By MAUNG TOO
Published: 17 December 2010
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s (DKBA) battalion 902 commander Colonel Kyaw Thet in Hpalu village, where fighting recently broke out with the government, said the group will commence guerrilla warfare in “every township” if the SPDC continues its offensive against the renegade DKBA faction.
“If they won’t be considerate on us, we will commence guerrilla warfare. We have deployed our units already and we would have to proceed… in every township across Burma,” said Colonel Kyaw Thet.
“We are using the [Burmese Army’s] break from the fighting as an opportunity to reorganise our forces and restock ammunition. We have already prepared ourselves for defence.”
He said more fighting is likely in other ethnic regions due to a growing impatience with the government and that victory can be achieved if all ethnic armies coordinate and fight against the Burmese Army.
There has seemingly been repeated attempts to unite disaffected ethnic armies and rebel groups, with the All Burma Students Democrtaic Front (ABSDF) recently telling DVB that they will join with their Karen counterparts.
While there has been no fighting in Hpalu this week, at least four battles broke out between the DKBA and the Burmese army in Kyarinseikgyi, Kawkareit and Hpapun townships.
A faction of the DKBA broke ranks earlier in the year when it decided against signing the government’s border guard force (BGF) plan, which was an attempt to assimilate ethnic armed groups into the Burmese military.
There has been low intensity war fare occurring in Karen State ever since troops under Saw La Bwe a.k.a Na Kham Mwe took positions in and around the major border town of Myawaddy the day after November’s controversial election.
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