MAE SOT, Thailand-Myanmar border (Reuters) – Hundreds of people have fled Myanmar’s cities since last month’s military coup and are taking refuge in areas controlled by ethnic militias on the Thai border, an official said on Thursday of one of the groups, while Thailand was preparing for a wave of refugees.
An official from the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been fighting Myanmar’s army for decades, said nearly a thousand people took refuge within KNU-controlled territory.
Myanmar security forces have killed at least 217 people in their crackdown on opposition to the coup, according to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, a civil rights group in Myanmar.
“There are now hundreds of people in our area,” Padoh Saw Taw Nee, head of KNU Foreign Affairs, said in an interview.
“Some are strike leaders, others are involved in CDM (civil disobedience), government personnel … deserters from the police and the army, and also some deputies (members of parliament) and doctors.”
He said a smaller number had also sought refuge further north, on the border with Shan State, in a region controlled by another ethnic militia.
More than two dozen ethnic armed groups are active on Myanmar’s border lands, and the KNU is one of those that has condemned the coup and vowed to support the resistance.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee said a ceasefire agreement with the government before the coup had been paralyzed.
“We strongly support the CDM movement and the popular demonstration,” he said, echoing calls for Myanmar to become a democratic federation.
A Board spokesman did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Thai authorities are preparing a wave of refugees and have reserved areas to accommodate more than 43,000 people in Mae Sot district, according to plans seen by Reuters.
Thai Army Colonel Prasan Henprasert said border patrols had increased.
“If there are clashes, we need to assess the situation and have areas ready,” he said.
“In our experience, a lot of people can cross over and go back when the situation is safer because they have their homes on the other side.”
Reports by Panu Wongcha-um and Poppy McPherson; Edited by Kevin Liffey