Reuters-U.N. woos Myanmar exiles wi

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Subject: Reuters-U.N. woos Myanmar exiles with resettlement option 

U.N. woos Myanmar exiles with resettlement option
08:58 a.m. Oct 28, 1999 Eastern
By David Brunnstrom

BANGKOK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency, responding to Thai
pressure after dissidents seized Myanmar's Bangkok embassy, said on Thursday
it aimed to entice 1,700 Myanmar exiles with the prospect of third-country
resettlement.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Thailand, anxious to patch up
its relationship with Myanmar's military government after the October 1-2
embassy attack, had asked it to be more ``proactive'' about resettling the
refugees.

UNHCR's Regional Representative Jahanshah Assadi told a Bangkok news
conference his agency was trying to encourage 1,700 Myanmar dissidents
living in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand to to join 1,000 already at the
Maneeloy centre west of Bangkok.

``The government has said to us over the last four weeks that it does want
resettlement in third countries to be pursued for the Burmese refugees who
are part of the so-called urban caseload,'' he said.

``It does wish that these persons be consolidated in the Maneeloy centre and
that such individuals do not wander around the streets of Bangkok and
elsewhere.''

MYANMAR ANGRY

Myanmar was angered by Thailand's decision to give the embassy attackers
free passage to a safe border area after they freed all 89 hostages unharmed
from the siege. It closed the common frontier in protest, hitting Thai
traders and fishermen.

Thailand's National Security Council said earlier this week

that Myanmar dissidents must register for movement to Maneeloy within a
month or be regarded as illegal immigrants.

Asked if he thought Thailand's stance was a result of pressure from its
military-ruled neighbour, Assadi replied:

``Of course Thailand doesn't want its bilateral relations to be complicated,
which is understandable.

``At the same it doesn't want public support for refugees and asylum seekers
to be eroded, and Thailand is of the view if they are resettled whatever
aspirations these students may have can be realised from a third country.''

Assadi said the UNHCR aimed to start registering refugees for resettlement
next week and eight or nine countries had expressed an interest in taking
some. They included the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and
some European countries.

Thousands of dissidents, many of them university students, fled Myanmar
after the military crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988. About 2,000
have been resettled in third countries.

While many Myanmar dissidents are eager to move abroad, others believe
Thailand to be the most effective place to conduct their political struggle
against military rule in Myanmar.

Assadi said that when he and other UNHCR officers visited Maneeloy on
Thursday, a straw poll showed a majority there favoured the idea of
third-country resettlement.