Clashes between KNU and SPDC troop rage on

DVB ( 27 November 2003 )

There have been fierce clashes between KNU (Karen Nation Union) fighters on Thai-Burma border 30 kilo metres south of the Thai town of Maesod. The clashes started on 25 November and they are still going on.

Around 150 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion – 299 and DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) – 907 attacked the base of KNU’s Brigade 6 at Kyauk Phet. A strayed shell landed on the Thai territory and one villager was seriously injured.

The clashes occurred after a delegation of SPDC led by military intelligence officer Colonel Sann Pwint and KNU members met at Maesod.

The General Secretary of KNU, Phado Mahn Sha said that the SPDC tend to attack the rebels even when conducting talks with them. In 1996, the SPDC contacted the KNU several occasions while attacking the rebels militarily and the current situation is not different from the previous ones, he added.