IHT By Ismail Wolff 27 May 2006 01:59

EI TU HTA, MYANMAR тАУ Saw Saw Nai and his wife and four young children struggled for three months through the perilous jungles of Karen State to arrive at this camp of bamboo huts on the edge of the Salween river. The family is among thousands of Karen fleeing what reports suggest are the most broad and violent offensives the Myanmar military has launched against the Karen minority in years. тАЬThe soldiers came into our village and destroyed everything, all of us had to flee but some couldnтАЩt get away and they shot five people dead,тАЭ said Saw, 28, whose youngest child was only three months old when they fled their homes with all they could carry. тАЬIt took us three months to get here, and we often ran out of rice and had to survive off bamboo shoots and leaves and what people we met gave us.тАЭ Saw and his young wife and children, the oldest only six, are among the lucky ones. Despite one child currently being treated for exhaustion and dysentery at the campтАЩs crude clinic, they emerged from the jungle tired but alive. Saw said 170 people from 56 families in his village in Kler Iwe Htu district are still hiding out somewhere in the jungle, including his mother and father and the rest of his family.

Similar stories are told by nearly everyone in the camp on the border of Mae Hong Son, along with accounts of rape, torture and the destruction of homes, rice fields and livestock.

Reports suggest there are now as many as 16,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been forced to leave their homes and possessions behind to flee the advancing Myanmar army. Many of the thousands of men, women and children are heading east it seems, deeper into territory patrolled by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and closer to the border with Thailand. According to the United NationsтАЩ refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 2,000 often tired, hungry and sick Karen refugees have crossed the border into Thailand over the past three months, with 400 making the difficult journey just last week.

But the camps are being stretched to their limits, the UNHCR said last week, and they expect many more to follow in the coming weeks and months. тАЬThe camps are supposed to have holding centers for new arrivals but those centers are completely overwhelmed, with the refugees living under plastic sheeting which does not provide nearly enough shelter during the rainy season,тАЭ said Kirsten Young, UNHCRтАЩs assistant regional representative (protection). And across the Salween river in Myanmar, those that have made it as far as this small border camp that currently houses 827 people say it is too dangerous for them to go home. Many are also hesitant to cross the river to the Thai-run refugee camps, fearing they would never be able to see their homes again.

But this is the last stop before that crossing. тАЬWe will stay here for now, but in time my grandchildren may have to think about crossing to Thailand,тАЭ said 60-year-old grandmother Sha Paw, who was one of the first people to arrive at the camp with her family nearly three months ago. тАЬWe canтАЩt go back. They have put land mines around our rice fields, destroyed our cooking pots and all our food and animals.тАЭ

Sha Paw has fled the Myanmar army several times before in her 60 years, she says. She has many tales of oppression to tell, like the one about her husbandтАЩs murder by soldiers when he went out one day to buy salt and fish paste. But she has never run this far. тАЬNormally we would hide for a month or two, and then return to our villages. But this time it is not safe to go home,тАЭ she said. Many say they feel safer now that they are at the camp, with the KNLA providing security around the area.

And although the Myanmar army is camped just a two-hour march north, the Thai military is just across the river and the Karen National Union says the refugees will be safe here, for the time being. And the campтАЩs leaders seem to be preparing up for a long siege.

тАЬThey donтАЩt want to go to Thailand, what we all want is to return to our homes, and that is what these people are waiting here for,тАЭ said David Loo, vice chairman for the camp.
тАЬThis yearтАЩs offensive is not the same as normal years, and I donтАЩt know when these people can return to their villages. тАЬWe canтАЩt defeat them on our own, we are in need of the outside world to call on the generals to stop these atrocities.тАЭ

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"Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003
Burma's military rulers have extended the detention under house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, government officials have said. Ms Suu Kyi's latest period under house arrest expired on Saturday, raising hopes that she would be released. The pro-democracy leader has been held since May 2003, and has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest.

On Friday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to the head of Burma's military junta to free Ms Suu Kyi....." BBC News

Sometimes it seems that the World publicity about Aung San Kyi overshadows the massive atricities of the Military regime.

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