In Burma, fighting rages on a major trade route with Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia. Ethnic armies attack Burmese military targets and block goods transport vehicles. The clashes are spreading across the country…
1 min
with our correspondent in Bangkok, Carol Isoux
The town of Kawkareik, about twenty kilometers from the Thai border, is in the grip of violent clashes. Images circulating on social networks show around fifteen trucks immobilized on an axis nicknamed the Asian Highway which connects Rangoon, the main Burmese city to Bangkok, the Thai capital. We see columns of smoke and residents trying to take refuge in shelters.
The fighting is the work of the Karen army, an ethnic group that has been fighting the junta for decades. The violence in this specific area had started several weeks ago, but it had been overshadowed by the fighting which continues to rage on the Chinese borderin the northeast of the country, led by several ethnic minority insurgent groups.
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The junta, whose numbers seem increasingly rare and increasingly young according to images published on the networks, must now face at least three coordinated fronts, in the North-East, the North-West, and the ‘Is his territory.
Despite a rapprochement with the Burmese democratic government in exile, the NUG (government of national unity)these different ethnic armies act for the moment mainly in their own name and make important demands for autonomy and control over the infrastructure and natural resources of their respective regions.