05-15-2006, 06:59 AM
Monday, May 15, 2006
Myanmar junta wonders about US invasion
MONE: Myanmarâs military junta said on Sunday it wondered whether the US exemption of the Karen refugees from immigration laws presaged an invasion of the southeast Asian country.
Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said the last time Washington allowed an exemption from laws aimed at keeping terrorists and their supporters out was before the âBay of Pigsâ invasion of Cuba after the communist victory there.
âThe US government then provided these Cuban exiles with shelter and food and then military training and weapons,â he told a news conference.
âAfter that, in 1961, the US had these Cuban exiles invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs,â he said. âThe recent exemption made by the US in their immigration law reminds us of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.â
The exemption by the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Myanmar because of the juntaâs detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, was for Karen in refugee camps on the Thai border.
But Kyaw Hsan they were really relatives of rebels who have been fighting Yangon for decades. âBearing this in mind, we now need to ask the US what makes them amend that law and what they want out of this?â
Karen rebels say the people in the camps have been forced to flee junta forces who routinely kill rape or force people into slave labour.
Meanwhile, a report said that over the last month, more than 800 ethnic Karen have fled the biggest Myanmar army offensive in a decade to a makeshift jungle camp near the Thai border. Hundreds more are likely to follow.
In some of the first independent confirmation of a growing refugee crisis inside the former Burmaâs Karen State, report included interviews of dozens of families who walked for weeks through malaria-infested forests to escape soldiers of the SPDC, as Yangonâs ruling junta is known.
Protected by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) guerrillas in a steep valley one mile from Thailand, they spoke of friends and relatives murdered, villages burned to the ground and the ashes seeded with landmines.
Some of them used the word âmyo dongâ. In Karen, it means genocide. âThe SPDC is trying to make sure the Karen are wiped off the map of Burma â the people, the culture, the language,â said 30-year-old Sor Law Lah Doh, who arrived two days ago in the camp near the Salween river with his wife and three children.
Another new arrival, 70-year-old Kya Kwa Po, agreed.
âThe SPDC will only be happy when there are no more Karen in Burma,â he said, sheltering from the midday sun beneath a blue tarpaulin slung across bamboo poles on the edge of the jungle. The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a Christian group that helps refugees inside Myanmar, says more than 15,000 ethnic minority people have been forced to flee their homes but remain inside the country as internally displaced people, or IDPs.
The UN refugee agency confirmed two weeks ago that 1,800 had crossed into Thailand since December, where 120,000 ethnic minority people from Myanmar live in permanent refugee camps. agencies
Myanmar junta wonders about US invasion
MONE: Myanmarâs military junta said on Sunday it wondered whether the US exemption of the Karen refugees from immigration laws presaged an invasion of the southeast Asian country.
Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said the last time Washington allowed an exemption from laws aimed at keeping terrorists and their supporters out was before the âBay of Pigsâ invasion of Cuba after the communist victory there.
âThe US government then provided these Cuban exiles with shelter and food and then military training and weapons,â he told a news conference.
âAfter that, in 1961, the US had these Cuban exiles invade Cuba through the Bay of Pigs,â he said. âThe recent exemption made by the US in their immigration law reminds us of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.â
The exemption by the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Myanmar because of the juntaâs detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, was for Karen in refugee camps on the Thai border.
But Kyaw Hsan they were really relatives of rebels who have been fighting Yangon for decades. âBearing this in mind, we now need to ask the US what makes them amend that law and what they want out of this?â
Karen rebels say the people in the camps have been forced to flee junta forces who routinely kill rape or force people into slave labour.
Meanwhile, a report said that over the last month, more than 800 ethnic Karen have fled the biggest Myanmar army offensive in a decade to a makeshift jungle camp near the Thai border. Hundreds more are likely to follow.
In some of the first independent confirmation of a growing refugee crisis inside the former Burmaâs Karen State, report included interviews of dozens of families who walked for weeks through malaria-infested forests to escape soldiers of the SPDC, as Yangonâs ruling junta is known.
Protected by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) guerrillas in a steep valley one mile from Thailand, they spoke of friends and relatives murdered, villages burned to the ground and the ashes seeded with landmines.
Some of them used the word âmyo dongâ. In Karen, it means genocide. âThe SPDC is trying to make sure the Karen are wiped off the map of Burma â the people, the culture, the language,â said 30-year-old Sor Law Lah Doh, who arrived two days ago in the camp near the Salween river with his wife and three children.
Another new arrival, 70-year-old Kya Kwa Po, agreed.
âThe SPDC will only be happy when there are no more Karen in Burma,â he said, sheltering from the midday sun beneath a blue tarpaulin slung across bamboo poles on the edge of the jungle. The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a Christian group that helps refugees inside Myanmar, says more than 15,000 ethnic minority people have been forced to flee their homes but remain inside the country as internally displaced people, or IDPs.
The UN refugee agency confirmed two weeks ago that 1,800 had crossed into Thailand since December, where 120,000 ethnic minority people from Myanmar live in permanent refugee camps. agencies