Bkk Post - Quick resettlement of st

[nyinyilwin8@xxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: Bkk Post - Quick resettlement of students sought

We are very glad this resolvoed to relocate 2,000
students in U.S and Canada.

Let us know when the students need sponsors. We are
more than happy to do that.

At this time, we, studetns in DC, will help at least
800 students to be resettled in DC, MD, and VA areas.


--- TIN KYI <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Bangkok Post - Oct 20, 1999.
> THAI-BURMESE RELATIONS
> 
> Quick resettlement of students sought
> US, Canada pledge to accept 2,000 from Maneeloy camp
> 
> Thailand is pushing for third-country resettlement
> of Burmese student exiles
> after some of them locked up UNHCR officials at the
> Maneeloy holding centre
> in Ratchaburi on Monday.
> 
> Don Pramudwinai, the Foreign Ministry spokesman,
> yesterday said the
> students' action was "not different from a mild form
> of terrorism".
> 
> He said the National Security Council will host a
> meeting of agencies
> concerned tomorrow.
> 
> On Monday, five officials of the United Nations High
> Commissioner for
> Refugees-one French woman and four Thais-were locked
> up in their offices for
> several hours after some of the Burmese students at
> the holding centre were
> denied their 800-baht monthly allowances because
> they had left the camp to
> join protests against Rangoon's military junta.
> 
> They released the officials only after the governor
> of Ratchaburi, Komet
> Daengkomane, paid them out of his own pocket.
> 
> Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan yesterday said the
> government found the
> Burmese students' action unacceptable, adding they
> would face more
> restrictive measures.
> 
> M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the deputy foreign
> minister, said yesterday the
> UNHCR would have to improve its control system at
> the Maneeloy centre.
> 
> M.R. Sukhumbhand said the student exiles should
> appreciate the privileges
> granted them by the Thai government and must not
> take advantage of
> Thailand's generosity.
> 
> But he urged patience, saying the problem of Burmese
> student exiles in
> Thailand could not be solved overnight.
> 
> The only way to end the trouble fast was to drive
> all of them back into
> Burma, "but no-one wants to do that", he added.
> 
> M.R. Sukhumbhand said yesterday so far 13 countries
> have shown interest in
> accepting Burmese students taking refuge in Thailand
> for resettlement.
> 
> Two of them, the United States and Canada, even
> pledged to take up to 2,000
> of the 2,700 Maneeloy students, he added.
> 
> M.R Sukhumbhand said the Foreign Ministry has
> remained in contact with Burma
> despite its decision to close its borders with
> Thailand following the Oct
> 1-2 armed seizure of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok
> by five Burmese
> dissidents.
> 
> However, he said, talks to settle differences
> between the two countries have
> been difficult because Burma has not said what it
> wants.
> 
> The Foreign Ministry has invited the Burmese deputy
> foreign minister to
> visit Bangkok but there has been no response from
> him so far.
> 
> Niran Kalayanamit, the Maneeloy centre's deputy
> director, yesterday said
> protests against UN officials by Burmese students
> over their allowances or
> medication were nothing out of the ordinary.
> 
> The Ratchaburi governor said an investigation panel
> has been set up to find
> out if the locking up of UNHCR officials was a
> criminal offence.
> 
> Governor Komet yesterday denied he had been too
> lenient with the disgruntled
> students by agreeing to pay them, saying he was
> ordered to do everything
> possible to ensure the safety of the five UNHCR
> officials.
> 
> The Maneeloy centre would have to be expanded and
> its security stepped up,
> he said, adding that some 1,000 Burmese students
> living outside the camp
> might be ordered to move back in.
> 
> The UNHCR yesterday said in a press release it did
> not consider the locking
> up of the five officials to be a major incident.
> 
> However, the event would be fully investigated and
> the UNHCR would discuss
> with Thai authorities measures to prevent it from
> recurring.
> 
> 
> 


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