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The Nation, US ambassador to be sum



Subject: The Nation, US ambassador to be summoned over Karen; Slorc  hits out at West, traitors

US ambassador to be summoned over Karen

	UPSET by a strong protest by the United States over the Thai Army's
deportation of Karen refugees last week, the Foreign Ministry will this week
ask the US ambassador to Thailand to hear Thailand's explanation of its
refugee policy and the country's handling of the Karen situation.
	Saroj Chavanaviraj, permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry, said
yesterday that his office deems it necessary to call US Ambassador William
Itoh in for a meeting to clarify the repatriation on Tuesday and Wednesday
of some 900 Karen refugees fleeing Burmese military offensives against Karen
rebels.
	He said the Foreign Ministry was upset with Friday's letter sent by US
Charge d'Affaires Ralph Boyce to Army Chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro protesting
against the forced repatriation of the refugees in Kanchanaburi back to Burma.
	''Why did the US do that despite the fact that they are fully aware of the
real situation?" he said in a telephone interview with The Nation's
affiliate, Krung Thep Turakij daily.
	Saroj blamed relief workers for spreading information charging that the
Army's Ninth Division had trucked refugees from Bong Ti Pass in Kanchanaburi
to Suan Phung district in Ratchaburi and pushed them across the border into
the war zone.
	He also questioned the workers' motives, when they are fully aware of
Thailand's latest plan to relocate the refugees to a safer place. In his
strongly-worded letter, Boyce pointed out that the Ninth Division had
conducted the deportation at the order of Gen Chettha and asked the Army to
halt any future plans to forcibly send back more refugees.
	He also urged the Army to allow the refugees to remain on Thai soil while
the Burmese military operation is still proceeding and to allow aid workers
access to the refugees.
	Apart from the US, the European Union and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees have also deplored the action and strongly urged
Thailand to grant asylum to the unarmed Karen people based on international
humanitarian principles and have asked the Thai Army to stop more forced
repatriations.
	The strong international criticism prompted Chettha to order an abrupt halt
to the relocation and repatriation of refugees in Kanchanaburi area.
	Top Army generals, including Chettha and Ninth Division Commander Maj Gen
Thaweep Suwannasingh, whose forces were responsible for the repatriation,
have denied that the refugees, mainly women, children, the elderly, and the
disabled, were forced back to Burma against their will. They repeatedly
argued that the group ''volunteered to return to a safe area in Burma".
	However, relief workers who visited Suan Phung on Friday in an attempt to
locate the 900 returnees, said they were surprised that most, instead of
staying right across the border, had gone deeper into Burma, some five
kilometres from the Thai frontier and eight km from where they were dropped
by the trucks last week.
	They said the repatriated refugees, who were originally from the Paw Klo
River area, told them that they were not given the choice to stay on Thai
soil when the Army troops dropped them off at the border and ''pointed the
way" and ''indicated where they were to go".
	''They [repatriated refugees] didn't have a choice but to return to Burma.
They didn't even know where they were going or where they were," reported
workers who had spoken with the returnees.
	''There is no camp, and some [refugees] had nothing, no food, no rice,
nothing to eat," relief workers said.
	While trying to locate the returnees, the workers said they were shocked to
learn of another forced repatriation of Karen refugees. They said the
refugees, who had fled from Amla Kee to the border in Kanchanaburi, were
transported in two trucks to the same site as the earlier group and forced
to walk across the border back to Burma.
	One worker said yesterday that the Thai Army was using ''clever words" to
deny the forced deportation. ''Dropping the refugees at night and telling
them to walk across the border does not make any difference from forced
repatriation," he added.
	Friday's deportation of the refugees took place on the very same day, and
maybe before, Chettha called off the repatriation plan. Relief workers said
at least two individuals who were sent back were in need of medical
assistance but were refused permission to be transferred back to Thailand.
	Also among the repatriated were at least three children, separated from
their parents during the Burmese offensive in the area.
	According to Saroj, there has already been some contact between the foreign
ministry and US embassy officials to clarify the issues over Thailand's
handling of the refugees.
	Although Chettha said he will not respond to an international outcry
against the Thai Army, Interior Minister Snoh Thienthong yesterday blasted
reports by local and foreign media on the forced deportation as ''a severe
infringement on Thai sovereignty".
	He vowed to continue the ministry's long-standing plan to send home all
Karen refugees. ''Whether or not the US was mistaken, the refugees have to
return home, although we have to talk to them first before sending them back
to Burma," Snoh said.
	He said the government reserved the right to protect its territory and to
ensure the well-being and safety of people along its border.

 - - - - - -

Slorc hits out at West, traitors

	RANGOON; Burma's top generals have accused the West and traitors at home of
influencing the ethnic Karen guerrilla organisation to prolong its rebellion
against Rangoon's rule, the official media reported yesterday.
	State-run newspapers said Gen Maung Aye, vice chairman of Burma's ruling
military body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), made the
comments in a speech on Friday.
	He said the armed Karen National Union (KNU) some of whose members have
indicated they want peace talks with Rangoon had fallen under the influence
of Western nations and ''axe-handles", or traitors, within Burma.
	''As those of the West bloc who could not bear to see peace and development
in our country persuaded them with arms and dollars and they rebuffed the
peace," Maung Aye was quoted as saying. ''The axe-handles within the country
also opposed peace, orchestrating with the neo-colonialists," he added.
	Lt Gen Tin Oo, Secretary Two of the Slorc, made similar comments in a
separate speech, saying the KNU has ignored government peace overtures at
the instigation of Western elements. ''All armed [rebel] groups except the
KNU are already within the peaceful political system," he said. ''The KNU
has turned its back due to the instigation of neo-colonialists and internal
traitorous elements who are pining for the West."
	Tin Oo then repeated his usual call for the people of Burma to crush the
''destructionists".
	The KNU was formed in 1948 to fight for an ethnic Karen homeland in eastern
Burma. It has rejected several peace overtures from Rangoon and is the last
major ethnic rebel movement that has not signed a ceasefire agreement with
the Slorc. But the KNU has suffered a series of military setbacks in recent
years that have prompted many senior members to declare that the movement's
end is near.
	The KNU has for several months been facing growing pressure from the Slorc,
as it presses its demand for autonomy within a Burmese federation, and the
latest wave of fighting forced thousands of Karen to flee into Thailand last
month.
	In Thailand, a top Army general, Thaweep Suwannasingh, laid similar blame
on the KNU for the loss of its remaining controlled territories the Sixth
Brigade and the Fourth Brigade which were located opposite Thailand's
Umphang district of Tak and Kanchanaburi's Muang district respectively, and
for the influx of thousands of new Karen refugees into Thailand.
	Thaweep, commander of the Ninth Division which oversees the Thai border in
Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi, told Nation that the flare-up of hostilities
would not have happened if the KNU had agreed to the Slorc's demands for
surrender.
	''The whole [loss of territory and refugee influx] happened because the KNU
has repeatedly rejected the Slorc's peace overtures. So it is they
themselves they have to blame for everything," he said.
	The KNU said the Slorc has imposed unacceptable conditions during bilateral
negotiations, demanding the group to ''return to the legal fold" and
''renounce armed struggle". The two conditions are tantamount to a total
surrender, it added.
	At The Hague, the European Union said on Friday it is very concerned about
the offensive launched by the Burmese armed forces against ethnic Karen
rebels. In a statement issued on the EU's behalf by the Netherlands, it
called upon the Slorc and KNU representatives to try to resolve their
differences through negotiations.
	It also said that it had asked Thailand which has blocked the arrival of
Karen refugees into its territory to abide by its international commitments
on welcoming and protecting refugees.
	The Netherlands currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the
15-member European Union.
	


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