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BurmaNet News: December 7, 1994 (r)



>Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 00:47:44 -0500
>Reply-To: Conference "reg.burma" <reg.burma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: BurmaNet News: December 7, 1994
>To: Recipients of conference <reg.burma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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>Errors-To: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
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>
>foreigners into this country. The third countries are too far for
>us to unite and air our problems. Thais are very good; they are
>kind. But the Government is violating international law, he said.
>
> The majority of respondents expressed dissatisfaction at
>Thailand's foreign policy. Generally, they have an impression that
>the Thai Government is not sincere about the Burmese and is
>concerned only with investment in Burma.
>
>Others expressed concern about the fascist military junta,
>over-spending on weapons, the under-budgetted education system, and
>fellow countrymen   allegedly used as human shields for the SLORC
>soldiers.
>
> So far, SLORC has been effective in attracting foreign investors
>and in selling   our Burma's natural resources, they claim. While
>a number of cities in Burma are undergoing a mini-boom, people in
>the countryside appear to be worse  off than five years ago. Many
>of them have to migrate to neighbouring   countries, especially to
>Thailand, to work as cheap labourers. Some go into prostitution.
>
>The Burmese dissidents want the Thai Government to reconsider its
>foreign policy.
>
> As a democratic country, Thailand should put more effort toward
>promoting real development in Burma instead of supporting the
>SLORC. Many of us   want to be able to leave the camp to be able to
>express our ideas freely. We want to be able to stage a
>demonstration in front of our embassy and to write letters to ask
>for international assistance. Some of us who are students would
>also be able to continue our studies in formal schools, one student
>said.
>
>Another said: We want to show the world how we are suffering. We
>dont   want anybody to suppress our democratic movement. Thailand
>is a   democratic country, so why doesnt it let us to express our
>needs and beliefs?   Some people may say we are simply rioters. In
>fact, real Burmese dissidents will never do anything illegal.
>Therefore, an Burmese who is found to be  violating the law of
>Thailand should be punished.
>
> Burmese music wafting from a house lulled a mother who was feeding
>her   child. Other people were cleaning their houses, clearing
>water pipes. One young man was mending his net.
>
> We have to catch fish in a nearby canal. We cant rely on what they
>provide for us, he said.
>
> A woman added: We have to pick morning glory as well as other
>vegetables. When we were in Bangkok, the UNHCR gave us 2,500 baht
>a month. Now in   this safe area, we are given only 800 baht as
>they said they provided us with food and accommodation. Besides, we
>have to pay for the electricity. Most of the time we cant eat the
>food they provide. Some of us grow vegetables so we can cook what
>we want.
>
> FOR SOME, the prospects for peace in Burma are still bleak.
>
> We dont know how long we have to wait before we can go home and
>restore peace to our country, said a student. We want to go back to
>our   country but who will guarantee our safety? If we go back we
>will wither be put in jail or killed.
>
> One of the dissidents, a former lecturer at Rangoon University,
>spends his time   reading. He was translating an article from and
>English-language newspaper.
>
> I want to help some of the camp residents who are not good in
>English to be able to follow whats happening in our country.
>
> Despite the uncertainties of life, the lecturer wishes that he
>could return hom e   to teach those young Burmese so that they will
>become democratically-   minded leaders for the future generations.
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>NATION: DETENTION CELLS INUNDATED WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
>
> Sunday, December 4, 1994
>
> IMMIGRATION police swamped by the 550,000 illegal immigrants
>taking   refuge in the Kingdom face a critical shortage of
>detention cells, Immigration   Bureau Commissioner Poll Lt-Gen
>Kiattisak Praphawat said yesterday.
>
> Burmese immigrants illegally entering the country are the most
>numerous, at 350.000, with Chinese immigrants the second largest
>group. The remaining  50,000 are from various other countries.
>
> According to Kiattisak, although police could arrest about 1,500
>illegal  immigrants every two months, officials are not able to
>send them back home until proper legal procedures have been
>completed -- which takes at least two months.
>
> The maximum capacity of his bureaus cells is 1,500, he said.
>
> On Dec 12 he will ask the Interior Ministry to grant the
>construction of more cells at the Maneeloy Burmese Students Centre
>in Ratchaburi.
>
> Kiattisak said the bureau under his command would be free of all
>corrupt  officials.
>
> He added that he would work his best to prevent communists or
>international terrorists from entering the Kingdom.
>
> *****************************************************************
>NATION: HMONG REFUGEES FEAR FORCED REPATRIATION
>
> Sunday, December 4, 1994
>
> A veteran journalist who has covered Asian issues for years,
>writes about the Hmong refugees in Thailand and their  alleged
>forced repatriation to Laos.
>
>[Photo caption: HMONG REFUGEES IN THAILAND: Lost and uncertain of
>the   future.]   AS the Cold War unwinds and new alliances are
>forged, the Hmong, allies of Thailand and the US in the secret
>Laotian theatre of the Vietnam War, now suffer because their
>friends have abandoned them.
>
> About 40,000 to 50,000 Hmong political refugees and
>asylum-seekers in   Thailand fear coerced repatriation to Laos
>under the Luang Prabang Tripartite Agreement (LPTA), launched in
>1991 by the Thai, Laotian and United Nations High Commissioner for
>Refugees with support and financing from the United States.
>
> The Hmong want to return to their homeland but many insist they
>cannot   until democracy returns.
>
> In early September, 5,000 refugees at the Na Pho camp in northeast
>Thailand signed a petition to the US Congress begging it to
>intercede and stop their forced repatriation to Laos.
>
> Within hours of this petitions delivery, six of the petitioners
>were arrested b y   Interior Ministry police with the assistance of
>UNHCR personnel. On   September 20, they were taken to Suan Plu
>Immigration Jail in Bangkok.
>
> According to a US Embassy spokesman, these men will be kept at IDC
>(Suan  Plu) until they sign up voluntarily to return to Laos.
>
> During the secret Laotian campaigns of the Vietnam War, Thailand
>counter  on the Hmong special forces under the command of Hmong Gen
>Vang Pao to   keep at bay in northern Laos the North Vietnamese
>divisions operating there.
>
> During the 1960s and 1970s the Hmong gathered intelligence for the
>Thais  and Americans, rescued their downed air crews and protected
>navigational  sites in Laos that directed air strikes against
>targets in northern Laos and North Vietnam. About 10 per cent of
>the Hmong population died during these years.
>
> Last spring, during the congressional hearings in Washington on
>Hmong   repatriation, William Colby, former director of the CIA,
>recalled Hmong   contributions:   A measure of the heroism and
>effectiveness of the Hmong struggle can be   seen in the fact that
>the North Vietnamese forces arrayed against them   increased over
>the years from the original 7,000 to 70,000 including several of
>North Vietnams best divisions.
>
> When the communists took power in 1975, they launched a campaign
>to   eliminate the old order, including the royal family and
>minorities --   particularly the Hmong -- who allied themselves
>with the US.
>
> Thousands were killed. Survivors fled to Thailand. Since 1975,
>others have been resettled in the West. About 130,000 now live in
>the US with significant Hmong communities in France, Australia and
>Canada.
>
> While the US Department of States report on human rights shows
>democracy  has not returned to Laos, former Hmong allies, now
>vulnerable refugees, are being forced into the hands of their
>enemy.
>
>About 30,000 Hmong have fled refugee camps in fear they might be
>forced   back to Laos. About 11,000 are held in Na Pho, the
>repatriation camp. And 15,000 Hmong have sought sanctuary at Wat
>Thamkrabok. Others have   taken to the hills. About 7,000 Hmong
>wait in Phanat Nikhom, a processing centre for resettlement. Even
>here, some fear repatriation.
>
> Until recently, reports of abuses were largely ignored. Supporters
>of   repatriation deflected such reports by claiming they were
>either efforts by groups in Laos to defame the country or were
>outright lies.
>
> US embassies in Bangkok and Vientiane respond to congressional
>inquiries  into abuses with a no credible evidence stance.
>
> However, affidavits of American Hmong document abuses and forced
> repatriation of relatives.
>
> As early as 1989, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights warned:
> Screening [for refugee status] is conducted in a haphazard manner
>with little concern for legal norms. Extortion and bribery are
>widespread.
>
> Initially, the Hmong were to return to Laos in large settlements
>of 5,000 per site, with promises of schools, hospitals and land. As
>time passed, not only di d   the plans change significantly, but
>Laos took control of the repatriation of it s   former enemies.
>
> Instead of large resettlement sites where returnees might have
>some protection   in numbers, the Hmong are resettled in smaller
>numbers on marginal land in unfamiliar territory. They are not
>allowed to return to their mountain   homelands. They report that
>basic necessities are lacking and many are   hungry.
>
> Human rights investigators, journalists, relatives of refugees and
>members of the US Congress have been blunted in efforts to
>investigate.
>
> In September, a US House of Representatives foreign affairs staff
>delegation travelled to Thailand to investigate reports of
>reductions of food and charcoal ,   jailings and beatings to induce
>refugees to volunteer to return to Laos. The delegation was denied
>access to Na Pho.
>
> Denial came from the Thai Interior Ministry with acquiescence of
>the local UNHCR and US Embassy. As a result, refugees in Na Pho
>were unable to give to the staff their 5,000-signature petition
>intended for the US Congress.
>
>A non-governmental source with many years in Thailand claimed of
>the   arrest of the six petitioners: The UNHCR is way, way out of
>bounds on this case. Since when does the UNHCR arrest and imprison
>those it is mandated to protect? This is disgraceful and needs
>investigation.
>
>Private, non-governmental personnel in Thailand say that in Na Pho,
>some  refugees are coerced into volunteering through reductions in
>food, threats by Thai authorities and the fear of arrest and
>removal from the camp as   occurred tot he six Na Pho leaders.
>
> Further, the sources claim that Thai authorities have prohibited
>Hmong   women from making needlework. In the past, needlework was
>a source of a   February additional baht per month critical to
>family subsistence.
>
> Last February, Marc Kaufman, a journalist for the Philadelphia
>Inquirer,  wrote of the Hmong as casualties of peace abandoned by
>an America more   interested in post-Cold War political interests.
>
> He described forced repatriation and efforts to mislead and
>manipulate   congressional investigations. His portrait of
>corruption and ethical malaise among those paid to care for
>refugees is alarming.
>
> Kaufmans article followed Jane Hamilton-Merritts compelling expose
>of the US and Thai secret war in Laos in her award-winning book,
>Tragic   Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans and the Secret Wars
>for Laos, and   her powerful descriptions of cruelty and
>ethnic-cleansing inflicted upon the Hmong by the current Laotian
>government.
>
> In October, St Paul Pioneer Press journalist Brian Bonner
>documented horrific abuses against the Hmong, Laotian concentration
>camps where Hmong   prisoners were tattooed with numbers, forced
>repatriation of Hmong to Laos and a blindness by the
>non-governmental organisations and the US State   Department to the
>evidence.
>
> Despite media coverage of this issue, the US State Department and
>NGOs with financially rewarding contracts to repatriate Hmong, as
>well as the UNHCR, insist Hmong and Laotian refugees are not being
>returned involuntarily and that no credible evidence of abuse of
>returnees or of abuses in UNHCR   camps in Thailand exists. On the
>contrary, there is much damning evidence.
>
> * On September 11, 1993, Hmong refugee leader Vue Mai, the
>high-profile   Hmong recruited by the US Embassy in Bangkok and
>NGOs to promote and   lead Hmong repatriation, disappears.
>
> Intelligence reports that Vue Mai is abducted in Vientiane by Unit
>53, a  combined Laotian-Vietnamese elite secret police unit trained
>during the Cold War by East Germans and controlled by Hanoi.
>Vietnam, it seems, wants Vue Mais knowledge about activities in
>Laos against Laotian and Vietnamese   targets.
>
> Vue Mais family persistently seeks information on his fate, but is
>stonewalled   by US and Laotian officials.
>
> * In 1993, a group of 305 Hmong, unfairly screened-out as
>ineligible for  sanctuary, are told by Thai officials that if they
>pay them a fee, they can arrange refugee status and join their
>families in the US. These penniless peopl e   write to their
>relatives in the US asking for the money. After turning over
>US$200,000 this group, known as the 305, realises it has been
>scammed.
>
> Their US relatives, through their congressmen, ask for
>investigations,   compensation and protection of these refugees.
>None of that happens. The  Thais say the Hmong tried to bribe their
>way into refugee status. US Embassy officials concur, blaming the
>victims. The 305 are returned to Na Pho and then to Laos.
>
> Moua Chao, one of the 305 whose family paid the $2,000 for his
>rescue,   disappears on May 18 -- only 20 days after his forced
>return to Vang Vieng resettlement site in Laos.
>
> Since there is not enough food, he tells his wife late that day
>that he is goin g to   search for some for his small son and that
>he will be back soon. Three days later, his family is told that he
>has drowned in the river that flows through Vang Viang -- some
>miles from the resettlement site. Laotian authorities say it   was
>a fishing accident. His family insists that Laotian authorities
>murdered him.
>
> * On Thanksgiving Day, 1993, an American Hmong receives a phone
>call   from his sister and her husband in Na Pho. They tell him
>that Thai soldiers pointed guns at families, forcing them to
>sign-up to volunteer for repatriation .
>
> While I was speaking to my sister on the phone, he explained, a
>[Thai]   soldier took the phone and spoke to me. He said that they
>only do what the UN wanted them to do and that my sister will have
>to be repatriated with  force. During the conversation, my sister
>and brother[-in-law] were crying and yelling for help.
>
> * On September 12, at Na Pho, a Hmong attempts suicide by stabbing
>himself in the stomach. He knows he will be killed if he is
>returned to Laos. He prefer s   to die in Thailand.
>
> * On September 21, at Na Pho camp, six Thai camp guards armed with
>M-16s  see a middle-age Hmong woman doing needlework for her
>daughters dress   for Hmong New Year. They take it and order her to
>get on a motorcycle. She refuses. The guards beat her unconscious,
>leaving her almost-severed tongue dangling from her mouth.
>
> Hiding behind the comment that there is no credible evidence of
>refugee   abuse no longer plays.
>
> While the State Department insists that the Hmong can return
>safely, most independent observers concur that qualified, objective
>monitoring of   returnees to Laos is not possible and worry about
>the increasing Laotian  control of the repatriation process.
>
> Laos now determines where returnees will resettle, when they will
>return, and who will monitor them.
>
> DURING THE PAST YEAR, members of the US Congress have become
>highly   critical of the tripartite agreement. Recently,
>Representative Pat Schroeder wrote that the agreement was invalid
>because of well-documented cases of  mandatory repatriation of
>Hmong to Laos and gross violations of human   rights by the Laotian
>government, which has closed Laos to all monitoring by independent
>human rights organisations. Other US law-makers have also   called
>for an end to Hmong repatriation to Laos.
>
> On September 22, US Senators Kennedy, Simpson, Simon and Moynihan
>and   Congressmen Gilman, Berman, McCollum and Schumer wrote to US
> Secretary of State Warren Christopher expressing concern about the
> disturbing arrest of the six refugee leaders in Na Pho and asked
>that they be allowed to come to the US. To date, there has been no
>response from   Christopher.
>
> Campaigners for Hmong rights are calling for:   * Immediate
>release of the six refugee leaders detained at Suan Plu and
>international protection for them and their families at Na Pho;  *
>Immediate opening of Na Pho camp for interviewing. Send in a team
>of   objective interviewers fluent in Lao and Hmong languages with
>knowledge of the history of Laos that predates 1975 to interview
>the refugees fairly,  professionally and confidentially.
>
>* Re-interview those who signed-up to follow Vue Mai back to Laos;
> * Do not close Na Pho camp at the end of this year as scheduled;
>and   * Discontinue withholding of food, threats and abuse in Na
>Pho as a means of coercing refugees to sign-up for repatriation.
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>BKK POST: ASIA SAID TO NEED MIGRATION NETWORK
>
>Sunday, December 4, 1994
>
>ASIAN countries need a network to tackle migration problems
>emerging as a major concern for the region, according to academics.
>
>They made the suggestion at Chulalongkorn Universitys international
> conference entitled Transnational Migration in the Asia-Pacific
>Region:   Problems and Prospects, which was organised by Institute
>of Asian Studies and the Indochinese Refugee Information Centre.
>
>The two-day forum, which ended on Friday, gathered academics
>working on   labour, population and refugee issues to discuss ways
>for Asian countries to handle refugees and population movements in
>the region.
>
> Insecurity and conflicts have caused an influx of refugees in some
>countries and a lack of labour and economic prosperity attracts
>people from one place to another.
>
> Academics agree migration has become a problem which is impossible
>for one country to handle. It requires a joint effort from all
>countries in the region.
>
> They can start by setting up an information network and by
>adopting the   same goal and policy on migration, according to
>Jorge Tingo, a social scientist   from the University of the
>Philippines.
>
> Surachai Wun-geow agreed with the idea, as Asian countries cannot
>escape  the problem but need to be able to regulate population
>movement and protect their rights.
>
>We need a multilateral network to deal with this issue, said Mr
>Surachai, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist who is an
>adviser to the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry.
>
> Mr Surachai and Supang Chantavanich, director of the Indochinese
>Refugee  Information Centre, urged the Association of Southeast
>Asian Nations and  other regional organisations to pay more
>attention to this issue.
>
> Migration problems should be put on ASEANs agenda for member
>countries   to discuss, the director said.
>
> Wong Sio-Lun of the University of Hong Kong said the territory
>faced a big loss of young and educated executives because of the
>uncertainty about what would happen when it was returned to China
>in 1997.
>
> Mr Wong said Hong Kong needed a policy to attract new blood and to
>sustain its economy, because the collapse of Hong Kongs economy
>would affect the  region.
>
>*****************************************************************
>BKK POST: CHIANG RAI MEET TO SET UP MEKONG PANEL NEXT YEAR
>
>November 30, 1994
>
>
>Ministers from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam will gather in Chiang Rai
>early next year to sign a formal agreement setting up the Mekong
>River Commission. The ministerial level ceremony will be followed
>by an in formal meeting chaired by the United Nations Development
>Programme which mediated the agreement. The first official
>ministerial talks on development cooperation will be held mid-next
>year in Phonm Penh. Senior representatives from the four countries
>making up the lower Mekong basin concluded their meeting here
>yesterday following a ceremony Monday when a draft agreement for
>the sustainable use of the Mekong River was signed. Cambodian
>Environment Minister Mok Mareth proposed Phnom Penh as the site of
>the Mekong River Commission's secretariat yesterday. There was no
>reaction to the proposal, a delegate told Bangkok Post.
>
>The location of the secretariat will be decided at the Mekong River
>Commission's first council meeting in Phnom Penh, he said. All four
>countries pledged under the agreement to secure formal approval in
>line with their own constitutional requirements and have it signed
>within three months. The commission will have a ministe- rial-level
>council which drafts polices and makes decisions, a joint committee
>to implement the polices and a secretarial. UNDP assistant
>administrator Nay Htun chaired the two-day session here. He called
>for immediate ratification of the pact by the four governments as
>this could lead to "extending the benefits of the agreement" to
>Burma and China, the other two countries bordering the Mekong
>River.
>
>The agreement open the door for Burma and China to participate,
>depending upon their applications. The meeting agree that the
>chairmanship of the council and joint committee be rotated, with
>Cambodia and Vietnam taking the respective positions initially,
>according to a UNDP release. The UNDP pledged to continue its role
>in mobilising financial resources and technical assistance for the
>commission. (BP)
>
>*****************************************************************
>END OF ISSUE
>*****************************************************************
>
>

john badgley
607-255-7229
fax 607-255-8438