Myanmar's ethnic minorities suffer a 'hidden war'

Children from the Karen National Union insurgent army at the 51st anniversary celebrations of the army's rebellion.Photo :AFP

Myanmar's ethnic minorities suffer a 'hidden war'
http://www.cnn. com/2007/ WORLD/asiapcf/ 10/03/myanmar. hidden.war. ap/index. html


BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- While international attention has focused on the protests for democracy in Myanmar's cities, a hidden war has decimated generations of the country's powerless ethnic minorities, who have faced brutality for decades.


Children from the Karen National Union insurgent army at the 51st anniversary celebrations of the army's rebellion.

The Karen, the Shan and other minority groups who live along the Myanmar-Thai border have been attacked, raped and killed by government soldiers. Their thatched-roofed, bamboo homes have been torched. Men have been seized into forced labor for the army, while women, children and the elderly either hide out in nearby jungles until the soldiers leave or flee over the mountains to crowded, makeshift refugee camps.
"Many, many thousands of Karen have died in those 60 years," Karen National Union secretary general Mahn Sha said this week of his people's struggle for autonomy since 1947.
The military junta has denied reports of atrocities and says the ethnic rebels are "terrorists" trying to overthrow the government.
The Southeast Asian nation, formerly known as Burma, has more than 100 subtribes. Myanmar's diverse minority groups make up nearly a third of the country's 54 million population.
About two-thirds of the country belongs to the Burman ethnic majority, which is also known as the Myanmar. The other ethnic groups include the Shan, the Karen, the Chin, the Mon, the Arakan or Rakhine, and the Kachin.