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LATEST UPDATE ON KARENS
- Subject: LATEST UPDATE ON KARENS
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 18:05:00
Burma-Karen,sched-lead : Karen refugees fear
Thailand
to push them into hands of Burma's army
(ADDS reports from Thai-Burma border)
BANGKOK, March 25 (AFP) - Around 5,000 ethnic
Karen refugees
are living in fear that the Thai army will force
them to go home to
the war zone they fled ahead of a Burmese
offensive, border
sources said Tuesday.
Some 2,500 Karen -- including some 800 pushed
back across the
border earlier this month -- were given refuge
Saturday as troops
overran Htaw Ma Pyo Hta, where they had been
sheltering on the
Burmese side of the border.
Food and medical assistance have been arranged
at Huay Sut in
Ratchaburi province, a few kilometers (miles)
from the border.
But senior Thai army officers were reported to
have put strong
pressure on refugees to return, telling them
after meetings with
Burmese officers that Burma's army had promised
to treat them
well.
Another 2,500 refugees at Pho Maung in
Kanchanaburi province to
the north of Huay Sut have been told the Thai
army will return this
week to see whether they will go back to
Burmese-government
controlled areas.
"The refugees are very afraid. They are sending
us an SOS every
day. Our fear is that they will be sent back," a
border source said.
Thai officers from the ninth army, which is
responsible for the
area, told refugees the Burmese junta, known as
the State Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), had
promised to welcome
them.
"The SLORC asked you to come back. They promised
not to ill
treat you so why don't you go back?" army
officers were reported
to have asked the refugees at Huay Sut.
Refugees were said to be thrown into a panic by
the Thai army's
final question: "If we don't let you stay here,
what will you do?"
Thailand came under criticism from the United
Nations, Western
governments and human rights organizations when
the ninth army
denied refuge to men and boys, and forced some
800 women
and children back into the Htaw Ma Pyo Tha area.
Thai army officers, however, told the refugees
at Huay Sut and
Pho Maung that some Karen had already gone back
and had been
treated well -- that they should go home, plant
rice and vegetables
and take care of themselves.
But border sources said every resident of the
area who had come
into contact with Burmese troops indicated it
was not safe for
them to return, and that homes and crops had
been destroyed.
"There have been widespread reports of forced
portering and
villagers having to act as human minesweepers.
SLORC troops
have looted most civilians' valuables, rice and
livestock, and have
committed numerous killings and rapes," a border
source said.
The Karen Refugee Committee issued a statement
last week
thanking Thailand for granting refuge to more
than 92,000 Karen
in camps along the border, and asking that the
United Nations be
allowed to monitor the refugees.
The Thai government has confirmed that
"displaced" Karen will be
allowed to stay in the country temporarily but
an analyst noted this
could be interpreted in many ways.
"As soon as the fighting dies down they may try
to push them
back, without regard for the atrocities being
committed" in the
area, he said.
A recent UN report estimated that one million
Burmese nationals
have been forcibly relocated and essentially
detained in relocation
sites, hundreds of thousands of them in the
context of brutal
military campaigns against ethnic minorities
like the Karen.
The Brussels-based International Confederation
of Free Trade
Unions estimates that 800,000 Burmese are
nvolved in forced
labor, accounting for 10 percent of the
countries output.
Analysts noted that the Thai government appeared
anxious to
remove refugees from Ratchaburi and Kanchanaburi
as joint
investment projects with the Burmese junta are
planned in the
area.
tlf/tw