Security concerns in the aftermath of the killing of a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander has put paid to the plans for the new camp.

2009 July 2
tags: Burma, DKBA Killers, Genocide, Human Rights, Junta, Karen, KNLA, KNU, refugee, Thailand, world focus on Burma
by peacerunning
Camp plan abandoned, fear of attacks forces rethinkby Don TalenywunThursday, 02 July 2009 14:30
Mae Salid (Mizzima) – Plans to set up a new refugee camp near the Thailand-Burma border, to cope with the influx into Thailand of over 3,000 people fleeing fighting in Burma, have been abandoned.
Security concerns in the aftermath of the killing of a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander has put paid to the plans for the new camp.
Colonel San Pyone, the DKBA’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999, died on June 26, when seven DKBA boats were attacked on the Moei River.
Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack.
The camp was to be in the Tha Song Yang region, at a place known as Ti Nu Koh, and built around the skeleton of an abandoned school.
But the Eden Valley Academy School’s proximity to the border is about five kilometers and the fact that there are two easy land approaches for DKBA troops led to the plan being shelved.
Attacks on civilians are anticipated in retribution for the DKBA commander’s death.
Because of the precarious security at Ti Nu Koh, agencies responsible for critical infrastructure, food and clothing had asked the Thai Army to post armed guards around the old school should it be used as a temporary camp.
Thai security forces said they were undermanned and could not ensure security. They recommended another site for consideration. All parties agreed to move the displaced people into the massive Mae La refugee camp.
Anyone who wants to return home may do so, but Thai authorities will ask them to sign a form saying they have refused refuge in Thailand of their own accord and have not been forced to leave.
This is to counter recent allegations of soldiers forcing those fleeing, back across the border and to prove Thailand is willing to offer safe haven in a time of need.
An extreme Burmese military offensive in the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade region has necessitated a rapid response from both Thai authorities and international agencies to deal with thousands of people forced across the border.
Karen village leaders, displaced along with others, estimate more than 4,000 people have lost or fled their homes in recent weeks.
A Free Burma Ranger video, shot during the offensive shows DKBA soldiers torching schools and villages as they made their way towards the border, marked mostly in this region by the Moei River.
The headquarters of the KNLA’s Seventh Brigade, home to its 202 Battalion, has been abandoned and is now occupied by DKBA and Burmese Army soldiers.
But a senior KNLA figure said the fight was far from over, claiming the abandoning of 202 headquarters was nothing more than a “tactical withdrawal”.
This has been a recurring tactic of the KNLA in recent times – to withdraw when heavily outnumbered so as to live and fight another day.
Who killed San Pyone?
One of Pado Mahn Sha’s alleged killers has met the same fate.
Former Karen National Union General Secretary Pado Mahn Sha was assassinated on Valentine’s Day 2008 in his home in Mae Sot.
But who killed Colonel San Pyone, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s commander of Battalion Seven under Brigade 999?
The Colonel, for whom arrest warrants had been issued by a Thai Criminal Court for his alleged part in Mahn Sha’s death, was shot dead on June 26 by unknown people.
He was traveling in a military flotilla of seven boats.
Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in the attack, which was apparently launched from both sides of the Moei River.
The prime suspects, of course, would be KNU gunmen.
But KNU vice president David Thackrabaw said the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, was not active in the area.
The attack occurred in the KNLA Seventh Brigade region, an area recently lost to the Burmese Army and the DKBA.
Brigade 999 has a terrible reputation among Karen villagers for forced recruitment, brutal treatment of its recruits and a murderous approach towards the local populace.
But if the KNU did not kill San Pyone, then who did?
There is no motivation for the Thai Army to act in such a manner.
Some observers have suggested the Burmese Army might have been behind the killing, citing a perceived need for the DKBA’s overseer to keep rogue commanders of its slave militia in line.
With the DKBA’s transformation into a border security force, senior military commanders will become increasingly irrelevant.