YANGON, Myanmar, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Clashes between the Myanmar army and rebels in Karen state have left several dozen people dead and sent thousands fleeing into Thailand, independent Myanmar sources said.
The clashes in southeastern Myanmar come during the country's first general election in nearly 20 years. But many Western leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have condemned the contest as a democratic sham.
Voter turnout has been low, Myanmar government sources said. No date has been given for making the results public. However, the military has reserved a quarter of parliamentary seat for its appointees. Many other seats are likely to be won by former military top brass who resigned en masse in April to run as civilians.
Unverified reports also claim that up to 30 bodies of Myanmar government troops and rebel soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army's Brigade 5 were found in the town of Myawaddy in Karen state.
"Troops of the DKBA faction led by the Col. Saw Lah Pwe have captured seven regime soldiers in Myawaddy and nine paramilitary militias in Three Pagodas Pass," a report on the Irrawaddy news Web site said.
Around 10,000 refugees, mostly women and children, crossed into Thailand ahead of the fighting, a Thai official said.
"Army, police and civil authorities have prepared an area to accommodate them 5km (3 miles) from the border," said Samart Loyfah, governor of Thailand's Tak province.
The outbreak of violence is in a politically sensitive state for the military. The junta has ruled the country for most of the years since independence was granted to Burma, the former name of Myanmar, by the British in 1948.
The military attempts to keep the lid on demands by the country's ethnic groups for more autonomy and independence from the central government.
The Karen National Union in Karen, or Kayin, state has been working with the government but the breakaway DKBA has from time to time taunted government soldiers into sporadic fighting. The DKBA faction known as Brigade 5 is estimated to have around 1,000 fighters.
In northeastern Kachin state, the Kachin Independence Army is monitoring events in Karen state, a report by Kachin News said. "KIA sources said it is closely monitoring the fighting between the two sides, and has put its troops in both Kachin state and northern Shan State on alert."
Junta generals and KIA leaders have had a 16-year modus vivendi in the state whose 1.2 million population is 60 percent Buddhist and around one-third is Christian.
Despite the agreement, clashes between the Kachin groups including the KIA and government soldiers occur, as happened late last month. At least two civilians were killed when a group of villagers out hunting stepped on a land mine "planted by KIA insurgents." Since January, 11 men and three women "have fallen victim to mine attacks by insurgents," government media said.
Several days after the mine blast, the KIA released a statement saying it plants security mines around its territories for self-protection. But it takes precautions aimed at protecting local people, the KIA said.
Earlier this month, the KIA and several other ethnic groups in northern Myanmar -- New Mon State Party, Karenni National Progressive Party, Shan State Army-North and the Chin National Front -- created an alliance to work toward a more federal political system in Myanmar.
But "members the armed ethnic alliance have agreed to fight together against the Burmese Army, if any of them is attacked," the Kachin News said.
Reports by Myanmar's official government press said only that political leaders, mostly military and ex-military, had been casting their votes at regions across the country, including in Kachin.
Voting in Kachin was observed by the Australian Embassy Second Secretary Rhys Thompson, and the Thai Embassy's Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Kallayana Vipattipumiprates, the English-language New Light of Myanmar government newspaper said.
"Members of Myanmar Foreign Correspondents Club and editorial staff and reporters of local journals and magazines visited the voting and counting of votes," the New Light report said.
Nearly 40 political parties registered for the election. But the National League for Democracy, the party that won the 1990 elections by a landslide, is boycotting the polls.
The military refused to hand over power in 1990.
The NLD's leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the 1990 contest, remains under house arrest, excluding her from participating in the current election.
Junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, 73, has repeatedly said that democracy will come when the military believes the time is right and in a way that meets the needs of the country.
