Clash with Karen rebels wounds two after Burmese army forces civilians to stay at encampment

March 17, 2009

Tue 17 Mar 2009, Kan Hadae and Blai Mon, IMNA
One civilian was wounded in a clash with Karen rebels after the Burmese army forced passenger trucks to stay the night at their encampment. A Burmese soldier was also wounded in the fighting.

On March 15th, a column from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 357 ordered passenger trucks on the Three Pagodas Pass to Thanbyuzayat road to stop at their camp near Maezeli. Maezeli is a small outpost approximately 25 kilometers from Three Pagodas Pass, in Karen State on the Thai Burma Border.

Though vehicles using the 60 kilometer road are sometimes stopped a checkpoints if they attempt to pass late in the evening, one source who spoke with IMNA said his truck was stopped at an unusually early 3:45 pm.

“Even though [the Burmese soldiers] did not give us any reasons why they stopped the cars, in my opinion I think they tried to make us like hostages for their [safety]. They thought that, if passengers were with them the Karen soldiers would feel sorry and not fight them,” said the IMNA source.

“We were afraid of the soldiers, so we were going to sleep in Mae Sali. After we had taken a rest for about 15 minutes, the gun sounds came out. There were another 8 passenger trucks and many passengers with me. Just in my car, there were 60 passengers,” said a male passenger in the truck that arrived at 3:45.

A source at the New Mon State Party (NMSP) Tadein checkpoint, 15 kilometers away, differed slightly and said that the fighting occurred at 4:48 pm.

According to sources present for the clash, the fighting lasted about 10 minutes with the hundred-strong column from LIB No. 357 responsible for the preponderance of the small arms fire.

One passenger and a soldier were wounded, though unarmed civilians were unprotected and exposed during the firefight. The passenger was shot in the arm, the soldier in the leg; neither wound is serious.

“After the fighting, one soldier was injured. After the army doctor treated him, he came and treated me,” a source that spoke with the wounded man quoted to IMNA. “And then they gave me a supporting letter so that other soldiers would not find fault with me.” Without such a letter, a civilian bearing an obviously military-related injury would likely be presumed for an insurgent.

After the fighting and through the course of the evening, a total of 20 civilian vehicles arrived and were made to stay the night. Civilian sources report being terrified as they worried over the prospect of another KNLA attack.

“We had to sleep there. But I could not,” said the source whose truck was stopped at 3:45 pm. “I dared not to sleep all night because I was afraid the KNLA would come and shoot again.”

An officer in KNLA 6th Brigade, meanwhile, told IMNA that the clash was inadvertent. According to the officer, 5 soldiers from Battalion 16 of 6th Brigade arrived at Maezeli planning to levy a road tax on a group of what they thought were civilian vehicles. The soldiers were not aware of LIB No. 357’s presence, said the source, who could confirm which side initiated the clash. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union, which has been waging an armed insurgency against successive central Burmese governments since the country’s independence.

“Because of us one passenger is wounded,” said the KNLA source. “We are very sad for him – we did not know the Burmese soldiers would be there. We were fighting, but we did so unintentionally. If we knew soldiers and civilians were together, we would not have come.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News