10,000 refugees flee post-election violence in Burma

FIGHTING between ethnic minority rebels and Burmese government troops has sent at least 10,000 refugees across the border into Thailand after a widely criticised election that is expected to usher in a parliament sympathetic to the military regime.

Fighting raged yesterday at key points on the border with Thailand, leaving at least 10 people wounded on both sides.

In the heaviest clashes, Karen Buddhist rebels reportedly seized a police station and post office in the border town of Myawaddy.

Sporadic gun and mortar fire continued into the afternoon. More fighting broke out further south for an hour at the Three Pagodas Pass, said local Thai official Chamras Jungnoi, but there was no word on any casualties.

Groups from Burma’s ethnic minorities, who make up some 40% of the population, had warned in recent days civil war could erupt if the military tries to impose its highly centralised constitution and deprive them of rights.

“There have been at least 10,000 refugees who have fled to Thailand,” said Colonel Wannatip Wongwai, commander of Thailand’s Third Army Region responsible for security in the area.

He said Burmese government troops appeared to have retaken control of Myawaddy and the rebels of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army held a few positions on the outskirts of the town.

“As soon as the situation is under control, we will start sending the refugees back to Myawaddy,” Colonel Wannatip said.

Samard Loyfar, governor of Thailand’s Tak province, opposite Myawaddy, said the UN was helping care for 10,000 refugees sheltered at a makeshift camp.

Most observers have rejected the election as a sham engineered to solidify military control.

US President Barack Obama called the vote “neither free nor fair”.

Addressing parliament during a visit to India – another neighbour of Burma – Obama said yesterday it was unacceptable for the government to “steal an election” and hold its people’s aspirations host- age to the regime’s greed and paranoia.

There was little doubt the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party would emerge with an enormous share of the seats, despite wide- spread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule.

It put up 1,112 candidates for the 1,159 seats in the two-house national parliament and 14 regional parliaments. The National Democratic Force, the largest anti-government party, contested just 164 spots.

As early results trickled in yesterday, state media and the Election Commission reported that 40 junta-backed candidates had already won.

Detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured), whose party won a landslide victory in the last elections in 1990 but was barred from taking office, had urged a boycott of the vote. Hundreds of potential opposition candidates were either in prison or, like Suu Kyi, under house arrest.