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[Note: Clicking on a photo will provide an enlargement of the photo]
On 28 and 29 January 1997, SLORC and DKBA mounted major attacks against 3 of the main Karen refugee camps in Thailand: Huay Kaloke (pop. 6,576), Huay Bone (a.k.a. Don Pa Kiang, pop. 3,678), and Beh Klaw (a.k.a. Mae La, pop. 25,596). Huay Kaloke was almost completely destroyed, Huay Bone was completely destroyed, and about 15 houses were burned down in Beh Klaw while the attackers were driven back. About 10,000 people were left homeless. All photos relate to the report "Attacks on Karen Refugee Camps" (‘Camp Attacks’).
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Photos #30-34: Refugees watch helplessly while almost all of Huay Kaloke refugee camp burns on the night of 28 January. Fire spread so quickly through the tightly-packed bamboo huts that most could escape with nothing more than their children. [Photos: Brian McCartan]
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Photos #35,36: Remains of 2 of the houses burned during the attack on Beh Klaw. Note in the second picture, the attackers scrawled ‘DKBA’ on a tin drum with a piece of charcoal. [Photos: W.T./KHRG]
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Photo #37: A Thai merchant who made part of his living selling things in Huay Bone refugee camp. He was sleeping in the camp the night of 28 January, and when he heard the shooting he jumped into his truck and tried to drive out of the camp. The attackers ordered him to stop but he tried to drive through them, they opened fire and he was killed. [Photo: Huay Bone source]
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Photo #38,39: Two refugees from Beh Klaw who went 15 km. north of the camp in February 1997 to collect vegetables at Kamaw Lay Ko, where a former Karen refugee camp was burned and destroyed by SLORC and DKBA in 1995. They stepped on a landmine on the Thai side of the border. It is unclear who laid the mine, but it was probably either the Thai Army or a SLORC/DKBA force. [Photos: W.T./KHRG]
