(BosNewsLife) Over 25,000 civilians, many of them Christian Karens, were forced to flee their villages in the past year, following "the worst" military crackdown in a decade.

Since 1996, over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed. There are over one million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in eastern Burma, and over 150,000 refugees in Thailand.

People have been driven from their villages by rampaging soldiers and forced to trek for weeks through the jungle to reach this place of relative sanctuary.

Over the past year, nearly 3,000 Karen people have fled to just one IDP camp on the Salween River in Burma near the Thai border.

Beheading/Torture/Eyes Cut Out/Lips Cut Off ...

One woman reported how her son was beheaded. Another described how her husband was tortured, tied to a tree, his eyes gouged out and then drowned. A third recalled how her husband was killed – his eyes torn out, his ears and lips cut off, investigators said.

Faith-based human rights and advocacy groups have said that the Burmese government sees Christianity as a threat to its powerbase and therefore targets especially groups such as the Karen.

Ethnic Cleansing/Land Confiscation/Forced Labor

Burma's military regime is continuing (Burma's 2006 Military Killing Season) its campaign of ethnic cleansing, land confiscation and forced labor against the Karen people. These crimes against humanity should no longer be ignored by the world community.

Frontline Resourses' Mercy Fund Contributions Help Address the Plight of Christian Karen!