A mother grieves for her son - another casualty in a forty three year old war.
Saw Tha Gi was 25 when he was hit by a rocket propelled grenade, he was a soldier in the Karen army.
Since 1949, shortly after Burma became independent from Britain, the Karen have
been battling for independence, from the government in Rangoon.
Preparations for the funeral at The Karen's headquarters are soon interrupted.
As mourners head for cover, shells fired by the Burmese army land in and around
Manerplaw - once a secure base.
This years Burmese offensive has been fiercer and more successful than ever before.
With the government guns now less than 8 miles away, the rebel headquarters are under daily attack.
There's still another month of fighting to go
before the monsoon rains will bog down the war effort, but already The Karen and their student allies
are running short of ammunition.
The Karen fight back as best as they can.
But in recent months they've steadily lost ground to the Burmese army,
including strategically important high ground. Now they are fighting a rear-guard action
as the army tries to drive home it's advantage, with the help of more than one billion dollars worth of Chinese arms.
There are more Burmese troops this year and they're better armed with special weapons.
They are using jet planes, they are using what ever they can.
For more than 15 years, Manerplaw has been the headquarters of The Karen
national liberation army. Once this was home to more than 3,000 people, now it's almost deserted.
Most of the civilians have been evacuated, most of the soldiers are up at the front,
only a few miles away now. But Manerplaw is not only a key base for The Karen,
it is a strong hold for the main opposition forces, ranged against the military government.
The opposition national coalition government, of the Union of Burma, is based here.
They moved to Manerplaw after the military regime, refused to recognise the victory of the Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Aung San Suu Kyi, and her pro-democracy party in the 1990 elections.
A complete evacuation of Manerplaw would be a serious blow to them too, a possibility a
leading member of the government denied power, is prepared to discuss.
Even if it falls we have some kind of alternative plan, of course it will be a psychological blow
but as you know Manerplaw is not an industry centre, it is just a position where we have
our headquarters. So we can move to any other place, we have many places along the border.
From their base on the banks of Moie river, dividing Burma from Thailand, the mainly Christian
Karen has doggedly pursued their dream of a separate homeland. They are the largest minority
in Burma's complex racial mix. Until they have resisted all attempts to dislodge them from their stronghold.
They are the only ethnic group resisting the Rangoon government, further north on the border with China
The Kachin are also fighting for Autonomy, but the Karen struggle is by far the largest,
and more significant, against the repressive military regime.
These are some the 10,000 or so students who have fled to Manerplaw to fight alongside The Karen
They came after the military regime brutally put down pro-democracy protests in
1988, in which thousands were killed
We cannot afford to lose Manerplaw, we will do everything we can to defend Manerplaw.
We will never let it fall because it's special, the headquarters of the students, The Karen
and the national coalition government of Burma are all based there.
On the front line the students are well dug in to try to hold Karen territory.
But they are clearly out-gunned by the government forces pushing towards them.
The cost of this war in human terms is high, in the field the size of casualties are hard to establish
but there are reports that military hospitals in Thailand are filling rapidly with Karen casualties.
There are casualties too among those not even fighting in the war.
These are some of the luckier people among thousands of ordinary Burmese the army
forced to work for them as porters, they've escaped to freedom in Karen territory.
They bring with them tales of beatings and starvation.
All of us hate the military government, we were not given enough food,
and when ever we couldn't carry our loads we were beaten with rifle butts and kicked,
and beaten in other ways too.
Back at the front line, ammunition is used sparingly, supplies are scarce and could prove crucial
in the fight for Manerplaw.
Do you think you will be able to stay here? They will not be able to make you move back?
It for us depends on ammunition, if we have complete ammunition,
we can still fight here, we can stay here.
And too often, what ammunition they do have, proves worse then useless.
Ammunition supplies are limited in quantity, and quality, because of the success of the
Burmese government's campaign to cut of The Karen's main source of funds.
Thai trading posts like this one, have traditionally served a huge smuggling industry.