Thai-Burmese Border Camps Braced for New Refugee Flow

MAE SARIANG, Thailand -- Saw Phad Klo spent a week trekking through the jungles of Burma's Karen State with his wife and children. Like many others who take similar journeys, they weren’t sure where they were going but knew they had to leave and find a new place to live.

“I have no hope left for my village, in my mind it's dead,” Saw Phad Klo told The Irrawaddy at his new home in Mae Ra Mu camp on the Thailand-Burma border.

After a sleepless night, families due to be repatriated gather before dawn to discuss their fate. (Photo: Alex Ellgee / The Irrawaddy)

He spoke of the “good times” when his village was in territory controlled by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and his family was “free to lead a good life.” He reminisced about the times when they had a large farm and he felt safe letting his children walk through the forests. 

Then his tone changed and he began to speak of the horrors that have engulfed his village in Papun district.

“Now more and more soldiers of the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) are arriving where we used to live. It has made life unbearable for everyone because they take our food, our money and force us to work as porters.”

Every month, he says, villagers are dragged out of their homes by the DKBA soldiers and forced to carry rice to the front lines.

“We were given very little water and food but had to work long hours taking rice back and forth,” Saw Phad Klo said.

Extra rice is needed by DKBA forces as they prepare to launch an offensive  on two KNU brigades in northern Karen State.

Saw Phad Klo was forced to neglect his farm, cutting deeply into the family's income. He decided to flee with his wife and children to neighboring Thailand in search of a better future.

They are among 300 refugees from Karen State who have arrived at Mae Ra Mu camp in the past two months.

“The refugees are coming because the SPDC and DKBA are burning down their homes and forcing them to be porters so this camp acts as a safe shelter for them,” a camp leader told The Irrawaddy.

After capturing the KNU 7th Brigade headquarters in June 2009, regime forces are reported to be preparing to take more KNU territory in the coming months. This will allow their DKBA allies, who have agreed to the regime plan to form a border guard force, to control more of the border area and potential businesses with Thailand. 

A field researcher for the Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) reported that there has been a buildup of battalions in the area. Two battalions had reinforced the four already stationed north of Papun, he said.

The KNU’s Colonel Nerdah Mya, son of the late Gen Bo Mya, confirmed that there had been a “big build up of SPDC and DKBA troops in the area” and added:  “It’s likely that there will be fighting soon.”

Human rights groups are extremely worried about the effect the increase in military activity will have on people living in the area. For them, more SPDC and DKBA soldiers means more human rights abuses and further flows of refugees to Thailand.

The construction of a new army camp in Nyaunglebin District has already caused more than 1,000 villagers to flee their homes.

KORD says two village headmen have been killed by government troops and three people are missing after an attack that destroyed their village.

“The build-up in troops has created many problems for the villagers,” said Saw Elgar, a Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) coordinator.

“Many of these villagers are trying to avoid being relocated by the SPDC into lowland areas so when the SPDC troops arrive in their area, they automatically suspect that they are KNU supporters and punish them.”

It is feared that the business opportunities being exploited by the DKBA will lead to the arrival of even more government troops and an increase in forced labor. A DKBA demand for the return of refugees is interpreted by the KHRG as a move to recruit workers as forced labor in the new logging companies that are being established in the border region.

Reports that the KNLA is cooperating in the DKBA plan were denied by  Col Nerdah.

“KNLA commanders don’t want the people to go back,” he said. “They know the situation, the people who return will be under the control of the DKBA and the Burmese, and they will be forced to work unpaid in logging businesses.”

An increase in DKBA involvement in gold mining in the region has also been noted.