More Karen flee Myanmar to Thai border, Myanmar arrests Karen journalist
Around 1,000 Karen hill tribe people crossed the border into Thailand on Saturday, only for Thai authorities to send them back, according to an official from a refugee camp. This month, over 10,000 Karen from Myanmar’s Kayin state have fled after clashes between Karen rebels and Myanmar’s military.
Now, Burmese police have arrested a reporter for the Karen Information Centre. The reporter’s name is Nay Naw, according to a source close to the family. The source said Nay was summoned to the station twice for questioning on Monday, and detained during the second meeting. The source told Radio Free Asia he didn’t know where Nay was detained, but he and the family had heard Nay was being held in the Myawaddy Myoma Police Station.
“We don’t know if he has been tortured or beaten”.
Meanwhile, the Karen who fled to the Thai border camp out along the river there. According to one Karen woman, those camping don’t have adequate food, shelter, blankets, or medicines. Myanmar’s Junta Deputy Minister of Information Major General told RFA the junta is preparing to to set up temporary shelters for refugees in and around Myawaddy.
“If it’s going to take time for them to return to their places of residence, we consider them to be [displaced persons]. If it isn’t, it is considered a temporary evacuation”.
Just weeks ago, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accused Myanmar’s army of burning alive women and children in the Kayah state, another Karen-majority state.
SOURCE: Radio Free Asia
