THE NATION: EDITORIAL/Bangkok mus

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Editorial & Opinion 

      EDITORIAL/Bangkok
      must get tough with
      Karen renegades

      THE six-kilometre trip from the Burmese
      border to the Huay Ko Lo refugee camp in
      Tak province is not a particularly taxing one.
      Well-maintained dirt roads lead directly to
      the camp, and for anyone who loses their
      way there are two checkpoints manned by
      border police to help provide directions. 

      The 70 Karen marauders who attacked the
      camp early on Wednesday morning with
      heavy machine-guns and mortars were
      apparently in no need of such help. They
      managed devestatingly well on their own.
      For more than an hour they ran amok,
      terrorising the 9,000 residents of the camp
      and setting alight all 1,613 hamlets in it.
      Two women, one of them pregnant, were
      killed in the raid. Another 33 refugees were
      injured. 

      All that was left standing was a Buddhist
      temple. 

      Border-patrol officers who who stood by
      and watched the raid provided reliable
      witness to the ruthless effectiveness of the
      raiding party. 

      Asked about the incident on Wednesday,
      Army chief Gen Chetta Thanajaro offered
      the trusty refrain that the attack was an
      internal conflict among Karen groups. Stung
      by criticism that Thailand's sovereignty had
      been trampled on -- this bloody patricidal
      conflict was after all, being played out on
      Thai soil -- the military vowed to get tougher
      in the future, saying the army would beef up
      border security and keep an eye out for
      further incursions. 

      For the 100,000 mostly Karen refugees
      living in the string of camps within easy
      striking range of the border such pledges
      offer little reassurance. The raids have
      become a regular feature of life for camp
      dwellers, and with signs that the 50-year-old
      war between the Karen armed groups and
      the Rangoon military government is
      warming up again with the arrival of the dry
      season, they have little reason to hope for
      genuine protection from Bangkok. 

      Thailand has made it clear it considers the
      refugees, who have fled their homes in
      Burma because of attacks and harassment
      by the Burmese military, an irritation to
      bilateral relations. 

      Rangoon claims the camps provide
      sanctuary for Karen guerrillas and wants the
      refugees to return to its side of the border.
      As part of its strategy to end ethnic
      resistance to its rule Rangoon has fostered
      and employs the breakaway Kayin (Karen)
      Buddhist Democracy Army, responsible for
      Wednesday's carnage, in regular attacks
      against the refugees. 

      To those involved, protecting the national
      interest is often viewed as a zero-sum
      game, but it need not be, and in the end
      such thinking often leads to more pain than
      gain. 

      Thailand has little to show for its
      pro-Rangoon Burma policy, first
      implemented during Gen Chavalit
      Yonghaiyudh's reign as army chief. The
      military junta in Rangoon has been
      uncooperative in ending border disputes,
      Thai businessmen have found little profit
      from their ventures in central Burma,
      Bangkok has been villified in the
      international press, and the security
      situation along the border remains as
      precarious as ever. The armed groups that
      carried out Wednesday's attack have
      previously destroyed Thai property and
      killed Thais. 

      The mercurial leaders of the ethnic armies
      do not make for effective foreign-policy
      partners either, and this being the case,
      Thailand's best option would be to ally itself
      with a code of conduct in dealing with
      Burma and stick to it. 

      It should honour its international obligations
      to offer sanctuary to the Karen refugees
      (even if its insists on calling them displaced
      people). It should demand Burma behave in
      an internationally acceptable fashion along
      the border. It should promote honest
      dialogue between the ethnic armies and
      Rangoon. It should no longer take sides. 

      Borders should be inviolable and rigid, as
      should Bangkok's foreign policy with regard
      to Burma. 

      The Nation