DKBA Plans Major Offensive against KNLA

By SAW YAN NAING

The pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) is beefing up its troop numbers in preparation for launching a major offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Kawkareik Township, according to both DKBA and KNLA sources.

While skirmishes and clashes between the two groups have become almost a daily occurrence in KNLA-control areas this week, the DKBA has now been joined by several hundred soldiers from the Burmese army, the sources said.

Reports said about 12 armed trucks carrying more than 200 DKBA soldiers from battalions 907, 906, 333 and 999 have been deployed into the Kawkareik area following clashes last weekend.

Capt Bu Paw of the KNLA’s Battalion 201 said that joint DKBA-Burmese forces are gearing up to launch an assault against KNLA battalions 201 and 103 in Kawkareik Township, which is located in southern Karen State bordering Thailand’s Tak Province.

“The DKBA are now recruiting soldiers and are making plans to attack us,” Bu Paw said. “Our [Battalion 201] military base near Kler Law Kyel village is on their hit list.”

Karen sources said that the DKBA were anxious to wrest control of Kawkareik Township from the KNLA because of the profits to be gained from agriculture, logging and mining in the area.

Since the clashes last weekend, DKBA soldiers have been patrolling near the KNLA [Brigade 6] military base and have burnt down about four houses in Kalaw Kler village and eight houses in Takawka village, including a school, said Bu Paw.

He also said that DKBA soldiers had threatened local villagers and said they would burn down more villagers’ homes if they were attacked by the KNLA.

Bu Paw claimed that two DKBA soldiers were killed and six were injured last weekend, while the KNLA suffered no casualties.

Karen sources said that dozens of soldiers from DKBA Battalion 907 attacked the Thai village of Mae Klong Khee in Umphang District in Tak Province last weekend, forcing hundreds of villagers to flee their homes. The sources also claimed that the soldiers burned down several maize barns on Burmese soil opposite Mae Klong Khee.

In July, fighting between DKBA and KNLA soldiers prompted an evacuation of some 100 residents in Ban Padi village in Thailand’s Phop Phra District.

Karen human rights organizations said the DKBA has been recruiting soldiers in Pa-an District in southern Karen State since mid-August and has forced Burmese villagers to attend military training, in an effort to prepare an offensive against the KNLA.

The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union (KNU) and has been fighting the Burmese army almost continuously since Burmese independence in 1948. The DKBA split from the KNU in late 1994 and signed a ceasefire with the Burmese military regime.