Burma Army digs in for battle with

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Subject: Burma Army digs in for battle with KNU rebels (The Asian Age, 21/2/97)

Burma Army digs in for battle with KNU rebels
 
Bangkok, Feb. 20: Burmese government troops were digging in rather than 
conducting any major advances into ethnic Karen-held territory to the 
south of last week's sweep of rebel bases, border sources said on Thursday.
 
Clashes continued, however, between forces of the military's ruling State 
Law and Order Restoration Council and the Karen National Union, which has 
resisted central rule from Rangoon for 50 years.
 
The junta's troops last week swept through the KNU's remaining 
strongholds in Burma's Karen state, opposite the Umphang district of 
Thailand's Tak province, dispersing the rebels into the jungle to 
continue their fight as guerrillas.  Since then a separate offensive has 
been launched against the rebels' last bases to the south, on a strip of 
land more than 200 km long held by the KNU fourth brigade.
 
"The Slorc is still active in the fourth brigade area, but there are no 
major movements," one of the sources said.  "They seem to be digging in 
to what they have for now, though they were moving further into areas 
away from the border," he added.
 
KNU's fourth brigade operates in Burma's south-eastern Tenasserim 
district, close to planned natural gas pipelines from offshore fields to 
the Thai border, and several other infrastructure projects.
 
Burma's military has been condemned by human rights groups, the United 
Nations and western governments for forcing thousands of civilians out of 
the area, putting them to flight into the KNU area or to work on road 
projects or as porters for the military without compensation and under 
brutal conditions.
 
The US state department on Wednesday urged the junta to halt its military 
operations and resolve its differences with ethnic and pro-democratic 
opposition groups through dialogue.  Thailand hosts around 90,000 Karen 
refugees and hundreds of thousands of illegal workers from Burma. (AFP)