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"As of Saturday, over 3,000 villagers have fled the area of Ler Per Her internally displaced persons' camp in Dta Greh township, Pa'an district to seek refuge in neighbouring Thailand," the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) said.

The KHRG, set up in 1992 to monitor the six-decade Burma-Karen conflict, claimed it was the biggest exodus since 1997, when the Burmese army launched a massive offensive in the Karen State and  forced tens of thousands of the ethnic minority group into Thailand.

This month's influx of refugees was sparked by attacks on Karen villages by the Burmese military and their allied forces of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the KHRA said.

The Burmese army has been trying to defeat the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) since 1949, making it one of the world's longest lasting insurgencies. The Karen National Union (KNU), the political wing of the insurgency, seeks autonomy for the Karen state in eastern Burma.

The constant fighting, which has intensified over the past decade, has forced more than 100,000 Karen in to Thailand to seek refuge.

Fighting in the Per Her area started on June 2 and intensified Friday when some 900 Burmese and DKBA troops launched multiple 81- millimetre mortars on the camp near the Thai-Burmese border, Karen sources said.

The fighting forced the Per Her population and surrounding villages of more than 3,000 people to flee, joining another 700 who had fled the fighting on June 4.

On Sunday morning fighting had resumed in the Ler Per Her area, KHRG field reports said.

The Karen Human Rights Group is an independent agency set up to document the Karen conflict through direct testimonies, supported by photographic and other evidence.