A document received by SHAN from an unidentified source on the border contains yet more allegations of conspiracy between Burma’s ethnic resistance groups and Thailand’s Red Shirts. This time the resistance group the Karen National Union (KNU) is being accused of supporting the Red Shirts during their protests against the Thai government in May.

Earlier, the same allegation was leveled against the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’. Both groups, particularly the latter like the KNU, are also stationed on the Thai-Burma border.

The allegations against each group appear to have been leaked through different channels. The first allegation against the SSA ‘South’ was disseminated through an email written in Burmese language; SHAN received reports of the second allegation against the NDAA from the Thai security units on the border and the latest allegations against the KNU were also via email, but this time written in substandard Thai.

The email said that jobless KNU members had been lured by the Red Shirts into joining by promises of employment and money.  The Red Shirts oppose the current Thai government, led by Abhisit Vejjajiva, because they claim it was never popularly elected. They protested for 68 days before troops marched to their camp in central Bangkok on May 19, killing 14 people and bringing the number of fatalities due to political violence over the two-month period to 90.

The KNU responded the same way as the NDAA, saying that the group had nothing to gain by involving itself in political issues in Thailand and that doing so would divert focus from its own agenda, according to the KNU’s General Secretary Zipporah Sein.

“Our fighters are active in Karen State, not on the border. It is just a groundless accusation and rumour trying to discredit the KNU”, she said.

Further unconfirmed reports suggest that as a result of these rumours the SSA ‘South’ was asked by Thai authorities to move out from Thai soil.

The purpose of the allegations seems to be to damage the relationship between the ethnic groups on the Thai-Burma border and the Thai government, which is described by a Thai security officer as “occasionally stormy but on the whole proper.”  If Thailand is panicked into closing its borders, the ethnic groups would be left in limbo in the event of an attack by the Burmese Army.

The Thai security forces has been conducting an investigation into the allegation against the NDAA, but up to this day they have not announced that they have found any evidence which can support the claim.