military leadership launched a new offensive forcing them to flee their homes, investigators and local sources said.
"In Burma this time of year is known locally as the "killing season" as during the dry season soldiers can move more easily in the dense jungles of Burma," reported American religious rights group Christian Freedom International (CFI), which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians.
"The military junta has stepped up its genocidal attacks on the Karen, an ethnic minority in Burma," CFI told BosNewsLife. The current military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been accused of attacks against predominantly Christian communities including the Karen as well as Karenni, Shan, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Arakan and Rohingya.
Over one million people are believed to be internally displaced in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and since 1996 over 2,500 villages have been destroyed in eastern Burma alone, investigators said. Attacks against Christians have been linked to fear within the regime to lose its power base. Burmese authorities have denied wrongdoing and blame reports of human rights abuses on "Western propaganda."
OUTNUMBERED GROUP
In a statement released by CFI, a soldier with the outnumbered Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) expressed concern over the situation.
The soldier, 50-year old Saw Aro, said 700 displaced men, women, and children recently arrived in his Ko Kay village. "They came from Toungoo and Nyaunglebin districts after the Burmese Army brought in 10 battalions with some 1,500 new soldiers from Rangoon," he claimed. "The new soldiers are making big problems."
He said that "when the new soldiers arrived in Toungoo and Nyaunglebin districts…they tried to find Karen villages…to capture and persecute them. So, people who living there…fled their villages and are hiding in the mountainside and jungle in safe places to save their lives."
The soldier stressed it was creating "a humanitarian emergency" as the Burmese came " destroyed everything so all the villagers having nothing to eat and cannot grow food for the year."
SHORTAGE OF FOOD
They also face a shortage of food and medicine in Ko Kay because there "is not enough food and medicine right now for the villagers. It is a major problem," said Aro. The displaced Karen villagers from Toungo and Nyaunglebin district area arrived in Ko Kay village after "facing many terrible things," he added.
"They had to walk for ten days [but] there was a lack of security, food and medicine." In addition, he said, Burmese soldiers tried "to block them and lay landmines," before they finally reached their destination.
He said that most of them do not want to go back to their villages. "Some people said, if they can stay in Ko Kay they will. Others, they want to cross the border line and live in the refugee camps [across the border] in Thailand." News of the latest tensions came shortly after 3,000 terrified Christian Karen villagers were in hiding following new attacks by the Burmese Army in Western, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), another human rights group, last month.
CFI said it distributes medicines, food, and emergency assistance to these and other displaced villagers in Burma. The organization announced it was requesting "emergency donations" for the displaced Christians in Ko Kay village and elsewhere in Burma. (On the Web: www.christianfreedom.org. With BosNewsLife Research in Burma and other reports).
