Letter to RTG

[aung@xxxxxxxxxxx]

DBSO(USA)
P.O.Box 91, Rockville, MD 20851, USA.
Tel. (301)217-0356, Fax. (301)770-7416, email:freeburma@xxxxxxx


Chuan Leekpai
Prime Minister
The Royal Thai Government
Government House
Pitsanuloke Road
Bangkok 10300, Thailand

Date:  25th January, 1995

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

We are members of the Democratic Burmese Students Organization (DBSO-USA) who 
left Thailand some time ago for the United States of America as political 
refugees.  We are writing this letter to express our great concern with the 
safety of our fellow Burmese student dissidents in Thailand due to the 
incident which occurred in the Ratchaburi camp on January 16, 1995.  

As you know, we the Burmese students have never approved the idea of Thai 
authorities setting up a camp; however, we have been forced to go to the camp 
since November 1992,  although we presented the strong reasons and evidences 
disapproving the so-called safe camp.  

Since the beginning, conflicts between camp authorities and the students have 
occurred every now and then. We have evidences that students have been 
unfairly treated in the camp during their stay in there. Those appalling 
incidents pin point that the safety of students can never be ensured in the 
camp. No matter who handled wrong, the fact was that the students were never 
in the position to be able to solve the problems or respond to the authorities
since the UNHCR and other NGOs were always absent in the camp when most 
incidents took place. And neither the camp authorities ever tried to solve the
problems.     

We are now informed that on January 16, the students were again beaten by the 
camp guards.  As the result of this dreadful incident, the students were fully
concerned about their own safety if they continued to stay in the camp, so 
they decided to escape from the camp.  On the way they were arrested by the 
provincial authorities and are being detained at this moment.

We are therefore greatly concerned with their safety and would like to request
that the following conditions be granted to our fellow Burmese students in 
Thailand.

1)  No repatriation of any Burmese student to the Burmese military regime 
against their will.

2)  The fate of Burmese students be determined only after a resolution is 
reached between the students and Thai Interior Ministry in the presence of 
UNHCR, NGOs, and the international press.

Thank you very much for your time, and we truly hope that you take our request
into a greater consideration.


Yours sincerely,

Shwe Sin Htun					Yin Aye
Representative (East Coast) 			Representative (East Coast) 
DBSO(USA)					DBSO(USA)

                                                

Cc:	Thai Ministry of Interior
	UNHCR - Geneva
	UNHCR - Thailand
	Embassies of US, Australia, Canada, UK, Norway in Thailand
	NGOs in Thailand
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