10,000 refugees flee Myanmar post-polls fighting

[November 08, 2010]  BANGKOK (AP) -- Post-election fighting between ethnic rebels and Myanmar government forces has sent a tide of at least 10,000 refugees across the border into Thailand.

The governor of the northern Thai province of Tak and the Thai army commander for the area said Monday that the authorities were sheltering the refugees, who fled after ethnic Karen guerrillas attacked the Myanmar border town of Myawaddy. It was the biggest one-day tide of refugees to flee into Thailand in recent years.

The attack began Sunday, when Myanmar held its first general election in 20 years. The results of the poll are expected to favor allies of the ruling military.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Clashes between rebels and Myanmar government troops raged Monday at key border points a day after the country's first election in two decades -- polling that critics say will the cement the military-run government's power.

At least 10 people were wounded in what was the first sign of post-election violence, and thousands of panicked refugees fled into neighboring Thailand. In the heaviest clashes, ethnic Karen rebels reportedly seized a police station and post office Sunday in the Myanmar frontier town of Myawaddy. Sporadic gun and mortar fire continued into Monday afternoon. More fighting broke further south for one hour Monday at the Three Pagodas Pass, said local Thai official Chamras Jungnoi, but there was no word on any casualties.

Groups from Myanmar's ethnic minorities who make up some 40 percent of the population had warned in recent days that civil war could erupt if the military tries to impose its highly centralized constitution and deprive them of rights.

Myanmar's secretive government has billed Sunday's poll as a step toward democracy, but most observers have rejected it as a sham engineered to solidify military control. President Barack Obama called the vote "neither free nor fair." He said the United States would continue a policy of both "pressure and engagement" in seeking change in Myanmar.

Still, some say having a parliament could provide an opening for moves toward democracy.

There is little doubt the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party will emerge with an enormous share of the seats, despite widespread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule. It fielded 1,112 candidates for the 1,159 seats in the two-house national parliament and 14 regional parliaments. The largest anti-government party, the National Democratic Force, contested just 164 spots.

As early results trickled in, state media and the Election Commission reported that 40 junta-backed candidates had already won their races, including six seats won by recently retired military generals and ministers including Foreign Minister Nyan Win in constituencies that were uncontested.

No matter the election results, the constitution sets aside 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military appointees.

Detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in the last elections in 1990 but was barred from taking office, had urged a boycott of the vote. Hundreds of potential opposition candidates were either in prison or, like Suu Kyi, under house arrest.

Although the balloting passed peacefully in most parts of the country, the clashes at the border highlighted the unstable situation in Myanmar.

Khin Ohmar, a spokeswoman for Burma Partnership, an umbrella group of Myanmar pro-democracy activists based in Thailand, said a faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, seized the Myawaddy police station and post office Sunday. The group sides with the regime, but a faction has split off and along with other Karen rebels is fighting the central government.

Heavy fighting appeared to subside by Monday afternoon but sporadic shots sent refugees streaming across the Moei River into Thailand, said Samard Lyfar, the governor of Thailand's Tak province on the border. Some bullets landed on the Thai side of the frontier.

He said five Thais and five Burmese were reported wounded.

There was no report on the fighting in Myanmar's state-dominated media, and Myanmar government officials could not be reached for comment.

An Associated Press photographer at the border estimated about 5,000 refugees had entered makeshift camps in Mae Sot, Thailand, and more continued to come. Tens of thousands of ethnic Karen villagers who have fled decades of fighting in the border regions already shelter in refugees camps on the Thai side of the frontier.

A Japanese photographer, Toru Yamaji, 49, was detained Sunday in Myawaddy on suspicion of illegal entry after slipping across the Thai border to try to cover the election, Japan's embassy said. Yamaji worked for APF, a Tokyo-based news organization. Myanmar had barred foreign reporters from covering the polls.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, when it was known as Burma. Decades of human rights abuses and mistreatment of its ethnic minorities have turned the Southeast Asian nation into a diplomatic outcast.

While Sunday's vote was widely condemned in the Western world, it was met with virtual silence by Myanmar's chief ally, China, and economic partners in India and Southeast Asia.

Many voters said they wanted to cast their votes against the junta's politicians, but turnout appeared light at many polling stations in Yangon, the country's largest city. Some residents said they stayed home as rumors circulated that bombs would explode.

By late Sunday night, some of the opposition politicians who took part in the elections were expressing dismay at what they called widespread cheating. Also, several parties say many voters were already strong-armed into casting ballots for the junta's proxy party in a system of advance voting.

Still, some voters and experts on Myanmar said that despite the election's problems, creating a parliament might provide an opening for eventual change.

"It seems likely that the very small public political space will be widened and this is probably the best outcome we can hope for from the election," said Monique Skidmore of Australian National University.

Democracy advocates are now looking toward the coming few days. Officials have indicated that Suu Kyi could be freed from house arrest after the election.

Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said Monday that he was certain Suu Kyi would be released Saturday, when her latest period of detention expires.

"We are making plans for a welcoming ceremony," he said.

Suu Kyi has been locked up in her Yangon villa on and off ever since the ruling generals ignored the 1990 poll results. They hold a total of some 2,200 political prisoners.

One of Suu Kyi's two sons, 33-year-old Kim Aris, applied for a visa Monday at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in hopes of seeing his mother for the first time in 10 years. Aris, who lives in Britain, has repeatedly been denied visas.

Asked if he was optimistic, Aris told reporters he had "not too much hope. But there's always a little bit of hope. We'll see." He called the elections "a load of rubbish."

[Associated Press]

Associated Press photographer Apichart Weerawong in Mae Sot, Thailand, and writer Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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