BGF

In a media statement released yesterday, the Karen National Union say they have reason to believe the Burma government and its armed militia, the Border Guard Force, plotted to smear the KNU as drug runners. The KNU were responding to media reports in Thai newspapers and on television that two men arrested by border patrol police and a village headman…

In retaliation for a state controlled newspaper report that declared the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army was extinct, DKBA fighters attacked three different tollgates under the control of the Burma Army in Kawkareik Town, Karen State late last week. The attacks happened in the afternoon and were led by the DKBA’s Klo Htoo Wah unit and targeted the Burma Army’s Infantry…

A Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander told Karen News that the breakaway DKBA factions that refused to give up their Karen identity and come under the direct control of the Burma Army by becoming members of the Border Guard Force have begun restructuring their political and military aims. The decision was taken at a meeting in August that involved all…

The Burma government’s recently implemented Border Guard Force in Karen State continues to see its soldiers’ desert to join up with opposition forces. This week another 30 soldiers aligned themselves to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army battalion in the Myaing Gyi Ngu area and led by Major Saw Beeh. Brigadier General Saw Jonny, the commander of the Karen National Union…

The Kayin State Democracy and Development Party (KSDDP) based in Hpa-an in Karen State, announced in the state-controlled media that it did not recognize the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and claimed that the group undermines peace and stability of the State under the name of DKBA. The KSDDP’s statement ran in the state run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar,…

The Border Guard Force based in Myaing Gyi Ngu area has ordered nine villages in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State to relocate to Myaing Gyi Ngu in mid-August, according sources in the area. Captain Pha Nwee and Saw Htun Hlaing, BGF advisory board members, issued the orders to relocate nine villages to the Myaing Gyi Ngu. The orders affected the following…

“I was asked to speak at the 61st Karen Martyrs’ Day commemoration ceremony. Karen people came together to pay homage to their men, women and in some cases children, who had given their lives for their people. Emotions were high. Nearly all Karen people have lost someone they have loved in the struggle against the Burma military regime. At one…

The Karen National Union issued a statement claiming more than 80 Border Guard Force soldiers had joined their forces in 1st and 7th Brigade in recent weeks. The BGF was a strategy used by the Burma government to unarm, reduce the number of soldiers in the armed ceasefire groups and bring them under the direct control of the Burma Army.…

Fighting between Border Guard Force factions forced 14 village schools in Hlaingbwe Township area to close. The fighting erupted after breakaway fighters and Border Guard Force soldiers loyal to the Burma Army clashed. The renegade faction unhappy with demands and controls exerted on the BGF by the Burma Army, reformed under their old flag – the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.…

The desertion, in April of a 1,000 Border Guard Force soldiers from under the control of the Burma Army has given a huge boost to other Karen armed groups. Karen News reporter Saw K’ Shee has just returned from interviewing the renegade BGF leader, Major Saw Beeh at his undisclosed jungle headquarters. The former BGF fighters are well organised. They…