Stoic Karen vow to fight for their right to life by Daniel Pederson

2009 July 14
by peacerunning
As the Thai government and international organisations attempt to deal with the aftermath of the Burmese junta’s destructive offensive in the Karen National Liberation Army’s Seventh Brigade the junta’s soldiers march on.They began a massive thrust against the Karen people in Sixth Brigade in June of last year.
Sixth Brigade is south of the border town of Mae Sot.
The State Peace and Development Council stormtroopers flanked by their allied militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army then marched north, into Seventh Brigade region, to Mae Sot’s north.They sent more than 3000 people across the border into Thailand and for now there they shall stay, struggling to survive, forced from their homes and farms.
Their former villages, the ones that have not been burned down, are now dangerous ghost towns, surrounded by landmines and boobytraps.And the junta’s troops continue to march north, heading for the KNLA’s Fifth Brigade.This is, word for word, what Fifth Brigade has to say about what is to come.