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NATION: 980327; Karen refugees alle



Karen refugees allege beatings, forced repatriations by
Thai military

posted at 10:15 hrs (Bangkok time) 

MAE SOT, Thailand, March 26 -- Ethnic Karen refugees who fled fighting and repression in their
native Myanmar say they now face abuses by those charged with protecting them -- the Thai
military. 

Some refugees are being forcibly repatriated as Thailand cracks down on one million illegal migrant
labourers amid an economic downturn that has sent local unemployment soaring, they claim. 

Reports are emerging of savage punishment allegedly meted out by Thai troops on some of the
more than 90,000 Karens sheltering close to the Myanmar border. 

The accusation comes as criticism mounts of the Thai military's failure to defend the camps which
house sympathisers and the families of fighters of the rebel Karen National Union (KNU), which
opposes Yangon's rule. 

Four Karens have been killed and nearly 50 injured in a string of attacks in the past two weeks by
forces backed by Myanmar's military junta. 

One report said Thai soldiers at Mawker camp last week beat Saw Nyan Thin to death with rifle
butts after he returned home after the 6.00 p.m. curfew following a day spent job hunting. 

''They asked him no questions,'' said Naw Cherry, 24, his stricken wife and mother of his
two-year-old daughter, who still lives in the camp in northwestern Tak province. 

She said the soldiers later came to apologise to the family and offered 30,000 baht (750 dollars) in
compensation. ''This money is nothing compared to one life,'' she said. 

A senior Thai army officer claimed Nyan Thin was not a refugee but an intruder from the
Yangon-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which is involved in the camp
attacks. 

''The case is being probed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),'' the official
said. 

The UNHCR's representative in Thailand, Amelia Bonafacio, maintained such abuses were ''not a
practice that is done sytematically to a majority.'' ''We are talking with the (Thai) army about this
and I cannot really say what the conclusion is before the investigation is complete.'' 

The tragedy adds to the strife faced by the stranded Karens at Mawker, which last week became
the third camp on the Thai border to suffer a mortar and arson attack this month, leaving 14 civilians
injured. 

Thai military officials, amid a glare of international publicity, have admitted that a lapse in security led
to some of the attacks. 

Mawker camp leader Way Roe, 69, voiced scepticism about the security arrangements and anger
at the treatment of the Karens by Thai soldiers. 

Beatings have become more frequent this year, with at least six reported cases over the past three
months, usually after Karens sneaked out of the camp without permission, he said. 

''The Thai soldiers are here to give security for the camp, but it seems like they hate the refugees and
don't want us to be here. They make us so unwelcome it is like they want us to go back to Burma
(Myanmar).'' 

Refugees also allege that many Karens caught venturing outside camps without authorisation have
been forcibly repatriated amid the Thai clampdown on illegal immigrant labour. 

As domestic unemployment swells, Karen refugees, in the past a welcome source of labour for local
farmers and factory-owners, have become persona non grata outside their camps. 

One 22-year-old Muslim Karen woman, who requested anonymity, said she was repatriated last
month with her two young children after she left the Mae Hla camp to visit her sister in hospital in a
nearby town. 

She said she was kept in a bamboo pen in the sun for six hours, before being trucked to the border
with 60 other refugees. 

Myanmar military then made them march for three hours to a military base, she said. 

''I was afraid to walk on the Burmese side of the river because people said there were landmines
planted there,'' the woman said. She managed to return to Thailand a day later. 

A senior Thai military officer estimated 10,000 Myanmar migrants had been repatriated from Tak
over the past year, including about 1,000 registered refugees who had been repeatedly caught
outside their camps. 

Many of the ''refugees'' are immigrant workers who, fearing deportation, get themselves enrolled in
refugee camps under false pretences, sources said. (AFP)