Myanmar cracks down against Indian rebels

ANI: 29 December, 2006

Guwahati: India and Myanmar has launched a military crackdown against an Indian tribal separatist group camped in the country, with heavy fighting reported between Myanmarese troops and guerrillas, a rebel leader said on Friday.

Rebels and the Myanmarese soldiers were fighting pitched battles in Hkmati district in Myanmar's northern Sagaing Division, a spokesman for the S.S. Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) said. "A brigade of the Myanmarese army with heavy weapons launched the assault targeting our cadres for the past three days although there have been no reports of any casualties on our side so far," Kughalo Mulatonu, a senior NSCN-K leader said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

There was no immediate confirmation of the military offensive from Myanmar, with which India shares a 1,640-kilometre unfenced border. Myanmar has repeatedly assured New Delhi that it will not let Indian rebels operate from its soil.

The last crackdown on Indian rebel camps was last February. Indian officials say the porous frontier allows the rebels to escape into Myanmar after attacking Indian troops. The NSCN-K, fighting for an independent homeland for the Naga tribe in north-eastern India, has at least 50 camps with a total of around 5,000 guerrilla fighters in Sagaing, according to Indian estimates.