DKBA TROOPS DEFECT TO KNU OVER DRUGS

Tak-Nine soldiers of the pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
defected to the Karen National Union in Burma, opposite Tha Song Yang
district yesterday.

The defectors handed over five M16 and AK47 rifles, two M79 grenade
launchers, one RPG rocket launcher, and a quantity of ammunition to
the anti-Rangoon KNU, a KNU source said.

They said they could not stand by and watch the large number of DKBA
soldiers becoming addicted to methamphetamines and being forced to
deliver the pills to the Thai border.

They said Phra Uthusna, the DKBA leader, had moved from Mya Yi Ngu
temple near the border to a small village near Pa-an, the Karen state
capital. The DKBA broke away from the KNU in 1994 after Rangoon
promised autonomy to Buddhist Karen.