Thai security agencies raid Karen Information Centre

Thursday, 04 February 2010 19:06 Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A surprise raid was carried out by Thai police and soldiers on Thailand border town Mae Sot based Karen Information Centre (KIC) this morning.

About 20 Mae Sot based armed policemen and soldiers searched the news agency office for over an hour starting 6 a.m. and took photographs.

“There was no one in our office at the time. They entered and ransacked it,” KIC editor Nan Phau Ge told Mizzima.

Before raiding and searching the news agency office, Thai security men entered and searched the residence of Karen National Union (KNU) party leader David Tharkapaw.

A family member present at the time said, “The police searched both upstairs and downstairs. They found nothing in our house and took photographs. They carried service revolvers. The KIC office was closed when they entered. So they forced open an upstairs window and three policemen entered the building, took out KIC newspapers and dropped them outside”.

This is the first ever incident of the KIC office being searched and raided on suspicion of keeping drugs and arms, editor Nan Phau Ge said. KIC is a news agency disseminating news related to Karen region and Karen people.

She also said that personnel in a Thai army truck took photographs of the KIC office on February 2 at about 9 a.m. from the front. They searched the building with a search warrant today.

“They came looking for arms and drugs. It was just an excuse,” a KNU leader said.

Since the former Thai PM Thaksin assumed power, KNU leader Pado David Tharkapaw’s house has been raided and searched thrice, including this time. Thai police and army personnel came and searched his house for the second time on 27 October last year.

Following the assassination of KNU Secretary General Pado Man Sha in Mae Sot on 14 February 2008, the homes of KNU leaders were searched. They were warned not to live inside Thailand.

On 27 October last year, Thai police and army personnel searched for arms and drugs in the homes of five top KNU leaders. They escorted the wife of Col. Nada Mya of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), Nan Hi Lar, to their office but she was released later the same day.

Similarly the raiding team led by Tak Province Chief Col. Nonpathone, comprising of policemen, border guard force and people’s militia accounting for cover 100 personnel searched the residences of KNU leaders in Naung Bwa village, Thar Saung Yan Township on 4 November last year for illegal arms. But they found nothing.

After the Burmese PM assured his Thai counterpart of not allowing Thai opposition forces on Burmese soil at the 15th ASEAN meeting held in Thailand in October last year, a series of raid and search operations of KNU leaders’ homes followed.