Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 16 Nov 1992 00:52:50 PST
From:         "(Coban Tun)" <tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU>
Subject:      Burma: Rangoon targets Manerplaw

RTw  11/15 0052  KAREN SAY RANGOON TALKS PEACE, TARGETS MANERPLAW

    By Sutin Wannabovorn
    MANERPLAW, Burma, Nov 15, Reuter - The leader of the decades-long struggle
against Rangoon for autonomy for the Christian Karen minority says Burma's
ruling junta lies when it talks about halting military operations against
them.
    "The civil war has never for a minute halted," General Bo Mya, president of
the Karen National United (KNU), told reporters at his Manerplaw headquarters
over the weekend.
    Rangoon had recently deployed at least six battalions of fresh troops close
to the north and south perimeters of his headquarters on the banks of the
River Moei inside Burma, he said.
    "Three battalions (a total of 1,200 men) are now at Notha, 20 km (12 miles)
to the south, and three battalions at Kamamuang of Pa-Pun district merely one
day's walk from here," Bo Mya said.
    The rebel leader and Burmese civilians allied with him since the Rangoon
generals seized direct power in 1988 said the junta, called the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), had deployed 10,000 fresh troops to its
eastern border areas for the annual dry-season offensive against the ethnic
minorities.
    The Karen are the most powerful of a dozen ethnic minority groups that
have been seeking autonomy from Rangoon virtually from the time Burma won
independence from British colonial rule in 1948.
    "Even though the SLORC has declared the halt of hostilities, the civil war
has never for a minute halted," the stocky, 65-year-old Karen general said.
"They attack KNU positions all the time and force the people to SLORC areas...
The military junta always lies and they keep lying.
    "The SLORC declared the halt of military operations merely to avoid the
strong criticism from foreign countries and for propaganda purpose."
    Bo Mya said government troops had overrun three KNU camps since October,
when heavy fighting resumed as the rains diminished.
    Burmese troops are poised to capture the KNU's Seventh Brigade headquarters
at Tawoohta, 100 km (60 miles) south of Manerplaw, where 600 Karen soldiers
had been locked in fighting with 3,000 Burmese attackers, the defenders said.
    At least 12 Karen fighters have been killed so far in this battle.
    Tawoohta camp came under heavy mortar attack when Reuters visited on
Saturday afternoon.
    Karen soldiers and Thai officials monitoring the fighting from across the
Moei said most of the Karen fighters had abandoned the camp and only a handful
of soldiers were left behind at their mortar posts.
    The Thais said they expected that the Karen would abandon this camp
entirely within one or two days.
    The Karen general, who has been fighting his Burmese enemies since 1948,
said he was confident that his 20,000 fighters could withstand this year's
government offensive.
    He said he had received assurances from a senior Thai official that his
neighbours over the Moei would not allow Burmese to cross the border to attack
them from the rear.
    "I am quite confident that we can defend Manerplaw and Kaw-moo-ra (the
Karen's second biggest camp, south of Manerplaw)," he said.
    Burmese troops on many occasions in past years have crossed into Thailand
to attack the Karen from the rear because rough mountains and minefields block
them from making a frontal infantry assault on either Manerplaw or Kaw-moo-ra.
    "We will protect Manerplaw at all costs," Mahn Sha, personal secretary to
the KNU leader, said. "The Karen have been fighting with Burma since General Bo
Mya had only one rifle and five bullets. Now we have weapons many thousands
times more than then. I am confident we can hold our camp."
    Manerplaw was a ghost town at the end of last year's offensive after Burmese
launched air strikes and heavy artillery and mortar barrages on the camp. Scores
of people were killed and wounded.
    The Karen have built five cement and rock bunkers 20 metres (60 feet) long
and three metres (nine feet) deep to deal with air strikes.
    "These bunkers can withstand half a ton of bomb," Manh Sha said.
    The Rangoon government declared the suspension of military operations when
the dry season ended last April.
    Rangoon last week said 200 of its soldiers were killed during the past three
months, but General Bo Mya said more than 500 Burmese soldiers were killed
while his troops lost merely 30.
    "The SLORC always lies and they continue to lie to the world about the
national convention," he said. "The military dictatorship has no right to hold
a national convention."
    The military junta, which put down a nationwide uprising for democracy in
1988 and later refused to honour the results of a parliamentary election it
lost, is planning a national convention for January to draft a constitution.
    "This convention benefits no one but is to firm up the SLORC's position,"
Bo Mya said.
 REUTER SUT MS JB
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