Baptist Karen Guerrillas Battle Burmese Troops and U.S.-Supplied Helicopters

by Richard S. Ehrlich

RANGOON, Burma -- The government's 105-mm artillery and phosphorous shells scream through the lush teak forests, exploding on bunkers sheltering Karen Baptist rebels, and sending thousands of refugees splashing across the Moei River into neighboring Thailand.

This war has escalated into a long, stubborn fight by an estimated 8,000 Burmese government troops against more than 4,000 minority ethnic Karen guerrillas plus 6,000 mostly unarmed Karen volunteers.

The Burmese government launched this new offensive against the Karen tribe in the rugged, isolated Dawna mountains after failing to crush them during the past 35 years of on-and-off fighting.

The Karen say they are struggling to create a democratic, capitalist nation based on Jesus's teachings in the southeast part of this impoverished, socialist, Buddhist country.

The new offensive by Burma's authoritarian leader, Ne Win, has left hundreds dead on both sides, and created more than 13,000 Karen refugees who fled across the Moei River into Thailand where makeshift camps have been set up with assistance from Western relief organizations.

"All of our bases are strong," a senior Karen guerrilla said in an interview at Mae Sot, Thailand -- just a few miles from Wangkha, on the Moei River, where the fighting was underway.

"The Burmese government is using US-supplied helicopters to bring in their big 105-mm guns and ammunition to the front," he said.

To prove his point, the guerrilla leader displayed large fragments of the two helicopters shot down last June at nearby Mah Po Kay.

"These are the remains of the gift from the American people to the Burmese government," the Karen guerrilla said, holding a fragment of a US-built Bell helicopter which bore part of a label reading: "serial number A3-07271 FBW196, part number 212-010..."

The brunt of the current fighting is in Kawthoolei state's Dawna mountains 150 miles (240 kms) east of the capital, Rangoon.

The Karen rebels control much of Kawthoolei state where they have set up civilian courts, schools, hospitals and social services.

The Karen also have uniformed guerrillas under a self-declared rebel government, headed by Karen National Union president, General Bo Mya.

In September, rebels and Burmese government forces clashed along the Moei River at Mae La.

The guerrillas attacked the soldiers' lengthy, heavily fortified entrenchments in thick jungles.

By meandering through government-laid booby traps and mines, and battling against the Burmese regime's mortar and rifle assaults, the rebels were able to pierce the government's main camp and dislodge Burma's army, said the Karen rebels.

The guerrillas earlier gained brief international attention in October when they kidnapped a French husband and wife at a construction project in Mayaing Galay, 90 miles (150 kms) east of Rangoon.

The rebels demanded France stop aid to Burma until a Karen homeland was recognized.

Paris rejected the demands, and the couple were released.

The Karen originally migrated to Burma, beginning about 4,500 years ago from Mongolia's Gobi Desert, historians say.

Karen legends speak of the desert as, "The River of Sand."

During their ancient migration, they lost their holy book but the Karen's deity -- the Y'we or Creative Power -- is believed to have promised their book would be returned by a "white brother."

As a result, when British colonialists arrived in Burma, many Karen eagerly embraced their Christian teachings.

Today, Burma's two to three million Karen -- five per cent of the nation's total population -- comprise the largest Christian group in Burma.

Karen guerrillas and sympathizers like to compare their struggle for independence to the Palestine Liberation Organization's fight for a homeland.

"This is a fight for our national survival," one top rebel said in an interview.

"We need world sympathy, because we are fighting for democracy.

"We are anti-communist, so America should help us."

Karen chafe under Burmese law which forbids them from teaching their own language, creating political parties, traveling freely or enjoying other human rights.

The Burmese government's military offensive, which began in January, has meanwhile angered Thailand because some Burmese government artillery shells landed on the Thai side of the Moei River.

A Thai soldier, at the site of recent fighting, pointed at the charred wreckage of a market place and homes, and said in an interview, "This Thai village of Ban Huey Kaloke has been destroyed by Burmese gunners firing from four miles away, behind that hill.

"The Burmese shells also destroyed our Buddhist temple," he said, indicating a heavily damaged structure atop a hill, where a handful of Thai troops monitor the fighting in and around the main Burmese border crossing at Wangkha.

"We sometimes fire 155-mm warning shots back at the Burmese to tell them that their artillery is landing in Thailand," the Thai soldier added.

Burmese soldiers, hoping to encircle the Karen, have also recently crossed into Thailand -- but were forced back by Thai troops.

After Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, the Burmese government has been simultaneously fighting wars against about 30 different insurgent groups, comprised of various ethnic minorities, including the Karen, Shan, Mon and Arakanese.

The minorities all feel unfairly dominated by the ruling Buddhist Burmans.

Unlike the Shan rebels, who gain much of their money by smuggling opium, the Karen guerrillas insist they oppose narcotics.

To finance their rebel fight, the Karen instead collect a five per cent tax on all other items smuggled in and out of Burma, which pass through their Karen region.

A Western diplomat in Burma said in an interview, "The majority of the blackmarket items here in Rangoon's market came through Karen territory from Thailand."

The goods from Thailand include calculators, wristwatches, tape recorders, cameras and medicine, plus an array of household items.

In exchange, smugglers take from Burma its tea, ivory, jade and other precious stones, which are brought into Thailand and elsewhere.

"The Karen have made a very substantial amount of money, and have done very well up to now," the diplomat added.

The Karen's emerging financial strength -- plus their latest strategy of launching small raids on Rangoon and other cities while trying to ally with a tiny Islamic Arakanese independence movement -- apparently convinced the government to pick 1984 as the year to crush the rebels.

"But the Burmese haven't been able to crush the Karen during the past 35 years of fighting, so it's not certain they can do it now," the diplomat cautioned.

Since January, fighting has erupted along the Moei River at Three Pagodas Pass, Palu, Myawaddy, Wangkha, Mae La, Maw Po Kay, Klerday and Mae Tha Waw.

While Burmese troops seized Mae Tha Waw, and heavily damaged the other rebel strongholds, they failed to crush resistance elsewhere along the 200-mile (320-km) stretch of the Moei River, according to rebels and Thai military officials.

For the Baptist Karen to win this year's fight, they must succeed in their current counter-offensive.

The rebels began their counter-attack during last year's June to September rainy season, while Burma's government troops were bogged down in muddy mountains, and stretched by vulnerable, precarious supply lines.

One rebel said in an interview, "We feel good about our counter-offensive."

"We have forced the Burmese (troops) back from several of their strongholds."

Now that the rainy season has passed, however, the Burmese government is expected to escalate their own dry season offensive.

The regime's aim will be to force the rebels to retreat south, so the government can secure border trading posts where smuggling operations are the most prevalent -- and lucrative.

The Burmese regime wants to deprive the rebels of their five per cent smugglers' tax, and eventually force the Karen to surrender.

Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich

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