PRESS RELEASE OVERSEAS MON YOUNG M

[ojasti@xxxxxxxxxx]

PRESS RELEASE FROM OVERSEAS MON YOUNG MONKS UNION

Date August 10, 1994


As is commonly known, the Thai 9th Army Division in the early months
of 1994, forceably repatriated some five to six thousand Mon-Burmese
refugees. They relocated them against their wishes from the Loh Loe
Refugee Camp in Thailand to a site just inside the Burmese border known
as Halockhani. The new camp was within easy marching distance of the
62nd Burmese Army Battalion positioned at Three Pagoda Pass.

It is believed that this forced relocation of the refugees by the Thai
Army was intended to put pressure on the Mon to sign a peace agreement
with the SLORC-- what mights best be described as a sort of 4forced
engagement policy 4 on the part of the Thailand. The Mon Leadership has
to date, refused to do so. The Thai Army has exceedingly close relations
with the Burmese military dictatorship as well as lucrative lumber con-
cessions valued in the millions of dollars. This, too, undoubtedly con-
tributed to the readiness of the Thai Army to push the refugees back
to Burma. Because the Thai Government is not a signatory of the UN
protocol on refugees, the Thai Army acts with impunity towards the Mon
and other refugees.

We monks are seriously concerned with newspaper accounts linking the
name of Mr. Suvicha Hiranyapruek ( Victor ), an influencial business-
man, rumored to be involved in the present Thai policy of forced re-
patriation. Recent reports likewise link his name as a close associ-
ate of the SLORC. It is thought by some that Mr. Hiranyapruck had a 
hand in the original scheme to force the Mon refugees from Loh Loe
back to Halockhani in Burma. We believe this matter merits further
investigation by the press.

On the morning of June 21st, the worse fears of the refugees at Halo-
ckhani were realized. An outlying section of the camp came under mi-
litary attack by the Burmese troops from the 62nd Battalion. In face
of armed resistance by Mon Army fighters, the Burmese army finally
retreated, taking eighteen Mon leaders as hostages with them and set-
ting fire to village on the outskirts of the camp. ( Subsequently,
word was recieved that the leaders were tortured ) The five to six
thousand remaining refugees fled back across the border into Thailand
from where the Thai Army is ordering them to return at once to Burma.

The refugees insist, as does the UNHCR and various Foreign Embassy
officials in Bangkok, that it is not safe for the Mon refugees to
go back. The Burmese Army is presently reported to be advancing in
large numbers upon the area. The refugees have set up a make-shift
camp just inside the Thai- Burma border.

In retribution for the refusal of the refugees to undergo forced re-
patriation, Thai border police and soldiers from the Thai 9th Army
Division have now sealed off access to the make-shift refugee camp
on the Thai side of the border. Absolutely no contact is being allowed
with the refugees, and food and medical supplies have been cut off.
The water supply to the refugees has also been severed by the Thai
army. Mon relief officials are describing the situation as critical.
Speaking from Bangkok, an official of the non-government organization
Medecins Sans Frontiers,who had been providing medical services to
the refugees until the Thai Army forbade further contacts, has said
that the refugees cannot survive long without water.

Given the precarious health situation of the refugees, ( there are
refugees in the camp in serious condition from Malaria and diarrhea )
this act on the part of the border police and the army can only be
viewed as barbarous. In no other part of the world are refugees being
deliberately blocked from receiving medical attention. This behavior
seriously disgraces Thailand in the eyes of the world. It cannot be
protested strongly enough.

This latest cruelty by the Thai border autorities is part of a chronic
pattern of alleged abuse and misconduct. Late last month a report was
lodged by some of our monks with Amnesty International, well-known for
its monitoring of human rights violations, wherein two Mon refugee girls
are accusing the Thai border police of detaining them in the Sankhala-
buri detention for seventeen days, during which time they allege they 
were forced to watch sex videos in police sleeping quarters and were
repeatedly raped. On the final day of their detention they claim they
were raped by four of the five border police who took them to the Three
Pagoda Pass, where they were put over the border into Burma. The two
girls immediately made their complaint against the Thai police in the 
presence of a number of Buddhist monks. In our opinion these rapes of
the two girls most probably happened.

Similarly, a complaint was filed with Amnesty, alleging that four fully
ordained Mon- Burmese monks were stopped by Thai border police while
traveling to Thong Pa Pum, a village near Sangkhlaburi. Because these
monks, having been ordained in Burma, did not possess Thai monk iden-
tity cards, they were forcibly stripped of their robes by the police
and made to put on lay clothing. They were then held for a number of
days,fined, and Then put back a cross the border into Burma at Halo-
ckhani. In a nation which claims to be Buddhist such a sacrilege should
be inconceivable.

If these allegations are true, as we Buddhist monks believe they are,
we condemn them and ask the Thai government to take appropriate action
toward those involved.

Crimes against refugees, especially those committed by police, should
not go unpunished.

We likewise ask the international community to register their indigna-
tion with the Thai Government over the fact that access to the refugee 
camp has been cut off. Medical and food supplies must be allowed throu-
gh, as well as inspection of the situation by UNHCR or the International
Red Cross. NGOs who have been providing relief assistance on the regular
basis to the Mon refugees should be accorded full and open access to
them. The blockade of the refugees camp must be ended now. The general
public can help by registering a protest on behalf of the endagered Mon
refugees with their local Thai Embassy, the Thai Government or UNHCR
in Geneva.

Mon Buddhist Monks ( Refugees )
Thailand