Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 15:28:06 PDT
From:         "Indonesia Publications/Task Force" <apakabar@IGC.ORG>
Subject:      Frontline in Manerplaw
X-To:         seasia-l@msu.edu

Remark: Scanned from FBIS.

Article Views Karen Frontline in Manerplaw

BKO504054192 Bangkok THE NATION in English 5 Apr 92 p 4

[By Gavin Lewis in Manerplaw]

[Text] The crack of sniper fire silences, for a moment, the early morning
jungle chorus.  Taking my cue from the Karen soldiers around me, I ignore the
urge to drop flat on my face in the sand and instead get on with my breakfast
of rice, fishpaste and boiled leaves.

By the time the last morsels are shoveled up, I too have become used to this
"harassment" fire, which is just as well since it continues throughout the
morning.

The previous evening Major Nando had led me across a rice field in the
moonlight.  He pointed out Tipevicho, or Sleeping Dog Mountain, to our right.
It had fallen to the Burmese troops a few days earlier with the loss of 18
Karen dead and more than 30 wounded, and from it the forces of Rangoon's
State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) were preparing their attack
on the rebel headquarters at Manerplaw.

Ahead, Major Nando said, was a flank of Slorc troops and another behind us.
About eight kilometres to our left and across the Salween river lay
Manerplaw.  Any Burmese soldiers that way? Only some forward observers to aid
the Burmese as they range in with their heavy guns on Manerplaw, the major
explained.

A deserted hillside village was searched for Slorc troops and, found to be
safe, offered us shelter for the night.

The sniper fire began the next chilly morning.

After breakfast, with the temperature moving steadily up towards its midday
peak, we rolled up our blanket, shouldered backpacks and set off for the
Karen forward positions at Mae Pha.

Mae Pha district lies in the shadow of Tipevicho and directly between this
strategically important mountain and Manerplaw.  The other two mountains in
the battlefield, Bobejo and Daw Dai, as well as an imposing ridge line,
remain in Karen hands for now.

We follow a dusty track through dense foliage and across refreshing creeks
until we arrive at a trench line.  Dotted with foxholes and heavily fortified
bunkers, the trench cuts a zigzag path up a steep ridge before disappearing
into the jungle.

Soldiers, both Karen and students, sit in small knots, smoking cheroots or
chewing betelnut, their weapons close at hand.  Rifles vary from World War II
MI carbines, with their worn wooden stocks, to Chinese and Soviet AK47s, "the
best assault rifle ever", and the occasional American M16.

Some of the soldiers wear, Mexican bandit-style, two belts of launchable
grenades over their shoulders, while others sport homemade grenades which
must be lit with a match before throwing.  Their uniforms are a mishmash of
combat gear, longis and rubber sandals.

Inside the bunkers the swept floors are covered with palm fronds while their
roofs are piled high with thick logs.  The bunkers will protect the soldiers
from the dreaded airburst shells, stray shrapnel and small arms
fire -- everything, in fact, except a direct mortar hit.

I follow the unit commander up to the forward-most position, where the trench
line forms a T. The commander points across the gully in front of us to the
opposite hill.

"That's a Burmese position," he says.  A clearing fronted by a wall of logs
is set into the hill about two hundred yards away.  I step nervously behind
a teak tree.

"But there are also soldiers just below us," he adds cheerily and points to
the dense bamboo covering the steep slope at our feet.  "You can call out to
them.  The officers speak English, although I'm not sure whether they'll
answer you with words or guns." I pass up this opportunity.

I notice that most of the soldiers up at this section are students of the
ABSDF -- who have been fighting alongside the Karen since the 1988
prodemocracy uprising was so ruthlessly crushed by Slorc.

Conservative estimates put the number of dead in Rangoon, Mandalay and other
centres at 10,000, and elements of the 22nd Light Infantry Division,
believed to be responsible for the worst massacres and torture at that time,
are now thought to be up in the hills around Mae Pha.

The Karen themselves have been fighting Rangoon regimes for the past 43 years
and while they have been generous with the students and other groups,
allowing them to use Manerplaw in the years of crisis since 1988 there is,
nevertheless, a feeling that the students are the johnnies-come-lately to the
battle.

There is also Karen concern that come the end of the Slorc regime, Karen
ambitions for equal status within a federal Burma may be brushed under the
carpet in the ensuing rush for power in Rangoon.

But for the moment the battle is against the hated Slorc and the belief (or
hope) seems to be that if they can hold out to the end of the current dry
season, there may not be a Slorc around to fight next winter.
A Karen intelligence source I spoke to at Manerplaw said that Slorc was
having to break up and mix infantry divisions in its battle with the Karen in
order to avoid the possibility of mutiny.

And Karen soldiers report seeing NCOs [non-commissioned officers] using their
rifle butts on the backs of Burmese soldiers too afraid to press further into
battle.

Clearly, the Rangoon regime put itself under unnecessary pressure by naming
the exact date by which Manerplaw was to come under its control.  March 27,
Burma's National Armed Forces Day, undoubtedly sounded a romantic note in the
ears of Ne Win, Khin Nyunt and Saw Maung, but reality proved a little more
difficult.

The fall of Tipevicho, proudly trumpeted on Rangoon television was the first
and vital step.  From the scarred top of this imposing mountain, Manerplaw
itself can be pulverized with 120mm mortar rounds.  But the shells will pass
over the heads of the Karen and student forces.  For the Burmese soldiers the
journey to Manerplaw will be a little more difficult.

Perhaps the junta leaders expected a preelection paralysis in Thailand to
work in their favour and allow Burmese troops to cross behind the Karen
lines, into Thailand, for their final assault.  If so, Slorc miscalculated.

We reach the second trench line, more or less parallel with the first, by
midday.  The sniper fire has petered out and we hear a fire fight raging at
the camp where we'd had breakfast.

"Just a probe," I'm told. the Burmese put up a little fire to see what comes
back.  They hope from these probes to determine the exact positions of the
Karen's big guns, but the Karen answer with small arms and grenades.

I heard three further probes at different spots along the frontline during
the day.

After lunch, which is a time rather than a meal at the front, we listen to
the ranging shots going on near Manerplaw.  All afternoon the pounding goes
on, a loud crump, followed by a rumbling echo.  A Burmese students tells me
that Manerplaw is being hit but that there is little damage and later I find
out that many of the shells have landed in Thailand or in the Moei river,
just behind Manerplaw.

That night it becomes clear where the rest of the shells fell.  As we look
out towards the rise separating Manerplaw from the frontline, the crest is
ablaze and in the early hours of the following morning the fire has spread.
Phosphorous bombs, I'm told.

Radio intercepts tell us the next day that the Burmese are cutting a road up
the back of Tipevicho so as to get the massive 120mm mortar launchers up to
its peak and I am reminded of the porters I spoke to who had managed to
escape the clutches of Slorc.
Snatched from cinemas, train stations or the rice fields, these civilians
were press-ganged into carrying supplies of arms, ammunition and food for the
Burmese troops.

Even allowing for the possibility of exaggeration, their stories make
horrific listening.  All speak of carrying great weights on too little
food -- it takes three men to carry a 120mm and horrific torture.  I spoke
to a man who had seen his brother beaten almost unconscious by Slorc soldiers,
then covered with leaves and set alight.  He was left for dead.

Reports from the four women porters now being looked after by the Karen are
worse.  Not only did they endure similar torture and hardship to the men,
they were also subjected to nightly gang rapes by the soldiers.

The porters, now returning to normal health, are free to come and go as they
please under the Karen.  Most wish to return home, but are all too aware of
the dangers associated with the arduous journey through Slorc lines.

Back at Manerplaw, the mood is noticeably less optimistic, now that Tipevicho
has fallen, and all but non-essential personnel are being cleared out of
headquarters.

The destruction of Manerplaw will undoubtedly be a severe blow to morale for
the Karen, but some of the top echelons in the Karen National Liberation Army
believe that it may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

A jungle-based headquarters means that all supplies must be funneled through
it, and its presence causes the Karen to fight their unequal battle along
conventional lines.

The loss of their headquarters could force the Karen into a more appropriate
role as guerrilla fighters, who will certainly be able to rely on the support
of the locals for what could turn out to be a more decisive phase of their
battle against Rangoon.
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