Fighting in Myanmar erupts near Thai border

April 28 ------ Heavy fighting erupted at a Myanmar army outpost near the eastern border with Thailand early on Tuesday in an area largely controlled by forces of a Karen ethnic army. The Karen National Union (KNU) said it had captured the army position, in some of the most intense clashes since a Feb. 1 coup plunged Myanmar into crisis. The fighting also came days after Southeast Asian leaders said they had reached consensus with the junta on ending violence.

Villagers across the Salween river in Thailand said heavy gunfire started before sunrise. Video posted on social media showed flames and smoke on the forested hillside. Forces of the Karen National Union had taken the outpost at around 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. (2230 to 2330 GMT), the group’s head of foreign affairs, Padoh Saw Taw Nee, told Reuters. He said the camp had been occupied and burned down and that the group was still checking on deaths and casualties. The spokesman said there had been fighting in other locations too, but did not give details.

The Karen Information Center, a local media group, said the army base had been overrun. It said villagers had seen seven soldiers running away. Myanmar’s army made no immediate comment. It historically proclaimed itself the one institution that can keep the multi-ethnic country of over 53 million people together, though much of Myanmar has rallied in opposition to its coup. The army base at the Thai border had been largely surrounded by KNU forces and food had run short there in recent weeks, according to Thai villagers who had had contact with the soldiers.

A Thai official from the Mae Hong Son province said one person had been wounded in Thailand during the fighting, but did not have further details. KNU forces had clashed elsewhere with the army since it seized power and cut short a decade of democratic reforms that had also brought relative peace in Myanmar’s volatile borderlands.

Source: inquirer.net