Rift between Junta and DKBA Deepens

By LAWI WENG
Tension between Burmese junta troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in Myawaddy township on the Thai-Burmese border has been mounting since the disagreement on border guard issues.


Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, a Karen source close to the DKBA in Myawaddy township said: “The majority of DKBA members don't want to lose the name of their organization. They are worried that without the DKBA name, there will be no political objective and no hope for a better future for ethnic Karen. This is why they don't want to transform their troops into a border guard force (BGF).”


A member of the DKBA said its spiritual leader, the influential abbot Ashin Thuzana, told DKBA leaders to keep their organization's name and not to accept the Burmese junta's BGF plan.

A DKBA officer at the Three Pagodas Pass told The Irrawaddy: “We will never betray our Karen people. We will keep our arms following our leader Saw Ba U Gyi's principles and we will fight for the freedom of our Karen people.”

He said certain people involved in the border trade in Myawaddy who are close to the generals want the DKBA to join the BGF. While top leaders reject the BGF plan, young leaders agree to accept it.

DKBA troops in the Three Pagodas Pass area are on alert as tension has been mounting according to sources in the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

“Relations between them [Burmese junta troops and the DKBA] today are unlike anything before. They don't trust each other now,” said Lawi Mon, a member of the NMSP.

Nai Tain, a Mon driver in Myawaddy township, said Burmese authorities have set up more checkpoints on the road between Myawaddy and Moulmein, inspecting all vehicles and travelers.

The authorities seized unlicensed cars—many such cars belong to DKBA members—entering Moulmein on Tuesday, he said, adding that this was part of the pressure junta authorities were putting on the DKBA.

The DKBA, which has been used by the military regime as a proxy force to combat insurgencies in Karen and Mon States, agreed to the BGF plan shortly it was announced in April, 2009.

However, when Ashin Thuzana announced his opposition to the plan in February, the group's leadership backed away from their original acceptance.

Ashin Thuzana, 68, the abbot of Myaing Gyi Ngu Monastery in Karen State, has long been active in the promotion of Buddhism in the area and has been responsible for the construction of several pagodas in Myaing Gyi Ngu.

He was reportedly admitted to hospital in Bangkok for treatment of a long-standing lung problem early in February. Burmese military officials reportedly offered to admit him to a military hospital in Rangoon, but he chose a private clinic in the Thai capital.

The DKBA, which was formed 15 years ago, now controls most of the Thai-Burmese border area previously controlled by the Karen National Union.

It claims to have 6,000 troops and plans to enlarge its army to 9,000, making it Burma's second largest non-state armed group. It has been accused of human rights abuses in its clashes with KNU forces and also of involvement in human trafficking along Thai-Burmese border.

The Burmese junta has put pressure on all the ethnic cease-fire groups in Burma to transform their troops into BGF battalions since last year, making April 22 the most recent deadline for acceptance. Many of the groups remain defiant, refusing to accept the plan, however.