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NEWS - Thais beef up border securit



Subject: NEWS - Thais beef up border security for Karen refugees

Thais beef up border security for Karen refugees

  
MAE SOT, Thailand, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The Thai army on Tuesday said it
had beefed up security for thousands of Karen refugees taking shelter
along the western border with Myanmar. 

The Thai move follows Myanmar's sealing of its 2,400 km (1,464 miles)
border with Thailand last weekend after five heavily armed dissident
attackers stormed Yangon's embassy in Bangkok, took 89 people hostage
and later escaped after freeing the hostages. 

There has been speculation in the local media that Myanmar had sealed
the border to retaliate against Myanmar dissidents based in the border
area for the embassy attack. 

The five gunmen who took over the embassy for about 25 hours from
October 1 fled Bangkok in a Thai army helicopter and landed in a western
border town area. They disappeared into the jungles in the area on
landing and escaped. 

Thailand provides sanctuary for dissident Myanmar students who fled a
Myanmar military crackdown on pro-democracy proponents in late 1988. 

Thailand has also been sheltering about 100,000 refugees who fled from
fighting in Myanmar since 1984, he told reporters. 

The refugees are mostly family and followers of the Karen National Union
(KNU) guerrilla group which is fighting the Yangon's military government
for a separate Karen state in eastern Myanmar. 

``The fresh deployment is to provide security for refugees in camps and
to avoid possible violation of our territory,'' said Major General
Thomorn Kijsopol, Thai commander at the border. 

Myanmar is furious with Bangkok for labelling the gunmen dissident
students fighting for democracy and not international terrorists. Its
officials have also accused the Thais of handling the gunmen with kid
gloves. 

Yangon also revoked fishing rights for Thai companies in its waters to
retaliate against the Thais. 

But Thai premier Chuan Leekpai said Myanmar should not be upset with
Thailand's way of handling the embassy takeover and urged Yangon to mend
fences with Bangkok. 

03:22 10-12-99