The Burmese government appears to be losing its grip on the former Democratic Karen Buddhist Army forces that last year joined the Border Guard Force. (Photo: Chandler Vandergrift)
Although the Burmese government appeared to have won a strategic victory last year when it convinced most of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) to join its Border Guard Force (BGF), both the strategy and the victory seem to be unraveling as many Karen BGF troops are either deserting back to the DKBA or shifting their loyalties to the armed ethnic group while remaining in government uniform.
Tellingly, when a group of Karen BGF soldiers gathered on their military base and watched footage of the bloody clash initiated by Brig-Gen Saw Lah Pwe and his breakaway DKBA Brigade 5 against Burmese government troops in Myawaddy last November, they cheered the Brigade 5 fighters, said a DKBA source.
“I was surprise when I saw this. They are BGF but they cheered the DKBA. It seems to me that the BGF doesn’t really exist,” he said. “It is like Saw Lah Pwe is their hero.”
Lt-Col Po Bi is the head of Karen BGF Battalion 1012, which until recently occupied Myaing Gyi Nyu, the former DKBA headquarters in Hlaing Bwe Township, southern Karen State. On May 24, he kicked out his BGF government advisors and ordered the 500 soldiers under his command to remove the BGF badges from their uniforms and replace them with their old DKBA insignia.
After this act of open defiance, Po Bi announced there are no more BGF troops in Myaing Gyi Nyu, only DKBA. He then deployed his troops in Mae Tha Waw in southern Karen State and ordered them to stay on high alert while they waited to see the government's reaction.
At least two other BGF battalions joined the Po Bi-led faction and defied the BGF, with the rest of the Karen BGF battalions remaining neutral thus far. Sources said the majority of Karen troops that previously joined the BGF have now unofficially resumed their status as DKBA soldiers.
There are divisions between Karen BGF battalions and the top Karen leaders in the BGF who previously headed up the DKBA and are now BGF government advisors, including Gen Kyaw Than, Col Chit Thu and Pah Nwee.
Sources in Myaing Gyi Nyu said U Thuzana, a Buddhist monk who is influential with the Karen BGF troops, has been attempting for one month to get all Karen BGF battalions to reunite with the DKBA.
U Thuzana reportedly traveled recently to Pa-an, the capital of Karen State, to meet BGF advisor Gen Kyaw Than with the intention of urging him to return the BGF battalions to DKBA ranks. However, Kyaw Than has not agreed to the monk's request.
However, sources reported that the Karen BGF, DKBA Brigade 5 and KNLA troops are now connected and have agreed to provide back-up military assistance to each other if government troops attack.
The government appears to have lost control over the Karen BGF, the sources reported. In addition, some Karen BGF soldiers stationed at frontline bases have developed good relationships with KNLA soldiers, a potential threat to the Naypyidaw given that the BGF is estimated to have 2,000 armed men while DKBA Brigade 5 has about 1,000 and the KNLA has about 4,000.
“Po Bi's troops won’t open fire against government troops first. But if the government forces open fire against them, there will be a big war,” said Brig-Gen Johnny, the commander of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7.
“It is time for the Karen to be united, we have to help each other. I want to call on all Karen people inside and outside Burma to help each other,” he said.
In preparation for war, the Karen rebels ordered their fighters to stand by and collected ammunition and rations such as rice and dry foods, sources said.
Some DKBA family members, especially women and children, have moved to the Thai-Burma border due to fears of resumed fighting, said Htoo Klei, the secretary of the Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD).
The fact that Myaing Gyi Ngu is now under full control of DKBA and KNLA troops might provoke the Burmese military, one observer said. But state-run television denied that Myaing Gyi Ngu is occupied by the Karen armed ethnic groups, and other observers said the government will try and break the unity of Karen armed groups by using divide-and-rule tactics.
Due primarily to their religious differences, the DKBA split from the Christian-dominated Karen National Union, the political wing of the KNLA, in 1994 and signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in 1995. Afterward, with the backing of government troops, the DKBA launched attacks against the KNLA until the fall of Marnerplaw, the KNU headquarters.
However, after the bloody clash in Myawaddy on Nov.
Source : Irrawaddy
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