More than 50 Karenni villagers who were accused of assisting soldiers of the Karenni National Progressive Party during a skirmish between the Burmese army and the KNPP were arrested and are currently being detained by Burmese authorities, according to a villager in Karenni State.

The villager said that those arrested villagers were accused of aiding frontline Karenni soldiers during the skirmish as well as of failing to keep the Burmese troops informed.

The 50 villagers are from Loikaw, Chitkeh, Palong and Suplong villages and were arrested after October 8. They are currently being detained at Loikaw’s police station and the army’s Regional Command Center, said the villager, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. Family members have not been allowed to visit their relatives at the detention centers, he said.

The villager added that seven people from Palong and eight people from Suplong were among the 50 arrested. They were stopped and arrested by Burmese troops while traveling to Loikaw to sell their maize at the market in order to buy rice for their families.

The armed clash between KNPP soldiers and Burmese troops from Infantry Battalion 530 took place in Chitkeh village near the Karenni capital, Loikaw in eastern Burma on October 4. Four Burmese soldiers were killed and five were injured, said KNPP’s general secretary, Raymond Htoo. The Karenni did not sustain any casualties in the fighting, he claimed.

“They [the Burmese soldiers] regularly do this kind of thing,” said the KNPP general secretary. “They tell villagers that the Karenni soldiers cannot survive without the villagers’ support. They also accuse the villagers of feeding Karenni soldiers,” he added.

The vice-secretary of the KNPP, Khu Oo Reh, said that those who have been arrested are civilians and have no connection with the KNPP. They were also accused of acting as guides for the Karenni army while traveling in those areas, he said.

Khu Oo Reh said that the Karenni army had clashed with Burmese troops an estimated six times since early October.