will now resort to guerrilla tactics to fight the Burmese Army rather than waste lives trying to defend territorial bases in eastern Burma, KNLA Commander Jonny told reporters on Thursday.
"The withdrawal from our 7th Division base does not mean we are defeated. It is a tactical redeployment. We also do not want to kill our fellow Karens in this battle," he said.
But many analysts believe this may be the beginning of the end for the KNLA, which has been fighting for self-determination from the Burmese government for sixty years.
Nonetheless, KNU and KNLA leaders insist that the struggle is far from over. “We will fight to the bitter end,” David Thackerbaw, a KNU spokesperson, told Mizzima. “We have no option but to continue fighting. We must hold onto every strip of land."
“We know what is at stake. The Burmese Army will continue to commit human rights abuses, seize our land and control our natural resources if we don’t resist them,” he added.
In the past few weeks thousands of ethnic Karen villagers have been forced to flee across the border into Thailand as the Burmese Army stepped up its assault on the Karen rebels.
Fierce fighting and constant mortar fire close to the Thai border by the Burmese Army has thus far forced more than four thousand ethnic Karen villagers to flee for their safety, according to aid workers in the area.
More than two weeks ago the Burmese Army and a pro-government militia – the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) – launched a major attack along part of the border with Thailand in a last ditch effort to finally destroy the KNLA.
In the past few days the Burmese Army has increased its offensive against the KNU’s armed wing, targeting the KNLA's strongest outfit, the 7th Brigade.
For several weeks the 7th Brigade was able to hold their own against the all-out joint assault, though the strategic relationship appears now to have altered. “If we cannot stand our ground, we will move away,” Thackerbaw emphasized. “We will not let our troops die unnecessarily.”
More than 300 fresh DKBA were brought up from Pa’an, capital of Karen State, over the weekend, reinforcing the already 600-strong force fighting alongside the Burmese Army, according to Karen sources in Burma.
“They intend to use a pincer maneuver to dislodge the KNLA,” a Thai military intelligence officer told Mizzima on condition of anonymity. “There are six Burmese Army battalions involved, with the two thousand Burmese troops split equally at the northern and southern ends of the 7th Brigade’s territory.”
“But it’s the 900-strong DKBA that will bear the brunt of the fighting as they lead the attack, with logistical support from the Burmese Army on either side,” he added.
The 7th Brigade is the KNLA's largest and best trained force. More critically it controls a long and strategically important stretch of land between the KNLA’s northern and southern forces.
Now that they are retreating the other two Karen strongholds are isolated and susceptible to being easily surrounded, according to military analysts in the region.
The KNU has been fighting for independence in the hills of eastern Burma and the world's longest running insurgency. They are one of a handful of rebel militias not to have signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta.
“There is no doubt that the junta, with the help of the DKBA, are going all-out to wrest control of the area along the border from the KNU,” Burmese academic and military specialist Win Min told Mizzima.
The renewed military campaign against the KNLA has been prompted by the regime’s planned elections next year and the proposed creation of a national border police force – comprised of disarmed ethnic rebel armies having reached ceasefire agreements with the regime.
However, thus far most ethnic groups have rejected the junta’s plans, though the DKBA has agreed in principle to become a border police force.
In the area along the Thai border where the KNLA is active, the Burmese Army has closed some 30 of its 100 military camps in the last few months, in anticipation of the DKBA taking control of the area, according to the Free Burma Rangers, who operate inside the country.
“They want to eliminate the KNU now because we have called on all Karen to boycott the elections,” speculated Thackerbaw. “The last thing they want is for other ethnic groups to follow our lead.”
Meanwhile, across the border in Burma many villagers are bracing themselves for further fighting and shelling, with the next few days likely to see the Burmese military substantially step up their operations, said a senior Thai military officer.
As the fighting continues more Karen refugees are certain to seek safety across the border in Thailand. So far refugees have fled from seven villages in the war zone, but there are more than 40 villages affected by the current fighting.
“If the fighting continues, at least 8,000 more villagers will have to escape across the border or die at the hands of the soldiers,” Zipporah Sein, General Secretary of the KNU, told Mizzima.
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