The Karen National Union (KNU) will abandon its Brigade 7 military bases because they are unwilling to kill their fellow Karen and lose soldiers in the fighting, according to Karen sources.

The Karen sources said that the KNU will let the joint Burmese army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) force take over the military bases because it does not want Karen people to kill each other. The DKBA soldiers split from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the military wing of the KNU in early 1995.

During the recent fighting, the DKBA soldiers were ordered by the Burmese army to fight on the frontline as minesweepers, while Burmese soldiers fired mortars from the rear for support, said KNU sources.

Sources said the KNU prefer to use guerrilla tactics instead of confronting the combined troops as it will cost fewer lives.

The joint force has already seized three military bases belonging to KNLA Brigade 7, since the combined force started the offensive in early June. The seized bases belonged to KNLA Battalion 21, 22, and 101.

About 20 soldiers from the joint force, who were mostly from the DKBA, have been killed and 50 injured, according to KNU sources. Five KNLA soldiers have reportedly been injured.

The offensive launched by the joint force has forced at least 4,000 Karen villagers to flee their homes in Pa-an District in southern Karen State and escape to Thailand.

The DKBA is recruiting soldiers as the Burmese regime has ordered their troops to become border guard militias. They have also been asked to clean up KNLA military bases along the Thai-Burma border by 2010, when the regime plans to hold the general election, according to Karen sources.

The KNU has been fighting for autonomy for six decades but has never signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime.

irrawaddy

(DVB)?Two members of the opposition National League for Democracy party arrested after praying for the release of political prisoners in Burma have each been sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison.

The two, Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei, were arrested on 21 April after holding a prayer ceremony at a pagoda near to Rangoon division?s Twante township, and charged under Section 295a which addresses "desecration of religious buildings and property".

Aung Soe Wei?s wife Ma Lwin said the two were immediately taken to Rangoon?s Insein prison following the verdict and were barred from speaking to family members waiting outside the court. Lawyer Kyi Toe said that his requests to authorities to let him meet his clients to were denied.

?I made a request to the police station chief Myint Kyaw and also to the court, but was denied both times,? said Kyin Toe. ?I was not given the right to freely talk to and discuss with my client from the start until the end of the case.?

Meanwhile, three National League for Democracy (NLD) youth members in Rangoon were arrested by authorities last Friday.

NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said it was a further sign of the ruling State Peace and Development?s Council?s repression of opposition groups in Burma.

?The NLD has been under pressure [from the SPDC] for many years and it is not easing, even when they are promising a new election and the end of all arguments,? said Nyan Win.

?But we are not in depression; we will continue doing our work and will never change our non-violence policy.?

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet