Myawaddy police besieged by DKBA troops

September 22, 2010

.Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Tensions remain high tonight between a joint force of junta police and soldiers and a Democratic Karen Buddhist Army unit in Myawaddy after DKBA troops sought to repossess unregistered cars by laying siege to a police station on the Burmese side of the Thai border, witnesses said.

The station in ward four was cornered by 20 soldiers led by Kyaw Thet Oo of DKBA Battalion 907. The troops were seeking to force police into returning their cars seized for lacking licence plates. Junta troops arrived later and in turn besieged the DKBA troops until the latter group withdrew, a resident said.

“When the junta’s army launched a crackdown on illegal cars without licence plates, some cars owned by DKBA troops were among those seized … the DKBA troops became angered and besieged the police station,” Nan Phaw Gay, an editor of the Thai-Burmese border-based Karen Information Centre news agency, told Mizzima.

“Later, junta soldiers arrived at the scene,” Nan Phaw Gay said.

Some of the seized cars were owned by private citizens and some by members of ceasefire groups such as the DKBA. There were more than 40 cars at the station, a witness said.