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Window on Burma #20



BINA  -- The Burma Independent News Agency  --  

Window on Burma  #20

(From Local BINA News Sources, August 31, 1999)


THAI GOVERNMENT MOVES TO PREVENT PROTESTS 
AS BURMA'S DATE WITH DESTINY ON 9-9-99 NEARS
 
(Mae Sot, 31 August)  Thai officials have moved from their normal state of
unconcerned inertia to their crisis-response state of concerted chaos, in
an effort to prevent any support for the Burmese 9-9-99 Movement in Thailand.

BANGKOK ROUND-UP

Since last week, Thai police in Bangkok have been rounding up Burmese
refugees all over the city.  Even refugees with UNHCR "person of concern"
status are being hauled out of their rooms and off the streets in Bangkok's
poorer areas, and put in trucks heading for the Burmese border.  Interviews
with refugees, who were deported by the Thais and then later crept back
into Thai areas, reveal a crackdown of massive proportions.

"Even the people working for international NGO's are being arrested.  It
doesn't matter if you have papers from the UNHCR.  The police don't care,
they are taking everybody," said one refugee woman.  Some people called the
UNHCR offices to complain, but they were told that there was nothing that
could be done, that the orders were coming from the very highest level of
Thai government, she said.

"They want every Burmese who might cause problems for them on 9-9-99 to be
out of the country," another refugee commented.

BORDERS TO BE SHUT

Meanwhile, rumors abound that the border at Myawaddy-Mae Sot crossing will
be shut down soon for travelers.  "The Burmese don't want anyone coming
from Thailand who might cause trouble.  I would call it a precaution rather
than a panic, but there is definitely a lot of tension in the air," an NGO
worker at the border explained.  

Thai immigration authorities at the official Myawaddy-Mae Sot bridge
crossing had a different prediction.  "No problem," said one Thai officer.
"The border is open every day.  Thai, Burmese, foreigners, everyone can
pass.  We don't expect any closure."  

The informal crossings near the bridge, however, were already closed to
visitors from Thailand.  Boats on the Moei River carrying goods and
passengers were being turned back by Burmese authorities, and many Burmese
workers were unable to return home.  

The Burmese military junta in Rangoon has complained at length in two
televised news conferences, August 13th and 19th, about newspapers and
other democracy promotional materials being imported from Thailand in
preparation for 9-9-99 events.

In addition, there are an estimated one million immigrant Burmese workers
at factories and construction sites in Thai border towns and cities.  Most
workers try to return to Burma once a month or once a year, whenever they
can.  With an average wage of less than US $1.50 each per 12-hour day, the
workers represent a huge economic resource to the Thai businessmen and
foreign investors who own the factories.  But to Burma's military
dictatorship, they are a potential source of trouble, each one a suspected
democracy sympathizer.

REFUGEE CAMP MOVE ON HOLD

At the Huay Kalok Refugee Camp near Mae Sot town in Tak Province, the
long-awaited transfer of its 10,000 residents has been underway since
Monday, August 23.  Although the massive moving project, on trucks provided
by the UN, is not expected to finish before September 30, the ensuing chaos
and dislocation should weaken any local refugee support for the 9-9-99
event in Burma, just a few kilometers away.

Almost 20% of the residents have already been moved about 100 kilometers
further south to the new site at Umpyang Mai village, despite the muddy
conditions of the area in the middle of the rainy season. Since yesterday,
however, the transit vehicles have been idle, reportedly because the Thai
authorities have run out of the bamboo and teak leaves needed for building
houses at the new site.  It is not known when transport will begin again.

Some refugees have refused to move to the new camp, and about 300 people
have already left the Huay Kalok camp for a forest enclave just across the
border.  The enclave, however, is controlled by the DKBA, a
junta-affiliated armed group that burned down the Huay Kalok camp twice in
the past three years.  The DKBA are demanding 1000 baht per refugee family
as porter fees, so these destitute "double refugees" are once again in an
untenable situation.


**********************************
WHAT IS MOJO? 

MoJo means "Thunderbolt" in Burmese.  MoJo is an independent newspaper from
the Burmese community in Thailand.  Its primary content is social,
political, and economic news from all over Burma, and its intended readers
are the people inside Burma itself.  

BINA will regularly provide English-language excerpts from MoJo to the
BurmaNet.  If you would like to receive a Burmese-language MoJo newspaper
by post, please send your postal address to bina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Dialogue is inevitable.  We will not just sit and wait.  We will continue
doing what has to be done."
NLD General Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi