AFP_28.2.97: THE U.N. NEEDS MANDATE

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Subject: AFP_28.2.97: THE U.N. NEEDS MANDATE/SAFE ZONES FOR KAREN REFUGEES

	ASIA: REFUGEES RELOCATED BY THAI MILITARY BACK INSIDE BURMA
BURMA KAREN NIGHTLEAD
   BANGKOK, Feb 28 AFP - Hundreds of ethnic Karen refugees fleeing 
a massive Burmese government offensive have been repatriated by 
Thailand to potentially dangerous locations in Burma, a UN official 
said today.
	   An estimated 900 Karen civilians, believed to be women and 
children, have been sent to Htaw Ma Pyo, which is five kilometres 
inside Burma, opposite the Suan Phung district of Thailand's 
Ratchaburi province.
	   The official of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR), who requested anonymity, expressed concern for 
the safety of the Karens after going to Suan Phung to locate the 
refugees.
	   "The fact that there is an offensive by the Myanmar (Burma) army 
against the Karen forces in this region would mean that any site on 
that side of the border could not be deemed safe," the official 
said.
	   Thai army patrols at the border in Suan Phung district were 
stepped up because of the risk of fighting in Burma causing a new 
influx of refugees, Thai television reported today.
	   The United States and human rights groups have called on the 
Thai government to end the forceable repatriation of Karen 
refugees, fleeing a Burmese offensive against the Karen National 
Union (KNU) -- the last major Burmese insurgency yet to reach a 
ceasefire with the ruling military junta.
	   In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said 
the United States was "deeply concerned" about the Thai army's 
forceable repatriation of the 900 Karens and appealed to Thailand 
"not to abandon its historical commitment to the humanitarian 
treatment of victims of conflict in Burma."
	   Thai Foreign Minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn said he had no comment 
on the US position until he had contacted military chiefs to find 
out the facts of the situation.
	   Some 90,000 Karens shelter in Thai border camps. As many as 
15,000 are believed by human rights groups to have crossed into 
Thailand since the latest offensive against the KNU began early 
this month.
	   Boys as young as 1O years old were reported to have been pushed 
back into Burma from Kanchanaburi this week, as the Thai military 
sought to prevent any potential KNU combatants from staying on Thai 
soil.
	   An estimated 3,000 Karens have crossed into this province from 
the KNU's Fourth Brigade area in southern Burma as junta forces 
pushed towards the Thai border.
	   Border sources said that Thailand's Ninth Army, based in 
Kanchanaburi, had indicated yesterday the Karen women and children 
would in fact be relocated to a safe area inside Thailand in 
Ratchaburi.
	   The UNHCR were unable to gain access to Htaw Ma Pyo during a 
visit to Suan Phung district yesterday, because it was not in their 
mandate to cross into Burma, but the military had given assurances 
that it was a safe location, the UNHCR official said.
	   Thai military officials said there had been a lull in fighting 
between the KNU and Burmese troops after fierce clashes in the 
previous two days close to the rebel's Fourth Brigade headquarters 
at Minthamee in southern Burma.
	   According to border sources, the base has already been torched 
and evacuated by KNU troops.
	   But the rebels maintained they were still resisting the Burmese 
forces, which last night attacked a nearby village using with 
mortars and grenade launchers, a statement received here from the 
opposition National Council of the Union of Burma said.
	   AFP  ts

	ASIA: US URGES THAILAND TO STOP FORCING KAREN BACK TO BURMA
BURMA KAREN US
   WASHINGTON, Feb 27 AFP - The United States today called on
Thailand to halt immediately the forcible repatriation of Burmese
refugees, criticising Bangkok's harsh treatment of the victims of
Burma's oppression.
	   State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Washington was
"deeply concerned" about the situation along the Thai-Burma border,
where the Royal Thai Army has forced some 900 Karen women and
children back into Burma.
	   Equally disturbing, he said, were reports of the Thai army's
forced repatriation of civilian Karen males, some as young as 10,
into Burma near the Karen military headquarters and the denial of
asylum to several hundred others at the same time.
	   "The United States regrets these actions which run contrary to
Thailand's previous, generous policy of providing asylum for those
fleeing oppression in Burma," he said.
	   "We call on the Thai authorities to cease the forceable return
of Karen refugees immediately and to recommence provision of asylum
until provisions in Burma permit the safe and orderly return of the
refugees to Burma."
	   Burns noted that the Burmese military "dictators" bear "the
ultimate responsibility for this tragedy" because of their
repression of minority populations in Burma.
	   Some 90,000 Karens are sheltered in Thai border camps after
escaping from Burmese military rule.
	   Most of the refugees are supporters of the Karen National Union,
which has been battling Rangoon governments for more political
autonomy for the Karens since Burmese independence from Britain in
1948.
	   AFP gr

ADDS THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER; MARCH 1-2, 1997.
US CONDEMNS THAI ROLE IN KAREN REPATRIATION

RON CORBARN reports from Bangkok that an editorial yeterday in The Bangkok
Post was also strongly critical of the Thai military's action to force
Karen in Thailand back into Burma.

This amounted to "an act of appeasement towards a regime that knows how to
take but not to give", the daily newspaper said.

The paper said the Thai authorities had "bowed to the wishes of the (junta)
and the Democratic Karen Buddhist army, its malevolent protege".

The DKBA split from the Karen National Union army in 1995 and sided with
the junta forces. This led to the fall of the Karen's long-standing
headquarters of Manerplaw in far eastern Burma.

The paper said the new policy appeared to be a direct result of talks
earlier this week between Thai army commander General Chetta Thanajaro and
Burma's army commander, General Maung Aye.

General Maung Aye earlier pledged "to wipe out the Karen bases and the KNU
into ceasefire before July, when (the junta)expects to become a member of
the Association of South East Asian Nations".

The BAngkok Post commented: "The arrangement in itself is convenient for
the junta; with the Karen resistance crushed, there will be no more easy
access to Burma, no further unpleasant international attention focused on
its barbarous excesses, and it will take its seat in ASEAN as a progressive
and peaceful country.

"ASEAN states may one day realise to their regret that it is not worth
belonging to a club whose members include benighted dictatorships," the
newspaper said.