Sharon Porterfield ministers to Karen refugees in Thailand. The Karen are Burmese nationals persecuted and living in exile...
Thousands of new refugees from eastern Burma are expected to seek shelter in Thailand once the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) becomes a border guard force under the Burmese military regime, says the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a coalition that assists refugees on the Thai-Burmese border.
Sally Thompson, the TBBC deputy director, noted that the joint offensive by the DKBA and Burmese government troops forced some 37,000 refugees, mostly Karen, to flee to Thailand when they attacked the Karen National Union (KNU) Brigade 7 area in June.
Karen refugees walk along a path on the Thai-Burmese border in June. (Photo: Getty Images)
Among those who fled were refugees seeking to escape forced army recruitment and force labor by the DKBA, instigated partly in order to reinforce troop levels in preparation to become a border guard force battalion, Thompson said.
“If they [the DKBA] decide to continue such recruitment, then we would expect to see more arrivals,” she said.
Once the DKBA becomes a border guard force, it is expected that it will join the Burmese regime in another offensive to capture KNU-controlled areas in Karen State along the Thai-Burmese border.
Jack Dunford, the executive director of the TBBC, said refugee numbers will also increase because many internally displaced people have sought safe sanctuary in the remaining KNU-controlled areas.
Another factor is whether the junta decides to wage military campaigns against the ethnic cease-fire groups that refuse to disarm and transform their troops into a border guard force, Dunford said. The regime has said border guard forces should be in place before the 2010 election.
About 75,000 people have been forced to leave their homes during the past year and more than 500,000 Burmese are internally displaced, according to the survey.
“The scale of displaced villages is comparable to the situation in Darfur and has been recognized as the strongest single indicator of crimes against humanity in eastern Burma,” said the TBBC survey.
The TBBC provides food and shelter to some 150,000 Burmese refugees in nine camps along Thai-Burmese border.
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