The raid on the homes of 10 leaders of the Karen National Union (KNU) by Thai security forces in the border town of Mae Sot on Tuesday came just one month after a previous crackdown against Burmese opposition groups in Chiang Mai.
Thai soldiers and police entered the homes and offices of more than 10 leaders of the KNU and its military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), around 6 a.m. On Tuesday morning.
The wife of Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of late KNU leader Gen Bo Mya, was detained after police found material for making explosives at her house.
In September, Thai police raided the offices of several exiled Burmese opposition groups in Chiang Mai including the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, the Burmese Women’s Union and the National Health and Education Committee, and detained 10 Burmese women for several days.
Since early this year, the pressure on Thai-based Burmese dissidents has been more active. Sources in Bangkok say the Burmese Embassy staff is taking photographs of Burmese activists in demonstrations and at other functions.
During the September crackdown in Chiang Mai, Thai police arrived with detailed information, maps and photographs of the locations of Burmese activists’ offices.
Win Min, a Chiang Mai-based analyst of Burma affairs, said a Burmese military attaché in Bangkok may have played a role in requesting Thai security officials to harass Burmese opposition groups in exile.
However, observers said the recent Mae Sot raid may be the Thai authorities’ way to underscore their informal order in February 2009, which warned KNU military leaders not to orchestrate any activities from Thai territory against the Burmese government and to leave Thailand.
Since then Thai military authorities have increased their pressure. Thai officials told KNU leaders that they must now obtain permission whenever they wanted to enter Mae Sot.
Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher with the Network for Democracy and Development in exile, noted that the KNU is the strongest ethnic armed group never to have signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese dictatorship.
The regime sees the KNU as a potent symbol of opposition groups and for that reason, would like it eliminated, said Htay Aung.
Previously, the Burmese junta asked Thai military officials to encourage the KNU and Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) to enter into cease-fire talks.
In return, at the 15th Asean Summit in Cha-Am, Thailand, which ended on Sunday, the Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein told Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that Burma would not allow anyone to use Burmese territory to attack Thailand.
According to an article on www.manager.co.th on Wednesday, the Burmese regime plans to purge ethnic minority armed forces such as KNU, the Karen National Progressive Party (KNPP) and the Shan State Army – South (SSA -S) before the general election in 2010.
The report said that junta No 1 Snr-Gen Than Shwe instructed junta No 2 Gen Maung Aye to clean up the ethnic armed groups.
KNLA Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of the late KNU chairman Bo Mya, is a main target of the planned offensive, according to the article.
Meanwhile Thai-Burmese border-based activists say that more pressure on Burmese opposition groups based in Thailand is to be expected.
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