Some 2,000 ethnic Karennis have been driven from their homes by Myanmar troops sweeping the border between Karenni and Shan states this month, a Karenni leader said yesterday.
Deputy commander of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) Major-General Aung Mya said nine battalions of Myanmar soldiers had been sent to the area northeast of Yangon and razed some parts.
"Myanmar troops have burned down six villages and 40 rice barns and seized several hundred cattle. The attack caused about 2,000 villagers to flee their homes and run away to the Thai border," he said.
"We don't know why Myanmar sent the troops to attack us," he added.
Aung Mya charged that the attacks showed Myanmar's government was insincere in progressing with peace talks with the group.
According to sources close to the government, peace mediators held talks with the KNPP last month to tell them that a ceasefire agreement they signed in 1995 remained in force despite the KNPP returning to fight shortly afterward.
The mediators told them they could return to the terms of the accord and join in Yangon's national reconciliation process, the sources said.
Myanmar's junta announced in August last year a seven-point plan for shifting the country to democracy, with the first step being a national convention to draft a constitution some time this year.
According to the state-run press, several of Myanmar's ethnic leaders have pledged their support to the so-called "road map."
The KNPP's Aung Mya said that in retaliation for the recent razings, the KNPP had sent troops to attack army bases about 100km southwest of the Karenni capital Loikaw.
There were no report of casualties, he said, but in separate clashes a few days ago opposite Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, six Myanmar soldiers were killed and two Karenni soldiers died.
A recent traveler to the area confirmed that fighting was going on in Karenni state and casualties had occurred.
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