Bangkok - Myanmar's army and their allies the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) have launched an offensive against Karen refugees in the border region with Thailand, an aid organization said Tuesday.

Speaking from the border town Mae Sot in northern Thailand, Help Without Frontiers, an Italian-based organization aimed at helping refugees of the long-running Karen insurgency, said several villages have been overrun already.

"The villagers are chased, rice barns and food are sequestered or destroyed, large cornfields are burned as well as several houses in different villages," the NGO said in a statement.

Five schools and two hospitals the organization was operating in the region with donations from Europe had to be closed. The helpers were still trying to treat the often heavily injured victims despite the fighting.

Myanmar's army was moving against members of the Karen ethnic minority with the aid of the DKBA, a breakaway from the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group that has been fighting for the autonomy of the Karen State for the past six decades.

In an attempt to escape the violence many fled to the border region with Thailand. The organization accused Thai authorities of driving back refugees across the border, after Myanmar soldiers and militiamen crossed into Thailand and committed acts of violence.

"And the international community is silent," noted the NGO. (dpa)