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KSNG Updates on the relocation of K



Subject: KSNG Updates on the relocation of Karen refugees (fwd)

>
> Situation Update on the relocation of the Karen refugees 
> Released by the Karen Students? Network Group (KSNG), August 26, 1999
>
>  The relocation of fifty-four families of the Huaykaloke refugee camp, north
> of Mae  Sot, Tak  province started on August 23, 1999.   Six trucks were
> provided by the Thai authorities, and food provision  was funded by the NGOs
> at the new camp, near in Umpang District, 86 kilometers south of Mae Sot,
Tak
>  Province.
>
>  A field report claimed that the relocation site is vulnerable to the
effects
> of chemicals used by the local people for their cash crops such  as corn and
> cabbages.  On August 24, residents of the Huakaloke camp were going  to
> celebrate the traditional 'wrist-tying'  festival, but since this was in the
> midst of the relocation process where so  many of them have already been
moved
> to the new site, they were deprived of their privilege to participate or
> organise the said festival.
>
>  The school was already closed at the beginning of the week to prepare and
> wait  for the relocation.  Since the relocation happened in the rainy
season,
> the process  would take longer.  Additionally, the new relocation site lacks
> proper space and  shelter, not to mention  the possible outbreak of
disease at
> this time of the year. 
>
> Home visits by medical agencies of the NGOs were made to assist the new
> arrivals whose maladies include car- or travel-sickness.  It is understood
> that a sanitation team was sent from the MSF to the new site a week ahead of
> the  relocation.
>
>  Umpium is the settlement of people of Laotion Origin, who were of the Hmong
> and Lisu tribes.  These were former fighters alongside the CIA against the
> communists in Laos during the '60s and '70s, some  25 years ago.  These
people
> were granted Thai citizenship.  Cultivation is the
>  main livelihood of the local people, with cash crops of corn and cabbage.
>
> Huaykaloke, the former camp, was established in April 1984 when major
> offensives  were waged by the Burmese troops against the nearby Karen
> stronghold of Wangka.  Karen people around the area became victims of war. 
>
> They fled to Thailand and settled in a place owned by a Shan (of Burma)
named
> Noi Tint, who became rich, partly from his black-market operations  around
> Wangka or Kawmoorah.  Since 1984, he levied a yearly fee from the
refugees who
> stayed in his land; each had to pay him 30 - 50 baht per year, and he also
> controlled the market.
>
>  Huakaloke Refugee Camp has been well known in the last 15 years, especially
> in the field of advocacy,  relevant to the study of the life of refugees.
 For
> the Karen people,  the camp has been exemplary in terms of education, with
> high school level standards.   Huakaloke was attacked and burned down by
> Burmese troops in the summers of 1997 and 1998; the first resulted in the
> death of three people, and the following year claimed the lives of 50
people.
>
>  The refugees were committed to the move, as they have already requested it.
> However, most of  the refugees are now worried for their young people,
> particularly with drug  problem, since an inexpensive amphetamine source is
> known to exist in the new  area.
>
> Some analysts of the border situation express a view of possible
cooperation
> with the local Hmong refugees, which could jeopardize the national
security of
> Thailand, as the area is isolated in the mountainous region along the
Mae Sot
> - Umpang road, and only 6 kilometers from the border of Burma.
>
> For further information, please contact KSNG office in Chiangmai at 53-243
>  491.