NEWS - Thousands of Myanmar refuge

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS -  Thousands of Myanmar refugees to be relocated in Thailand 

Thailand-Myanmar
   Thousands of Myanmar refugees to be relocated in Thailand 
   
   BANGKOK, Aug 19 (AFP) - Thailand will next week begin moving
thousands of 
Myanmar refugees deeper inside its territory in a bid to reduce the risk
of 
cross-border raids by junta-backed guerrilla forces, refugee workers
said 
Thursday.
   The schedule for relocating refugees in Tak province on the Myanmar
border 
was agreed on Monday by Thai authorities and the United Nations High 
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
   "It's planned to start on Monday next week," one refugee official
told AFP. 
He said some 15,000 refugees from Huay Kalok and Mawkier camps would be
moved 
about 13 kilometers (eight miles) further inside Thai territory in a
process 
that would take several weeks.
   "The idea is to have them in a safer location, and to provide more
space, 
and the water situation is better," he said.
   "Both camps have had problems with security. In the past few years
there 
have been a number of attacks by pro-Yangon Karen renegades."
   Thailand hosts some 100,000 Myanmar refugees, mainly of Karen and
Karenni 
origins, who have fled the suppression of ethnic insurgencies in
military-run 
Myanmar since 1984.
   Last year, several Karen refugees were killed and thousands were made 
homeless when guerrilla forces backed by the junta raided camps on Thai 
territory.
   Thailand's cash-strapped government invited the UNHCR last year to
play an 
expanded role in administering the camps.
   Human Rights Watch has accused the Thai government and the UNHCR of
leaving 
thousands of villagers in danger along the border with Myanmar.
   The group said the UNHCR had been "unnecessarily weak in its efforts
to 
challenge the Thai policies that undermine refugee protection."
   Myanmar's junta is blamed for widespread human rights abuses
including the 
torture and rape of civilians, particularly supporters of ethnic rebel
groups 
along its eastern border with Thailand.
   The Karen National Union is one of the last remaining ethnic
guerrilla 
forces maintaining a struggle for independence from Yangon.
   Thailand refers to the asylum seekers as "displaced persons,"
avoiding the 
term "refugees", and says they will be forced to return home as soon as
it is 
considered safe.
   de/sls