The BurmaNet News: November 8, 1999

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

---------------------- BurmaNet ------------------------
 Catch the latest news about Burma at www.burmanet.org
--------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: November 8, 1999
Issue #1396

Noted in Passing: "The Thai government must ensure that it identifies and
provides protection to those with a fear of persecution in Burma, before
deporting any illegal immigrants." - Joe Saunders, Human Rights Watch (see
THE BANGKOK POST: STRANDED WORKERS GO TO CAMPS) 

HEADLINES:
==========
THE ECONOMIST: THE OUTCAST 
XINHUA: MYANMAR CRITICIZES UN REPORT 
AP: BURMA ACTIVIST RETURNS TO BRITAIN 
REUTERS: WAHID FAILS TO MEET SUU KYI 
AWSJ: THAILAND'S ALIEN ALLIES  
NATION: BURMESE REBELS YET TO SURRENDER 
BKK POST: STRANDED WORKERS GO TO CAMPS 
BKK POST: INVESTORS THREATEN MASS PULL-OUT  
BKK POST: FOREIGN LABOUR DESERVES BETTER
***************************************************

THE ECONOMIST: THE OUTCAST 
6 November, 1999 

RACHEL GOLDWYN, a 28-year-old from Britain, was released from jail in
Myanmar on November 1st after serving just two months of a seven-year
sentence for chaining herself to a lamppost in Yangon and singing a
pro-democracy song. A victory for "quiet diplomacy" said a British Foreign
Office spokesman. Perhaps, but a rare one against a brutal regime whose
intransigence is now making it an outcast even among some of its South-East
Asian neighbours.

Three days before Miss Goldwyn was freed, Myanmar's Supreme Court had
dismissed a complaint by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
that the military government was harassing its supporters. The NLD is led
by Aung San Suu Kyi, whose long and peaceful campaign for the restoration
of democracy has inspired many activists, including another Briton, James
Mawdsley, who was jailed for 17 years in September, also for staging a
protest.

Nevertheless, there is a growing frustration that non-violent action is not
getting anywhere. This manifested itself in October when five student
exiles from Myanmar seized their country's embassy in Bangkok. Thai
negotiators agreed to fly them to the border, where they could escape into
a rebel-held area of Myanmar, in return for freeing their hostages. Though
many Thais reckon their government did the right thing, the generals in
Yangon were furious -- especially as the gunmen were described by a Thai
minister as "student activists" fighting for democracy rather than
terrorists. In retaliation, the generals banned Thai fishing boats from
entering their waters and closed the long land border between the two
countries.

Thai officials are trying to patch up relations. They want to speed up the
resettlement in third countries of some of the thousands of dissidents who
have fled from Myanmar into Thailand. Many live on the Thai side of the
border in refugee camps which the generals in Yangon consider to be hotbeds
of trouble. Miss Goldwyn used to work in one of the camps. The students who
seized the Myanmar embassy lived in one.

Many of the student refugees are, however, refusing to register for
resettlement, and Thailand has said it will not force them to leave. Lots
of Thais are sympathetic to their cause and do not think Thailand should
try to appease the regime in Myanmar.

Thailand and the Philippines are now emerging as the most lively
democracies in South-East Asia, and in the process becoming more outspoken
in regional affairs. They look like being joined by Indonesia, whose new
civilian government, formed after its first free election in 44 years,
contains many former opposition leaders. Under ex-President Suharto,
himself a general, Indonesia was seen as a model which the regime in
Myanmar could use to enable it to hang on to control. No more. On November
4th, Indonesia's new president, Abdurrahman Wahid, said he hoped to meet
Myanmar's opposition leader. "Personally, my sympathy goes to Suu Kyi," he
said. This could signal an end to the policy of not criticising fellow
members of the regional club, the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

What effect any of this will have on Myanmar's rulers remains to be seen.
That the NLD got its case heard in the Supreme Court could be considered
progress of a sort: it is the first time the court has responded to NLD
complaints since the junta seized power in 1988. The NLD won Myanmar's last
election, in 1990, by a landslide, but the generals have ignored the result.

Through a campaign of harassment and intimidation, the regime is trying to
wear down the NLD. It seems to be having some success. Around 40 NLD
members who should have served in the new parliament are being detained.
The state-run media regularly exult in publishing reports of NLD supporters
resigning from the party at stage-managed events. The generals continue to
claim they will restore democracy when a new constitution has been drawn
up. Many in the opposition expect that will happen only when the army is
confident it has stamped on enough of its opponents to ensure itself of
victory.

Meanwhile, the regime continues to fend off claims of widespread brutality,
including the use of forced labour. So far, even UN offers of a resumption
of aid in return for the junta agreeing to talk to the NLD seem to have got
nowhere. Miss Suu Kyi is concerned that opposition frustration could
provoke trouble, but maintains "we don't want change to come about through
violence." She remains committed to peaceful reform. So, even though
everyone knows the Supreme Court will throw it out again, she will resubmit
the complaint of harassment. 

***************************************************

XINHUA: MYANMAR CRITICIZES UN REPORT
5 November, 1999 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Myanmar on Thursday called a U.N. report on its
human rights record biased and derogatory, and suggested the special
investigator who wrote the survey might have fabricated his sources. 

Rajsoomer Lallah, the investigator appointed by the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights, presented a report Thursday on the Southeast Asian country
that highlighted the government's repression of political dissidents and
ethnic minorities. 

Speaking to the General Assembly after Lallah's presentation, Myanmar's
ambassador questioned the report's accounts of people who had suffered
abuses at the hands of the state. 

"He simply makes allegations with seemingly realistic details that could
easily hoodwink the unwary and arouse sympathetic emotions for his either
dubious or imaginary victims," Kyaw Win said. 

The report was regrettably "highly biased and derogatory," he said. 

Win reiterated his country's view that the United Nations' appointment of
the special investigator on human rights was "totally unacceptable." 

The annual report -- the latest of four Lallah has done -- was prepared
with little firsthand information, because Myanmar refused to allow the
investigator or his representatives into the country. Lallah was first
appointed in 1992 to report on Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

Lallah said members of anti-government political groups, such as Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, have been singled out for
"disproportionate and extravagantly long" prison sentences. 

"Political repression keeps growing, and all means appear to be exerted to
compel members of the NLD in particular to abandon their party or at least
to abandon political activity," Lallah's report said. 

Ethnic minorities like the Karen -- who have waged a 50-year war for
autonomy -- have continued to be targeted, Lallah said, 

"At the very worst, we are faced with a country which is at war with its
own people," he said. "At the very best, it is a country which is holding
its people ... hostage." 

***************************************************

ASSOCIATED PRESS: BURMA ACTIVIST RETURNS TO BRITAIN 
6 November, 1999 

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Activist Rachel Goldwyn has quietly returned home to
Britain with her family after serving less than two months in prison for
staging an anti-government protest, the military regime announced Saturday.

The government said that Goldwyn, who had traveled to the scenic Shan State
in the northeast with her parents after her release Monday, left Friday
morning for England. The report could not be independently confirmed.

A family friend who answered the telephone at the London home of Goldwyn's
sister, Naomi, said he could not comment on the whereabouts of Goldwyn and
her parents.

In Yangon, an official said on condition of anonymity that the Goldwyns
asked for their departure to be kept quiet to avoid the media.

Goldwyn, 28, was sentenced to seven years for violating a national security
law on Sept. 7 by chaining herself to a lamp post in Yangon and singing
anti-government songs.

The protest came two days before anti-government activists had urged an
uprising against the government, which never got off the ground.

The government freed her following appeals by Goldwyn's parents, Edward and
Charmian, who spent a month in the country. She is understood to have
agreed to stay out of Myanmar's politics in the future.

Myanmar has ruled out clemency any time soon for another activist, James
Mawdsley, a dual British-Australian citizen. He was sentenced to 17 years
imprisonment in August after his third protest.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962. Human
rights groups estimate 1,200 political prisoners are being held in
dilapidated, disease-ridden jails.

***************************************************

REUTERS: WAHID FAILS TO MEET SUU KYI
7 November, 1999 

YANGON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Sunday
met with Myanmar's military leaders during a brief visit, but he was not
expected to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he had hoped,
sources said.

Wahid met leaders of the ruling State Peace and Development Council led by
its chairman, Senior General Than Shwe, and powerful secretary-general one,
Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt.

They were to discuss bilateral cooperation and regional issues during the
working lunch, an official source said.

Wahid said last Thursday he also hoped to meet Suu Kyi during the visit,
breaking an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) tradition of
shunning dissidents in member countries.

But an Indonesian embassy spokesman said no meeting with the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize winner was in the cards.

``Meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi is not in the programme and the embassy did
not receive instructions to arrange such a meeting,'' the spokesman told
Reuters by when contacted telephone from Bangkok.

``You know my president, his health is not so good, he needs to rest, so
after lunch he has no plans to meet with other people,'' he said of the
frail, nearly blind Wahid.

Some Yangon-based diplomats said Wahid might not try to see Suu Kyi after
all because he did not want to offend his hosts and because of his tight
schedule.

Wahid was to leave Yangon in the afternoon for Bangkok, the fourth stop on
his whirlwind tour of Indonesia's ASEAN neighbours. He earlier visited
Singapore and Malaysia.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The grouping adheres to the principle of non-interference in the affairs of
member states, and no ASEAN head of state has ever met with Suu Kyi.

Despite this, Suu Kyi was able to meet Philippines Foreign Secretary
Domingo Siazon when former president Fidel Ramos visited Myanmar in October
1997.

She also met with Malaysia's then foreign minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
during a visit by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in March last year.

Suu Kyi was released from six years' house arrest in 1995 but the
government has greatly restricted her movements since then. Her National
League for Democracy won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide,
but the military ignored the result.

***************************************************

ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL: THAILAND'S ALIEN ALLIES
4 November, 1999 

Editorial

On the record, the Burmese government was outraged last month when
dissident Burmese students took over their country's embassy in Bangkok and
Thai officials allowed the dissidents to go free after they released all
their embassy hostages unharmed. Since then, however, some things have been
looking up for Rangoon's ruling generals. The Thais, after sheltering
several thousand Burmese students and other political refugees for years,
are now trying to hand them off to third countries, like the U.S. and
Canada. At such a distance from their homeland, they would be less capable
and effective advocates of democratic freedom in Burma. Then, the generals
must be thinking, the rest of the world would know and care less about
human rights abuses in Burma.

There is a hitch. Many of the Burmese political refugees in Thailand say
they will not comply with a November 21 deadline to register for
resettlement in third countries. Thai officials have threatened to round
them up if they don't register, and to bundle political refugees back
across the border into Burma along with hundreds of thousands of other
Burmese scheduled to be deported as illegal immigrants. But that would be a
messy business.

Thailand's effort to expel ordinary Burmese seeking work is controversial
enough. Thai businesses have enjoyed their cheap labor and worry that mass
deportations of guest workers could leave them with open jobs in
agriculture and other sectors that Thais don't want to work in. Burma
doesn't want its laboring citizens back either. Thai authorities said
Wednesday that when they tried to send one batch of Burmese laborers back
to their country, Burmese border guards threatened to shoot them. For
different reasons, Burmese political refugees fear that is exactly what
would happen to them if they were forced home. It's doubtful the Thai
government wants to be seen condemning anyone to that fate.

Shoving the dissidents to third countries is another matter, however, and
here the generals in Rangoon must be grateful to see the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees stepping up to volunteer its services. The
UNHCR's representative in Thailand, Jahanshah Assadi, has been making
approving noises about the need to be "proactive" in resettling Burmese
refugees and has spoken of "consolidating" them into holding locations so
they can't roam the streets ahead of processing.

Fortunately, the Thai people don't seem to be so enthusiastic about the
prospect of the Burmese democrats in their midst being dispersed to the
four corners of the earth. Thais may have been unnerved when Burma closed
the border in retaliation for the hostage incident, but it's beginning to
look like an own goal, where Burma suffers while Thais have found ways to
make money in the black market that has sprung up to get around the border
problem.

More importantly, many Thais seem to understand that the vast majority of
Burmese political refugees in their country are allies in a common cause
against the real problem here, which is the corrupt, undemocratic and
unpopular regime in Rangoon. And that the drugs trade, criminality and host
of other ways in which bad neighbor Burma hurts Thailand can be changed
fastest with the help of the Burmese people who long to be good neighbors
in a democratic Burma. If the activists among them are shipped out of the
region, Thais (and indeed other Asians who share their concerns) will have
to wait even longer for positive change next door.

***************************************************

THE NATION: BURMESE REBELS YET TO SURRENDER
7 November, 1999 

FIVE armed Burmese militants who had allegedly offered to give themselves
up for seizing the Burmese Embassy early last month have not yet
surrendered, top Thai government and military leaders said yesterday. 

The confirmation cleared the confusion which arose on Thursday morning,
following the highly-publicised police preparation to fly the five from
Western Ratchaburi province to Bangkok for a press conference on their
surrender. 

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart and
Army Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont all told reporters in separate interviews
yesterday that the five gunmen had not yet given themselves up to Thai
authorities. 

Chuan said the armed group, which stormed the Burmese Embassy on Oct 1 and
seized more than 80 Burmese and foreign hostages, had committed a crime
against the state and that Thailand had already issued a warrant for their
arrest. 

Quoting information from the National Security Council, the premier
confirmed that the group had contacted Thai authorities about their
surrender but there had been no further progress on the matter. 

He added that the group ''cannot set any conditions for their surrender and
will be prosecuted according to our laws.'' 

''[Interior Minister] Sanan [Kachornprasart] told me that, as of last night
[Oct 4], there had not been a surrender. If they want to give themselves
up, it's their matter,'' said the premier. 

When asked whether the attackers seemed to avoid handing themselves in for
fear of repatriation to Burma, Chuan said the Thai government could not
give them any assurances on the matter. 

''If they surrender themselves or if they enter Thailand, we will arrest
and prosecute them. Surrender is their matter, but for a crime that was
committed on Thai soil, we will use Thai laws,'' Chuan said. 

''The prosecution process will follow our laws, clear and definite, and
absolutely without any bargaining. If they are found in Thailand, they will
be arrested instantly. 

''These students cannot set any conditions [for their surrender] because it
will not mean anything, as Thailand will not accept them.'' 

The premier said he did not believe that the arrest of the five gunmen
would reduce the tension along the Thai-Burmese border following the
Burmese junta's abrupt closure of its frontier shortly after the embassy
siege, ''because the two matters are not related''. 

He said he believed the gunmen did not suddenly want to surrender out of
the blue, indicating that they must be under some threat of danger.
''Simply, they might find our country safer because we follow the rules of
law for any crime committed,'' he said. 

Chuan said he was not concerned that the Burmese military government would
request the repatriation of the armed group because the crime took place in
Thailand, and everything would proceed accordingly to Thai law. 

He said there had not yet been any reaction from Rangoon over the reported
surrender. 

Sanan yesterday said ''the confusion over the arrest of the Burmese
students was the result of rumour spreading by people who didn't know the
truth.'' 

He also blamed the high-profile preparation for a press conference at Thung
Song Hong police station as ''a reaction to sheer rumour''. 

''The police officers who made the preparations yesterday [Thursday] were
idiots. They didn't know anything, but set off to prepare [a press
conference] although they hadn't yet see them [the gunmen] in person,''
said Sanan. 

He added that he had checked with all security agencies involved including
the Army, and the Supreme Command, but none had received any information of
a pending surrender. 

He said the Burmese junta had not yet contacted Thailand or issued any
comments on the matter, but the Burmese ambassador to Thailand had earlier
informed us that he wanted Thailand to apply local laws in this case. 

He added that if Burma requested their repatriation, Thailand would have to
see if the two countries had a bilateral extradition treaty. 

Surayud yesterday said there had been no confirmation as to their
surrender, and that he did not know where the five men were taking refuge. 

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday that it was not possible for
the five assailants to be tried at the World Court ''which only takes up
disputes between sovereign states and not individual cases''. 

Assistant Bangkok Police Chief Pol Maj-Gen Chakthip Kulchorn Na Ayudhya,
who had flown to Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district on Thursday to pick up
the Burmese group, accepted yesterday that ''a misunderstanding'' over the
surrender prompted Thung Song Hong police officers to prepare for an
investigation, including a call for some witnesses to testify. 

''I want to confirm that the students have not yet given themselves up and
that there is no definite date of their surrender yet, because they haven't
contacted us,'' said Chakthip. 

It remained unclear yesterday as to what prompted the Burmese raiders to
back down on their surrender. 

According to highly-informed police sources, officers from the Special
Branch Police had opened negotiations with the Burmese gunmen for their
surrender on Nov 2. 

But on Thursday -- their due day for surrender, communication lines between
Baan Bor Klerng, a Karen village inside Burma where the group was living,
and the Border Patrol Police's 137th Unit in Suan Phung, were cut and road
transport through the Tenasserim mountain range was not possible because of
torrential rain. 

Chakthip, who flew by helicopter to Suan Phung to collect the gunmen, and
other officers from Bangkok waited until 6 pm, when darkness ruled out any
chance of a journey to the village for safety reasons. 

They later returned without the five men.

***************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: STRANDED WORKERS GO TO CAMPS 
5 November, 1999 

RIGHTS GROUP WANTS REFUGEES IDENTIFIED

Illegal Burmese workers turned back by their home country will be put in
holding centres, the interior minister said yesterday.

A large number of Burmese rounded up in a nationwide crackdown on illegal
workers has been unable to return home since Rangoon closed the border last
month.

Those who were turned back would be housed in temporary holding camps
pending Rangoon's permission for them to enter Burma, Sanan Kachornprasart
said.

The cost of running the camps, to be under the jurisdiction of the border
patrol police, would be borne by the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry, he
said. Maj-Gen Sanan said the repatriation of illegal foreign workers should
be carried out in a humanitarian manner.

Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit, the supreme commander, said it was the Foreign
Ministry's duty to negotiate with Burma for the re-opening of border
checkpoints so the stranded workers could go home.

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said he did not believe Rangoon would
resort to shooting Burmese workers deported from Thailand.

Rangoon was duty-bound to take them back. Thai and Burmese authorities had
discussed the matter several times.

Mr Surin also said it was Thailand's duty to deport them because they had
entered the country illegally.

Meanwhile, an international human rights monitor has called on the
government to refrain from deporting Burmese who may be eligible for
refugee status.

Human Rights Watch also asked the government to allow access for officials
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to screen any Burmese
who claim to be a refugee.

"Thailand's campaign will put the lives of many Burmese at risk," said Joe
Saunders, deputy director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

"The Thai government must ensure that it identifies and provides protection
to those with a fear of persecution in Burma, before deporting any illegal
immigrants," he said.

Human Rights Watch identified the Shan ethnic minority as a group
"particularly at risk". Unlike the Karen and Karenni, they had no access to
refugee camps.

The watchdog urged the UNHCR to press the government to ensure protection
and assistance for all Shan refugees in Thailand. The UNHCR in Bangkok
declined to comment on the suggestions.

In Chiang Rai, 50 Burmese have been rounded up in Mae Sai district as part
of the policy to crack down on illegal foreign workers after a 90-day
reprieve ended on Nov 3.

However, provincial authorities have delayed their repatriation because
others had been turned back by Burmese troops, said Pol Col Panurat
Meepian, the district superintendent.

Sources said Burmese troops had fired warning shots as some workers were
making their way home across the Sai river.

The 50, who had been caught in factories and along the streets, were being
detained at the Mae Sai immigration office, which can house 200.

On Tuesday, the cabinet agreed to allow 163,098 foreign workers a one-year
extension to work in 18 types of jobs, mostly in labour-intensive
industries, in 37 provinces.

In Chiang Rai, 867 foreign workers were allowed to work temporarily in
three types of job including fruit and vegetable orchards, construction
work and milling. Sources said there were about 10,000 illegal foreign
workers, mostly Burmese, in Chiang Rai and they would be main targets of
the crackdown.

***************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: INVESTORS THREATEN MASS PULL-OUT 
6 November, 1999 

EMPLOYMENT POLICY U-TURN 'IRRATIONAL'

Foreign investors have accused the government of a policy U-turn on the
employment of foreign labour and threatened to shift production to other
countries.

About 30 Taiwanese and Hong Kong owners of garment factories in Tak's Mae
Sot district yesterday demanded the government look closely at the damage
caused by "the policy change" which has led to the forced repatriation of
more than 60,000 of their Burmese employees.

The government should reconsider renewing the work permits of workers being
sent back to Burma, or their factories would have to close for lack of
labour, they said in a joint statement.

The foreign investors said they set up in Mae Sot because of promotion
packages offered by the Board of Investment, which also encouraged
entrepreneurs to move from Bangkok to the area.

As factories mushroomed, labour became scarce and employers had to hire
illegal Burmese immigrants.

Employment of foreign labour appeared to have the support of the
government, which agreed to issue them work permits.

The government must now advise them how to find replacement labour so they
could meet present and future orders, and how they could regain the
confidence of their customers.

If they had to close down their factories, about 16,000 Thais' would become
jobless, on top of the lost earnings of food shops and stores which served
their factories and employees.

"Do we just solve one problem and create another? Hadn't we better sit
down, think and talk?" the statement said.

Chingchai Korprapakij, owner of Colour Best Knitwear in Mae Sot, said Hong
Kong and Taiwanese businessmen with combined investments of more than one
billion baht were planning to move their production bases to other countries.

The businessmen visited Indonesia, southern Africa and Burma a few months
ago to survey investment prospects in those countries, Mr Chingchai said.

Bandung, in Indonesia, and Madagascar seemed to be the best choices because
they offered cheap labour, he said. 

Jongchai Thiengtham, a deputy Labour minister, shrugged off the investors'
statement.

"I don't care how those employers in Mae Sot will suffer," he said

Investors had flocked to Mae Sot just because they could hire Burmese
workers at very low wages. It was time to get tough.

"The employers have enjoyed using cheap labour for so long, now they have
to pay for something more expensive," Mr Jongchai said.

Panithi Tangpati, chairman of the Tak Chamber of Commerce, said Mr Jongchai
would not give Tak investors the cold shoulder if he represented the
northern province instead of Suphan Buri.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai confirmed repatriation of illegal workers
would continue for security and community safety reason.

Police said yesterday they had arrested and sent home 1,501 illegal foreign
workers, 1,304 of them Burmese, since the cabinet resolved on Nov 2 to
limit their numbers.

The commissioner of the Immigration Police Bureau said media
representatives were present to see there was no abuse of the recurrences.

The situation was calm and both employers and employees were very
co-operative, he said. 

A large number of illegal foreigners were turning themselves in each day,
but there were still an estimated 800,000 - mostly from Burma, Laos and
Cambodia - hiding or working illegally in the country.

A total of 64,739 Burmese and 8,293 Cambodians were arrested for illegal
entry between Jan 1 and Nov 4.

Another 13,560 had surrendered to the police during that period and
voluntarily returned home.

In Kanchanabui, aliens caught with no identification papers were considered
a threat to national security and were deported immediately.

Local police began rounding up the illegal immigrants yesterday and
declared anyone providing shelter to these people would face legal action.

The crackdown also targeted foreigners making their living by begging or
selling garlands or food.

In Chiang Rai, immigration police said they had arrested 200 illegal
Burmese worker, who would be repatriated today.

It was costing 20,000baht a day to feed them.

***************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: FOREIGN LABOUR DESERVES BETTER
5 November, 1999

EDITORIAL

The Thai authorities might have been working on the repatriation of Burmese
working here illegally for quite some time, but when it came to putting the
policy into effect this week, it was painfully obvious that not enough
thought had been given to the idea. Tens of thousands of Burmese were
pushed across the border only to be met by Burmese troops who forced them
back at gunpoint. And at home, factory owners in border provinces are
complaining that they will be made bankrupt by the loss of cheap labour.

Clearly the repatriation, and our entire foreign labour policy, has been
shown to be ill guided. It was a knee-jerk response to the economic crisis
exacerbated by the security hand-wringing prompted by last month's hostage
drama at the Burmese Embassy.

While Thailand is entitled to employ foreign workers and send them home
again once their services are no longer needed, the authorities'
"repatriation at all costs" approach does nobody any good. For a start,
experience has shown that when illegal immigrant workers are sent home,
they very soon find their way back to factories suffering labour shortages
willing to break the law and re-employ them.

This is a problem too large for repatriation. It was originally agreed that
the employment of foreign staff - Burmese, Cambodians, Laotians and South
Asians - must end on Aug 4. That deadline was extended for 90 days and
86,895 foreign workers were allowed to work in 18 designated industries in
37 provinces until Nov 1, after which they were to return home. But labour
officials estimate that there were over one million immigrants, the bulk of
them Burmese, working here illegally. Repatriation clearly cannot cope with
things on this scale.

With such a large pool of illegal immigrants to draw from, most employers
take advantage of them. They are paid below the minimum wage and do not
receive welfare or medical benefits. State hospitals and NGOs end up taking
care of those hurt or ill; the Public Health Ministry estimates at least 50
million baht is spent each year to treat foreign workers and many are left
to fend for themselves. This is exploitation on the part of employers and
the state shares the blame for allowing the problem to continue.

Industries along the border, in particular construction, fisheries,
transport and manufacturing, are now dependent on Burmese labour. And even
though the economic crisis has thrown thousands upon thousands of Thais out
of work, it seems there are not the local people to replace the foreign
labour. Most of the work is labour intensive and low paying, jobs most
Thais turn their back on. The authorities simply will not be able to
replace the illegal labour.

That is why the cabinet agreed last Tuesday to allow 163,098 foreign
workers an extension to work until Aug 1 next year. But this is only a
short-term measure and does not go far enough to solve the problems.
Long-term solutions require the co-operation of every country around the
region. This week's disorderly repatriation highlights the need for an
agreement with the immigrants' home countries before they are packed off
home. Rangoon might have closed the border and not want to talk with
Bangkok but this problem demands discussion. No nation can bar its people
from returning home. It may have security concerns or question the
nationality of the returnees, but having the military turn its guns on poor
innocents is not the answer.

Force Thai factories to observe the law and to pay foreign workers a proper
wage. Make them provide health care. And if they must employ local labour,
make sure the conditions of employment and wages are suitably attractive.
Thailand in all likelihood will continue to need foreign labour for some
time yet. The country must work out how best this can be done and in the
meantime arrange for the orderly and safe return home of all those
immigrants whose services are no longer needed.

***************************************************




_____________________________________________________________
We've got email newsletters galore!  Check 'em out at Topica.
http://www.topica.com/t/5