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AFP-Thailand urges UN to find new c



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: AFP-Thailand urges UN to find new countries for Myanmar activists

Thailand urges UN to find new countries for Myanmar activists
BANGKOK, Oct 8 (AFP) - Thailand asked the UN's refugee agency Friday to help
find countries willing to accept exiled democracy activists, as Bangkok
exchanged verbal salvos with Yangon following the storming of Myanmar's
embassy here by radical student gunmen.
The request was made in a meeting between National Security Councilchief
Khachadpai Burusapatana and the head of the United Nations High Commision
for Refugees (UNHCR) here.

"We asked the UNHCR to be more active by cordinating with Myanmar to take
back some 100,000 displaced persons, and to find third countries to accept
exiled students," Khachadpai told reporters.

The move to empty the camps and detention centres follows Thailand's
embarrassment at last week's hostage crisis and comes amid pressure from
Myanmar, whose officials say the camps harbour terrorists.

Five gunmen, claiming to be pro-democracy students, stormed Myanmar's
embassy here last week, holding nearly 40 hostages for more than 24-hours.

Thai authorities bowed to the men's demands for an escape helicopter to the
border.

A war of words between Yangon and Bangkok over the handling of the hostage
drama deepened Friday with Myanmar's official media slamming its neighbour's
democratic credentials.

"The act of permitting prostitution is adequate as a manifestation of a free
democratic state in Thailand," said a commentator in the official New Light
of Myanmar.

"But is there any country in the world that does not consider as a violation
of law ... the forcible entry and ransacking of an embassy," it said.

The comment referred to an earlier statement by Thailand's Interior Minister
Sanan Kachornprasart describing the gunmen as democracy fighters and not
terrorists.

The criticism also came as top Thai officials warned conflict between the
junta and democracy forces must be resolved to avoid a repetition of the
embassy siege.

"We must encourage the resolution of the problem at its roots otherwise
symptoms can reoccur," Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra told
journalists late Thursday.

His comments also appeared to reflect a growing impatience with a central
precept of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
requires members to refrain from interfering in each other's internal
affairs.

"I did not see ASEAN standing on Sathorn Road, did you?" said Sukhumband,
refering to the roadway in front of Yangon's embassy here sealed off by
security forces during the crisis.

NSC chief Khachadpai said so far few countries had expressed interest in
taking Myanmar activists. Potential homes include Australia, the United
States, Canada and some EU countries, he said.

"We can't wait until there is democracy in Myanmar. We want all of them (the
displaced persons) to go or resettle in third countries," the NSC chief
said.

He said the main persons of concern were the nearly 1,000 people in the
interior ministry's Maneeloy detention centre in Ratchburi province, and
another 2,000 living freely in Bangkok.

A spokesman for the UNHCR confirmed its Bangkok chief Jahanshah Assadi had
met with Khachadpai, but declined to comment further.

He said previously the UNHCR had facilitated the movement of refugees to
third countries, but had not promoted it.

Refugee workers here and some Thai authorities have expressed concern that a
broad resettlement plan may result in more refugees flooding into Thailand.

"If word gets back into Burma that you can get resettlement by crossing the
border and getting into a border camp, it is going to be a stampede and half
of Burma will be here," one refugee worker told AFP.

The UNHCR on Friday said it had completed the movement of refugees from Huay
Kalok camp in northwestern Tak province deeper inside Thailand to reduce the
risk of cross-border raids by junta-backed guerrilla forces.

Thailand hosts some 100,000 Myanmar refugees, mainly of Karen and Karenni
ethnic origins, who have fled suppression of ethnic insurgencies in
military-run Myanmar.

Myanmar's junta is widely blamed for alleged human rights abuses,
particularly against supporters of ethnic rebel groups along its eastern
border with Thailand.