AP: Karen Refugees Are Victims of Q

[carol@xxxxxxx]

Subject: AP: Karen Refugees Are Victims of Quest for Economic Gain

Mainichi Daily News, Monday, March 3, 1997
====================
LETTER FROM BURMA

Aung San Suu Kyi's "Letter from Burma" does not appear in today's edition of
the Mainichi Daily News because the full text of installment No. 2 was
carried in our Feb. 3 issue.

However, the latter half of the Japanese version of installment No. 2
appears in the Monday edition of the Mainichi Shimbun.  Due to its length,
the Japanese version of installment No. 2 was published in two parts.
-- The Editor

====================
KAREN REFUGEES ARE VICTIMS OF QUEST FOR ECONOMIC GAIN
by Robert Horn
The Associated Press

	PU NAM RAWN, Thailand -- Women, children and the elderly make up the 2,300
ethnic Karen refugees who survive on grains of rice and vegetables inside
this makeshift camp at an abandoned tin mine just inside Thailand.
	Absent from this and other camps along Thailand's border with Burma are
young and middle-aged men, shipped back across the border by Thai military
officials who accuse them of being guerrillas.
	Nearly 15,000 refugees have arrived in Thailand since Feb. 11, after
fleeing a Burmese Army offensive aimed at wiping out the Karen National
Union, a guerrilla army that has fought for autonomy since 1949 but now
numbers less than 1,500 fighters.
	A victory over the Karen would give Burma control of its border with
Thailand for the first time in its history.
	In Pu Nam Rawn, the military on Tuesday and Wednesday separated out all
males 13 and older and trucked them back to Burma.
	Relatives and aid groups charge that women and children are being forced
back as well.
	The United States and human rights groups have criticized the forced
repatriation, while refugees fear their loved ones will be caught up in the
fighting.
	"No, no, no," said Christable Paul, whose 15-year-old son, Thaser, was
among several hundred forced back.  "He is a schoolboy, not a soldier," the
42-year-old health worker said as tears trickled down her weathered cheeks.
"They do not have any experience, they do not know how to fight.  Nor do
they have any weapons to defend themselves," she said.
	With the Burmese Army treating Karen territory as a free-fire zone and
refugees recounting tales of executions and gang rapes of innocent villagers
by Burmese troops, the prospects for the young men's survival are bleak.
	Though some admittedly were rebels, the refugees insist that most were not.
Now their only hope may be to join the thousands of other Karen who, failing
to make it to Thailand, have sought shelter by hiding in the Burmese jungles.
	Aid groups say both the Thai and Burmese governments stand to gain
economically from an end to the Karen insurgency.
	A 1.2 billion dollar natural gas pipeline owned by the Burmese government
and French and U.S. oil companies is being built through Karen territory to
sell gas to Thailand.  The rebels have vowed to destroy it.
	Thai companies also are bidding to develop a deep-water seaport at Tavoy,
390 kilometers southeast of Rangoon.  Highways through Karen territory
linking the port to Thailand are planned.
	For decades, the Thais, longtime enemies of the Burmese, supported the
rebels as a buffer between them and the Burmese Army.
	But the potential for greater economic development has warmed relations
between the two countries.
	Thai Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has made reviving his country's
faltering economy his top priority.  He has reversed a long-standing policy
of granting refuge to Karen men as long as they surrender their weapons and
is sending them back to Burma.
	Nor is the Thai Army doing its best to protect the women and children.
Despite repeated assaults on refugee camps in Thailand by Burmese troops, no
Thai soldiers were guarding Pu Nam Rawn on Thursday morning when 50 Burmese
soldiers attacked the camp four kilometers inside Thailand.  The soldiers
were turned back by Thai village militiamen.
	"I feel very bad for these Karen," said Samor Suphap, a corn farmer and
militiaman.  "The Burmese soldiers are very cruel, raping and killing
anyone.  If the Karen go back, they are as good as dead."
	The fate of the women, children and elderly who populate Pu Nam Rawn, 110
kilometers west of Bangkok, and other camps hasn't been decided.  The Thai
military has indicated a desire to repatriate them.