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BKK Post, April 2, 1998. Refugees t



April 2, 1998. Refugees to be moved to safer zone
                       8,800 Karens to be relocated

About 8,800 Karens at Huay Kalok camp will be the first to be moved to a 
site further inside Thailand before the onset of the rainy season, 
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said yesterday.

The new site will be chosen on the basis of "what is appropriate." This 
includes the availability of water and making sure that Thai residents 
in the area are not adversely affected by the move, he added.

Non-governmental organisations may help pay the cost of moving the 
Karens to the new site, he added.

Speaking to reporters after a field trip to the border which included 
visits to Huay Kalok and Mae Hla, M.R. Sukhumbhand said peace had been 
restored - with security measures stepped up by military authorities.

But the Thai-Burmese border is long, and drought-stricken and the 
mission of the Third Army Region is to look after the welfare of Thai 
people "not to protect war refugees from Burma."

Meanwhile, a senior army officer said Thailand and the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Refugees have to set a deadline on plans to 
resolve the Burmese refugee problem, after allowing the UN agency to get 
involved.

Sanan Kajornklum of the Supreme Command said the timeframe would be 
based on the situation in Burma in which he expects to see Karen 
refugees return within five years.

An election under the new constitution being drafted in Rangoon was 
expected to take place from three to five years, said Lt-Gen Sanan, also 
an advisor to Defence Minister Chuan Leekpai.

Having a clear timeframe would help the UNHCR to prepare the 
repatriation plan and obtain financial support from donor countries, he 
added.

"We have the beginning and we need the end," he said in talks to find 
measures to tackle the problem over 100,000 Karen refugees living in 
border camps.

The government last week decided to let the UNHCR play a greater role in 
the issue after the Rangoon-backed Democratic Karen Buddhism Army 
attacked camps in Tak last month.

The scope of the UN agency's work will be cleared over the next two 
weeks after talks with government agencies led by the National Security 
Council, said a UNHCR official.

Officials and relief workers, in the panel arranged by Chulalongkorn 
University's Asian Research Centre for Migration and Forum-Asia, 
welcomed the increasing role of the UN agency and plans to move the 
camps further inland for safety reasons. 

However, they warned of the consequences of merging 19 camps, as planned 
by the government.

Jack Dunford, director of the Burma Border Consortium, which takes care 
of Karen border camps, said that moving the refugees away from the 
border could create a feeling that their hope for returning home was 
ruined.

"These refugees are in camps all the way along the border close to where 
they came from. Their hearts and minds are on going back across the 
border to their homes," he said.

The problem could be resolved by the Burmese government stopping human 
rights abuses and oppressing the ethnic minorities, he added.

Supang Chantavanich, director of the research centre, agreed with 
maintaining ties of refugees with their homeland to encourage them to 
return.

The government should urge the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to 
get involved in settling the problem by convincing other members that 
they will face more illegal immigrants from Burma if the problem dragged 
on, she added.

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