Description

The Coming Crisis of Brigade No. 6: Analysis of the Current Abuses Committed Against the Karen Population
July 31, 2009 monthly report

ntroduction:
At the end of February 2009, the Karen Democratic Buddhist Army (DKBA) and State Peace Development Council (SPDC) joined forces in preparation for a campaign against the Karen National Union (KNU) territory to rout and destroy the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). The ensuing campaign has changing the face of regional politics, long dominated by the presence of the KNU and its armed wing the KNLA. With the loss of KNU Brigade No. 7, the KNU has been placed in an endgame position, preparing to defend the hart of its territory, Brigade No. 6, heavily populated with ethnic Karen. The fallout from Brigade No. 7’s defeat produced a tide of refuges who fled to locations along the Thai-Burma border, and the UNHCR administered refugee camps. They arrived bearing reports of abuses committed by SPDC and DKBA forces. As the joint SPDC and DKBA force positions itself to carry out their assault on Brigade No. 6, HURFOM focuses this months report on the on going human rights abuses in the southern Brigade No. 6 area, that will form a crisis broader and more terrible then that seen with the fall of Brigade No. 7.