Pinned down in Karen State

by Daniel Pedersen on Dec.21, 2010, under Burma reportage
KNLA fighting near Thai-Burma border

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander Htoo Htoo lets a 60mm mortar rip towards a Burma Army base camp in an area known as Maw Kee, close to the Thai border. The State Peace and Development Council base camp has been besieged for weeks now, the soldiers forced to live underground.
Snipers have make on Burma Army base camps

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sot

Combined ethnic Karen armies have besieged three Burma Army base camps near the Thai-Burma border to the south of Mae Sot.

The camps – at Toh Kyo, K’ne Ley and Maw Kee – are the government’s closest footprint to the Thai border in this mountainous region.

More than 160 soldiers of Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, are pinned down, living underground, not daring to raise their heads for fear of attracting fire.

The Burma Army soldiers constitute the main body of government troops that once controlled the border with its former ally, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which was employed as a forward fighting force.

The DKBA mutinied on November 7, the day of Burma’s much-maligned election, taking control of strategic points in the frontier trading town of Myawaddy.

Fighting persisted for two days before the DKBA pulled out.

Since then the DKBA has rejoined forces with the revolutionary Karen National Liberation Army, which has been fighting for an independent Karen state since 1949.

The two Karen factions first split in 1994.

The Burma Army base camps now besieged are on high ground, from where SPDC soldiers once commanded a comfortable bird’s-eye view as they directed their Karen allies during firefights.

But the wet season is now finished in this part of South East Asia and high ground is a liability, because streams fed by steady rains since June have dried up.

Now the Burma Army soldiers must make their own way down from hillside bunkers to access permanent water, making themselves vulnerable in the process.

The combined Karen forces have laid land mines and set Claymore booby traps on pathways leading to the creeks and their snipers maintain a silent, camouflaged vigil waiting for a chance to hit their enemies.

Drinking water for mere survival takes precedence over sanitary conditions and the SPDC troops now have not been able to wash for almost a month.

“Now they are really under attack,” said one KNLA “Black” Special Forces soldier.

“They’ve got a base camp at the top of the hill and the bottom of the hill is surrounded, we have snipers with .308 calibre rifles and telescopic sights at 600 yards, 300 yards and much closer, maybe not even 200 yards,” he said.

“They’re [the SPDC] spending most of their time underground.”

The base camps have formidable bunkers dug deep into what is now dry, rock-hard clay and the tops are armoured with hardwood logs.

Karen soldiers said foliage was very dense around the camps and it was difficult to see anything.

Nevertheless, on Saturday the SPDC soldiers were forced out of their bunkers in search of water.

They used M-79 grenade launchers to clear a path through landmines to gather drinking water.

One of the Karen snipers said, because of the dense foliage, night time had become an ally.

“Any time they turn on a light they get shot at.

“One guy lit a cigarette, he was shot, I don’t know whether I killed him or not, but the lights went out and the cigarette went down – that was from 600 yards,” the sniper said.

He also wounded another soldier in the leg at 1068 yards.

“I’m using a .308 Remington model 700 with a mid-range Bushnell scope, a 24-power variable magnification adjustable scope,” he said.

“So after that, they moved most of their troops to the other side [of the hilltop], mainly to get away from the snipers and a Chinese-made .50 calibre machine gun we’re using, but then on the other side we hit them with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and 60mm mortars,” he said.

Their position, on the whole, was “not very good” he said, “really not good.”

“They’ve been on the radio begging for recruits to back them up, but they have been refused because three base camps in the area are all under attack.”

Other soldiers said there had been some return fire.

“There’s been some .50 calibre machine gun fire and some 81mm mortars but they haven’t come in on target,” he said.

“They really just don’t know what they’re shooting at.”

The Maw Kee base camp is the largest of the three under attack, home to between 80 and 100 men.

A little further north at K’ne Ley about 50 to 80 Burma Army soldiers are pinned down and “the only place they walk is back and forth in their holes”.

The most northern, and smallest, of the besieged government camps is Toh Kyo.

There too, the SPDC troops are stuck underground, with snipers at 800m, 400m and 200m

Ba Wa, the KNLA’s chief medic for the region, who has 15 medics at 10 different locations in the area, said the water supply to Toh Kyo had been surrounded with Claymore mines and land mines and snipers were laying in wait.

On Monday afternoon Ba Wa was at war with his mobile phone in Mae Sot.

Reports were constantly being called in about an ambush at Wa Shu Pu, between the Karen villages of K’ne Ley and Wah Lay.

A Burma Army unit of about 25 men was in the thick of a Claymore ambush and excited medics were calling their commanding officer to update him.

Terminating a final call before leaving town he said: “I’ve heard five [SPDC troops] injured by rifle fire and one has suffered a land mine injury, but it’s impossible to really know how many have been wounded because it’s still going on,” he said at about 2pm.

Ba Wa said his medics had been monitoring Burma Army radio transmissions and the men caught in the ambush had been reinforcements trying to sneak into Maw Kee.

The reinforcements didn’t get within a day’s walk of that besieged base camp.
Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya surveys the besieged Burma Army camp. By night a mere suggestion of light attracts sniper fire into the bunkers they are trapped in - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya surveys the besieged Burma Army camp. By night a mere suggestion of light attracts sniper fire into the bunkers they are trapped in - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK


A young Karen soldier shoulders an M16 as he listens for the radio call to move forwards - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

A young Karen soldier shoulders an M16 as he listens for the radio call to move forwards - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.


Soldiers of the Karen National Liberation Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, now fighting together after more than 15 years divided, pile into a truck after being re-supplied with M-79 grenades on Sunday (DEC 19, 2010) - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

Soldiers of the Karen National Liberation Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, now fighting together after more than 15 years divided, pile into a truck after being re-supplied with M-79 grenades on Sunday (DEC 19, 2010) - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.


A Karen National Liberation Army soldier stands ready to deploy another rocket-propelled grenade at the besieged Burma Army base camp near Maw Kee, close to the Thai-Burma border - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

A Karen National Liberation Army soldier stands ready to deploy another rocket-propelled grenade at the besieged Burma Army base camp near Maw Kee, close to the Thai-Burma border - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.



Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya leads his mean to a new position below the besieged Burma Army base camp - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya leads his men to a new position below the besieged Burma Army base camp - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

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