WESTERN FRONT FIGHTING

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WESTERN FRONT FIGHTING
Refugees head home; Sangkhla a war zone
By The Nation
10-11-2010

Crisis drags on at Three Pagodas Pass as fighting rages opposite Kanchanaburi. Many killed in Myawaddy clash, but situation returns to normal in border town.

Thai officials began to return thousands of refugees yesterday who fled to Mae Sot on Monday after a state of quiet returned in the Burmese border town of Myawaddy.

But the situation further south remained tense as fighting continued in Pyaduangsu" the town opposite Three Pagodas Pass, causing another exodus into Thailand.

Local authorities declared the area near Three Pagodas, in the western province of Kanchanaburi, a war zone as some rocket-propelled grenades landed on the Thai side of the border. There were no reports of Thai casualties, however.

Hundreds of Burmese troops were reinforced for a second day in their attempts to regain control of Pyaduangsu after a joint force of about 300 ethnic Mon and Karen fighters attacked the town on Monday.

The sound of gunfire, grenades and rockets was heard from on and off during the day. Burmese troops’ attempts to wrest back control of the town were made difficult by strong resistance from the minority groups, sources said.

They said the Karen fighters were a combined force of two former rivals: the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).

The situation was calm in the morning, but the fighting that erupted again in Pyaduangsu in the afternoon forced several thousand refugees to flee to Thailand, Sangkhla Buri district chief Chamras Kangnoi said.

Maj-General Tawan Ruangsri, commander of the Ninth Infantry Division, said he had contacted his Burmese counterpart and asked him to make sure there would be no more spillover of fighting into Thailand.

“Burma agrees to be more careful and prevent a spillover, but asks us to help take care of refugees for them until the situation is back to normal,” he said.

The Thai authorities would take the refugees to a temporary shelter and not allow them to go into Kanchanaburi city, he said.

Thailand already shelters over 150,000 Burmese refugees, who fled the fighting in their homeland over the past 26 years. It also has about 2 million migrant workers from Burma.

In Mae Sot, the Third Army and local authorities began to repatriate thousands of refugees yesterday after Burmese troops regained control of Myawaddy from armed ethnic groups, who seized key posts in the town on Sunday in a violent protest at the country’s “unfair” election.

More than 70 per cent of the nearly 20,000 refugees who fled from the conflict in Myawaddy had agreed to return home yesterday after Thai authorities informed them that the situation was back to normal.

Many of them were seen walking the few kilometres from the Thai Border Police camp in Mae Sot to the Moei River bank, before taking boats across the river. Many of their relatives were seen greeting them on their return.

However, several thousand Burmese remained in the temporary shelter as they lacked sufficient confidence in the situation to return home.

Armed forces commander-in-chief General Songkitti Jaggabatara said Thailand would not open any more refugee camps for Burmese who fled from conflict at home.

“We have a clear policy to provide only humanitarian assistance for them in a short period, and would send them back as soon as the situation returns to normal,” he said.

Thailand would not intervene in the domestic affairs of its neighbours and would not allow any armed groups to take shelter on its soil, he added.

Fighters from a rebel faction of the DKBA captured many official Burmese buildings on Sunday, when the country held its first election in 20 years.

But the Karen fighters returned and moved south after running out of ammunition, sources said.

The fighting left many dead on both sides, plus dozens of injured, including some civilians. But no exact figures could be confirmed.

The former pro-junta DKBA faction decided to attack Myawaddy in protest at the Burmese army’s demand that minority groups join the Border Guard Force, a new arrangement which |threatens their autonomy and business interests.
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