More than 2,000 villagers from Myanmar’s restive Karen state have fled across the border to Thailand to avoid possible fighting between rebel forces and government troops, an aid group said yesterday.
The human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide said more than 1,200 villagers in temporary camps along the Thai border have fled because of fears the government was planning to launch attacks.
The Karen Human Rights Group said another 700 villagers fled potential clashes between the rebel Karen National Liberation Army, the military arm of the Karen National Union (KNU), and government troops and their supporters, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
The KNU has been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. Myanmar’s military continues to launch sweeping counterinsurgency operations in Karen areas along the Thai border, displacing thousands of civilians. Many join some 100,000 of their countrymen in refugee camps in Thailand.
Christian Solidarity and pro-democracy groups including the US Campaign for Burma called on the UN to intervene to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
“The reports we have received indicate that Burma army troops may attack within hours,” Alexa Papadouris, an advocacy director for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said in a statement. “This is an urgent situation which requires immediate international attention.”
A Myanmar government spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment on the reports of fighting.
The groups urged the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the country’s military regime and establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity.
At least 1.5 million people have already fled such attacks, said Aung Din, cofounder of the US Campaign for Burma.
Ceasefire talks between the KNU and the government broke down in 2004, and the Myanmar army launched a major offensive in Karen State in eastern Myanmar in 2005.
Since then, army offensives, coupled with divisions within the organization, have reduced the group’s armed presence over the past decade.
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine last year while fighting under contract for the Russian military, an investigation by independent Russian media said. Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on April 4 last year in “Eastern Europe,” an obituary published by his family said. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, who was appointed the deputy director for digital innovation at the CIA in February last year. The story of how the son of a top-ranking US spy died fighting for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of
RSS