Myanmar attacks rebel base near Thai border: Thai army official

Agence France Presse 24 January 2005

Bangkok: Myanmar government forces have launched an offensive against a rebel ethnic minority group just across the border from one of Thailand's northern provinces, a senior Thai army officer said Monday.

Government forces and rebels from the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) have clashed three times in the past week, Thai army spokesman Colonel Acar Tiproch said.

About six mortars fired during the attacks landed across the border near the Thai village of Ban Mae Suay Oo, in Mae Hong Son province, 924 kilometers (575 miles) north of Bangkok, he said.

They fell in jungle areas and caused no casualties, he said. "The Thai border committee has sent a letter of protest and met local Myanmar authorities urging caution in their operations near the border," he told AFP.

Myanmar's shelling of a KNPP base located near the Thai border started last Monday after the rebels attacked an army base and killed eight Myanmar soldiers, border sources said.

Ethnic insurgencies have plagued Myanmar's border areas since the Southeast Asian nation gained independence from Britain in 1948. By the end of the 1990s, the junta had signed ceasefire accords with 17 groups, leaving a handful however still fighting Yangon's rule.

Myanmar's ruling junta canceled peace talks with the Karen National Union, the country's largest ethnic rebel group, in October after the surprise ousting of prime minister Khin Nyunt.

The former premier was seen as responsible for persuading 17 ethnic groups opposed to the military regime to sign ceasefire agreements.

His removal sparked concerns that the ceasefires with the ethnic groups, which make up about one-third of Myanmar's 50 million population, could unravel.

Heavy fighting last week in the thick jungles of Myanmar between government troops and separatists from neighboring India has left at least five rebels and 10 soldiers dead, a rebel leader said Sunday.

Kughalo Mulatonu, a leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland which is fighting for a tribal homeland in India's northeastern state of Nagaland bordering Myanmar, said the rebels were killed in intense shelling.