Japan to help Karen refugees

[carol@xxxxxxx]

Japan Times, Wednesday, April 1, 1998

JAPAN TO AID KARENS IN THAI CAMPS

By Hisane Masaki

	In a move that threatens to displease Myanmar's military regime, Japan will
provide between 5 million and 10 million yen in grant-in-aid to help relieve
the suffering of Karen refugees in Thailand, Foreign Ministry sources said
Tuesday.
The sources said the aid will be provided later this month or early next
month through the Burmese Border Consortium, a Western non-governmental
organization helping more than 100,000 Karen refugees living in camps in
northwestern Thailand along the Myanmarese border.
	The Burmese Border Consortium will use the money to purchase rice and
edible oil for the refugees, who crossed into Thailand to escape attacks
from the Myanmarese military, the sources said.  Myanmar was formerly called
Burma.
	It is the first time for Japan to provide the refugees with such aid and
the offer comes amid heightened tensions along the Thai-Myanmarese border in
the wake of repeated attacks on the camps by armed ethnic rebels allied to
Myanmar's military junta.
	The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter group of the ethnic Karen
insurgents, attacked camps in northwestern Thailand three times in March
alone, reportedly killing four and injuring more than 50.  The refugees are
mostly Christians.
Since taking power in a 1988 coup, the Myanmarese military has reached peace
settlements with all the country's ethnic rebel groups except the Karen
National Union, the largest rebel group that has fought for greater autonomy
for the ethnic Karen minority for 50 years.
	The Myanmarese junta-backed assaults on the Thai camps have raised deep
international concern.  On March 13 -- two days after the first of the
attacks that month -- Britain, which currently holds the rotating presidency
of the 15-nation European Union, issued a statement calling for an immediate
end to the raids.
	Bangkok has also complained to Yangon over the attacks.  In an apparent
policy reversal, Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said last week that
Bangkok will allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to
participate in efforts to ensure the security of the refugees.
The Thai government had previously been reluctant to let the UNHCR get
involved in such efforts and had tried to resolve the issue through
bilateral talks with Yangon over fears that the UNHCR's presence would lead
to the refugees being settled in Thailand.
	The Japanese aid package will be provided as part of the "grant assistance
scheme for grassroots projects," which was introduced in fiscal 1989 to
support relatively small projects not considered suitable for ordinary
grant-in-aid schemes, the sources said.
	The provision of the aid follows a decision by Tokyo last month to disburse
about 2.5 billion yen in low-interest official yen loans to Myanmar for the
repair of Yangon's international airport.
	Although Tokyo insists the provision of the airport loans is for the
humanitarian purpose of ensuring safety at the aging airport, the move has
attracted criticism both at home and abroad because it was agreed despite
the regime's continued crackdown on the prodemocracy movement, led by
opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
	While acknowledging the Myanmarese regime will be offended by Japan's aid
for the refugees, one Foreign Ministry source stressed that the money will
be used for purely humanitarian reasons to support the refugees, not the
Karen National Union.
	"Critics often say Japan is just paying lip service to human rights and
democracy," the source said.  "But with the grant-in-aid for the Karen
refugees, we want to show the Myanmarese military government that Japan is
firmly pursuing a policy of pressing for improvement in the protection of
human rights and democratic principles."