The Burma Campaign UK today called on the British government to take urgent action as more than 2,000 ethnic Karen civilians flee from the Burmese Army and their allies.

The Burma Campaign UK today called on the British government to take urgent action as more than 2,000 ethnic Karen civilians flee from the Burmese Army and their allies.

Ler Per Her, a camp for internally displaced people just inside Burma in Karen State, is being evacuated today as around a thousand soldiers from the Burmese Army and its allies, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), move into the area. The camp is in the Pa’an district of Karen State, on the Thailand Burma border. The Burma Campaign UK has visited the camp twice this year, hearing first hand testimony of abuses committed by the regime.

Ler Per Her has around 1,200 people who have already had to flee their villages because of human rights abuses and attacks by the Burmese Army and DKBA. The camp itself has twice been forced to relocate after previous attacks. After the last attack it moved closer to a base of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), which has provided protection for the camp. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), which opposes military rule.

At the start of June the Burmese Army and DKBA began using people as slave labour to carry military equipment. The Burmese Army and DKBA have moved significant new numbers of troops into the area to prepare for a new military offensive. The Karen Human Rights Group estimates more than 700 villagers have been forced to flee for fear of being used as slave labour or caught up in fighting.

The Burmese Army now has troops and military equipment stationed within range of the Ler Per Her camp. It is expected they will begin military operations to take the area tomorrow. The area is currently controlled by the pro-democracy group the Karen National Union. The Burmese Army wants to take the land as part of its strategy to destroy all opposition to its rule, and offers the DKBA lucrative border trade deals to carry out attacks on its behalf.

The 1,200 people from Ler Per Her are now camped on the Thailand side of the Moei River, they have limited food and shelter.

analysis/unity by Kwekalu Karen News

http://www.kwekalu.net/analysis/unity.html

Burmese Army troops are preparing to launch an offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and heavy fighting is likely on Saturday, a Karen officer said.

Junta launches fresh offensive against KNU
by May Kyaw
Friday, 05 June 2009 21:21

Chiang Mai (Mizzima News) – Burmese Army troops are preparing to launch an offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and heavy fighting is likely on Saturday, a Karen officer said.

“It seems like they are preparing to attack. I think fighting is likely tomorrow [Saturday],” said Brigadier General Jonny of the KNLA.

Soldiers of the Burmese Army along with its allies, Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)’s battalions 999, 333 and 555 have jointly attacked the KNLA battalion 7, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, in Pa-an district. The KNU is an ethnic armed resistance group fighting for self-determination for more than 60 years.

The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) on Friday issued a statement saying the impending conflict has forced about 700 Karen people ,who lived in Pa-an area, to flee to the Thai-Burmese border fearing for their lives.

While the Burmese Army has raided and tried to occupy the military camps in the area controlled by KNU, the longest operating revolutionary organization in Burma, a Karen splinter group, the DKBA has been expanding its troop strength.

May Buddha or god bless all of you

The military government has accused officials of the US and British embassies in Rangoon of allegedly dropping into the office of the Opposition party – the National League for Democracy – 25 times in May alone.

State media accuses U.S. and UK embassies of nexus with NLD
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 05 June 2009 21:07

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The military government has accused officials of the US and British embassies in Rangoon of allegedly dropping into the office of the Opposition party – the National League for Democracy – 25 times in May alone.

The junta’s mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, on Friday reported that officials of the US and British embassies in Rangoon had visited the NLD office 25 times and passed on instructions and unknown materials to NLD members.

“During their visit, they met Central Executive Committee (CEC) members of the party [NLD] and gave them large and small envelopes and parcels,” the newspaper said.

But Win Tin, a former political prisoner and a CEC member of the NLD made light of the accusation saying the visits by US and British embassy officials were in keeping with ‘normal relations’ that diplomats maintain across the world.

“It is just maintaining normal relations. It is not strange,” Win Tin said.

It is only normal for diplomats to maintain a relationship with the government, political parties including the Opposition and with the media in countries they are stationed in, he said.

Win Tin said the NLD is an independent political party and does not act on anyone’s behest or advice including the US and British embassies. But any advice does help in garnering diverse opinions on several issues including political, economic, social and also natural disaster.

Information 5.June by Karenunited

http://www.karenunited.co.cc/

VDO-DKBA to BGF-Villagers in Paan are fleeing DKBA recruitment and arrived to internally displaced people camp Ler Per Her, May 2009.

Karen splinter DKBA transform to SPDC Border Guard Force and their forced recruitment. Villagers in Paan are fleeing DKBA recruitment and arrived to internally displaced people camp Ler Per Her, May 2009.

http://www.kwekalu.net/vdo/dkbatobgf.html

22nd Press Release of the Tripartite Core Group 5 June 2009

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SOS: Aung San Suu Kyi, Demanding Immediate Collective Concrete Actions by Burma Democratic Concern

Dear All Burma Voices Friends,

Aung San Suu Kyi once said that “It is even appropriate or justified for the international community carries out the responsibility to intervene in the internal affairs of another country whose power are creating hell for the population. The international community as a whole should recognise that it has got responsibilities. It can’t ignore grave injustices that are going on within the borders of any particular country.”

Burma crisis is in pivotal state. Junta will definitely deliver the verdict by saying Aung San Suu Kyi is found guilty and will imprison her another 5 more years. This is a ploy to imprison Aung San Suu Kyi since junta wanted to lock Aung San Suu Kyi in jail forever as their rigged 2010 election plan is drawing nearer in which they are setting up everything to win their backed party.

Junta’s planned 2010 election is designed to legitimised military rule in Burma. To pave the way to smooth for their rigged 2010 election plan, junta continue imprisoning democracy activists, plotting the ploy to imprison Aung San Suu Kyi and doing everything they can to nullify 1990 election results. Aung San Suu Kyi is victim of injustice.

In Burma, there is no rule of law and junta is always above the law. Aung San Suu Kyi was elected by the citizens of Burma in the 1990 General Election. Ironically that election was conducted by the same generals who suppress Burma today.

Wa prepares full response to junta

FRIDAY, 05 JUNE 2009 16:12 HSENG KHIO FAH
The United Wa State Army (UWSA) is reported to have prepared its second round official response on the junta’s demands to transform itself into a junta-run border security force, as the deadline for compliance of them draws near, say sources from the Sino-Burma border.

The junta’s chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS) Lt-Gen Ye Myint has asked the UWSA to have another round of talks in Panghsang tomorrow, after the Wa rejected its proposal.

The deadline for the Wa to respond to the demands is by the end of June.
On 26-27, May, following a summit meeting among Kokang, Wa and Mongla, Panghsang held another meeting, an officer who participated in the meeting told SHAN.

The meeting was held at its main base and it was attended by officials from several ranks.

“An agreement among the topics discussed was the decision to confirm its rejection to the junta’s proposal,” he said. “As for the question whether to transform itself into a border security force would be considered after the 2010 elections.”
Topics discussed in the meeting were:
• How to answer the junta’s demand to present its full inventory of strength, weapons, units and the list of those who are going to retire
• To prepare its supplies and to hold clear-cut principles regarding the current situation
• To object to the junta’s designation of training centers for border security forces prior to any agreement between the two sides

The Burma Army has reportedly named Kengtung, the capital of Shan State East, Tangyang, a town 83-miles south of Lashio, Shan State North and Bahtu, Shan State South as training centers.

In Mon State, there are two training centers in Thanbyuzayat township, according to Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) report on 28 May.

But there was a rumor that trainees who don’t pass medical checkup will not be allowed to attend the training and trainees over 50 will not be also considered, the source said.

75% of the Wa leadership had voted to reject the junta’s demands, he added
Shan Herald.

Two prominent Buddhist monks were injured in an elevator crash while inspecting the country’s tallest Buddha statue in the second temple-related accident within a week, monastry officials said Friday.

‘Sayadaw (Abbot) Ashin Sandar Dika and Sayadaw (Abbot) Yawainwe-Innma were injured on Thursday at about 6 pm when the temple lift suddenly dropped,’ an official from the Bawdi Ta Htaung monastery said.
The Bawdi Tahtaung monastery in Monywa, 136 kilometres north-west of Mandalay, is famous for its 130 metre-high Buddha statue that was completed in 2007.
The monks were inspecting the stature in a maintenance lift, witnesses said.
The cause of the failure of lift was still unknown and was under investigation, sources said.
‘The two abbots are now in a hospital in Mandalay with leg injuries,’ said a monastery source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Ashin Sandar Dika and Yawainwe-Innma are well-known monks in Myanmar who have published many books on society and religion.
The accident was the second temple-related mishap within a week.
On 30 May, the Danok Pagoda, situated in Dalla township across the Yangon River from the former capital, collapsed, killing at least two people on the spot and injuring dozens of others.
The historic Danok Pagoda, which was damaged by Cyclone Nargisin May 2008, was under renovation. On May 7 Kyaing Kyaing, the wife of Myanmar’s military chief General Than Shwe, had conducted a religious ceremony at the temple.
In superstitous Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, such accidents are widely deemed inauspicious for the ruling regime.
The two accidents come at a time of rising tensions between the junta and anti-military activists.
The regime opened a new case on May 11 against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for allegedly breaking the terms of her house detention by allowing US national John William Yettaw, a Mormon, to swim to her lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay, uninvited, for two nights.
If found guilty, Suu Kyi, 63, faces a minimum of three and maximum of five years in jail. The Nobel Peace Prize laurate has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest.
The new case against Suu Kyi, who leads the opposition National League for Democracy has outraged world leaders, prompting US President Barack Obama last week to call the proceeding a ‘show trial based on spurious charges.’

Lift accident in upper Burma injures eight

by Mizzima News
Friday, 05 June 2009 16:51

Eight people, including prominent Buddhist abbots Ashin Sandar Dihka and Ashin Yawainwe, have been injured in a lift accident at the Bodhi Tathaung Monastery in Upper Burma.

A lift in the Bodhi Tathaung Monastery in the town of Monywa in Sagaing Division broke and fell from a height of 20 feet, injuring Ashin Sandar Dihka – abbot of Shweparmitawra, Ashin Yawainwe, a monk from Bodhi Tathaung Monastery and five civilians – all of whom were on the lift at the time of the accident.

The injured were reportedly taken to Mandalay Hospital where they are receiving treatment.

“The lift is mainly used for work purposes, carrying goods. We seldom use the lift. It happened because the lift was being used with a motor. They went in the lift to climb up to the top of the pagoda,” a monk from Bodhi Tathaung Monastery told Mizzima.