By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 11, 2:50 PM ET
EI HTU HTA, Myanmar - His village was burned to the ground and four of his relatives executed but Saw Ta Khay stayed in his native area for 31 years, living with malaria and hiding in jungle enclaves.
Then the ruling junta launched a new offensive - its biggest in almost a decade against the ethnic Karen minority - and he could take no more : he, his family and all 200 fellow villagers fled to the rugged frontier with Thailand.
Now they’re huddled in a narrow, remote valley with about 700 others, their backs against the border-marking Salween River. Virtually without protection, they daily fear attack from troops who are hunting the Karen in a campaign that refugees and aid groups say is marked by killings, torture, forced relocations, land mines and destruction of food supplies.
"Since my boyhood, we have always faced misery in our lives. The few happy times were when there were no soldiers close by. Only God has been there to help up," said the 40-year-old farmer, crouching in a hut cobbled together from bamboo and thatch from the forest.
The Karen, many of them Christians, are among a welter of ethnic minorities in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Most live in remote areas and have radically different culture and traditions from the Burman majority.
The ruling generals say its their duty to prevent the Karen and other rebels from shattering Myanmar’s unity.
This latest of several crackdowns aims finally to crush the Karen National Union, a rebel group that has been fighting for autonomy for nearly six decades, by cutting its guerrillas off from a civilian population suspected of rendering them support.
The insurgents say the regime, imbued with racial hatred going back centuries, is simply trying to eradicate them as a people. They’ve won support from U.S. congressmen, members of the British House of Lords and human rights groups.
"Without swift and decisive (U.N.) Security Council action, the killings and abuses will not stop. China and Russia need to stop blocking action on Burma in the Security Council, as that gives a green light to the military government’s scorched earth policy," the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a recent statement.
But the offensive shows no signs of easing. The military, which has controlled Myanmar since 1962, denies any human rights violations against ethnic minorities, including the Karen, which it blames for a spate of recent bombings.
In the sole statement on the situation, Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan said last month only that "cleaning-up operations are being conducted in some areas where (Karen rebel) terrorists are believed to be hiding."
The onslaught has spawned more than 13,000 internal refugees, according to the Free Burma Rangers, a group of Westerners and ethnic volunteers who aid displaced people in the country.
More people are heading for the Thai border.
Saw Maw Ku, 47, his wife and four children struggled into this camp just hours before reporters arrived, ending a grueling monthlong trek from his village of Bway Baw Der.
His family, including a 6-month-old baby girl, walked only by night to skirt army patrols and suffered from malaria and dysentery, he said. They arrived with their only remaining possessions - rice, salt, two blankets and one change of clothing apiece.
The Free Burma Rangers report that most of the recently displaced don’t want to abandon their homeland for the relative safety of the border or exile in Thailand, which has 140,000 refugees from Myanmar and doesn’t want more.
One such die-hard family, the group says, are a mother, two sisters, a baby boy and a 9-year-old girl recovering after being shot through the stomach last month. The family was fleeing from their village and climbing up a ridge when Myanmar soldiers fired at point-blank range. They killed the father and his 80-year-old mother, who he was carrying on his back.
The flight to the border reflects the severity of the offensive, the largest since 1997, because the Karen - a conservative, rural people - cling to their land at almost any cost. Saw Ta Khay said over the past decade his community had to shift its hide-outs three to four times every year, but always tried to stay near their village of Plaw Mu Der, which was razed in 1975.
Some observers suggest the offensive was launched to secure the hinterland east of the newly established capital of Pyinmana. But it also comes at a time of general tightening up by the junta, including restrictions on foreign non-governmental organizations and indications that it may outlaw the pro-democracy party of detained Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hard-liners came to the fore in Myanmar in 2004 when they ousted former junta member Gen. Khin Nyunt, who had negotiated cease-fires with 17 ethnic insurgent groups and was working on a peace deal with the Karen National Union.
If peace does come, the refugees here say they will head home. But in the meantime many, like Saw Myint Naing, are too traumatized to consider a return.
His village of Yer Loe was burned down twice and recently hit by mortars. A number of its citizens were killed, including his brother-in-law who was going out to buy rice. Another villager was forced to guide the troops, who then shot him when the patrol ran into a minefield.
The 36-year-old farmer can still hear the words of one officer, Tin Hlaing, ringing in his ears : "If I hear one sound out of this village, we will kill you all."