Karens retire to fight another day

Karens retire to fight another day

Karenni also fighting, Shan State quiet

War

Karen fighters have moved out from their 6th Brigade Special Security Battalion base opposite Tak Province on Sunday (30 November) prior to concentrated shelling of 60mm and 81mm mortars by attacking Burmese troops, according to Karen National Union spokesman Saw Sarky. 

The combined force, made up of Light Infantry Battalions 270 and 299 and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army's 907th Battalion, found Kyauk Khep, the Karen base, empty, he said. "We would have sustained losses for nothing as the enemy had brought their mortar batteries into range. Another reason was that the base was too close to the border and, as a result, we are fast becoming scapegoats for Burmese actions against Thai soil." 

Previous attacks on the Karen's 7th Brigade and the 202nd GHQ Battalion, in contrast, had played themselves out, he added. 

The blitz against Kyauk Khep, he explained, was crucial for both the Burma Army and the DKBA, because one of the Karens' most effective drug-monitoring activities were conducted from the said base. "Our operations in the past had resulted in the capture of millions of pills coming all the way from Shan State through Mandalay and Moulmein to the border," he said. 

Photo Courtesy: Bangkok Post

The Burma Army is also waging an intensive operation also inside Karenni State, also known as Kayah, using 800-1,000 prisoners as porters, according to Kaarenni Information Network Group (KING). 

Inside Shan State, the situation appears to be relatively quiet, except for reports of defection to the Shan State Army "South" of Col Yawdserk by army deserters. "I hope recent desertions to Col Yawdserk and Lt-Col Moengzuen (Commander of 758th Brigade in Southern Shan State) are just plain desertions," a concerned sympathizer told S.H.A.N.. 

Thakin Than Tun, former Chairman of the Communist Party of Burma, was assassinated by a military intelligence agent disguised as a deserter in 1968.