THAI RELATIONS WITH BURMA ON ROCKS

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thai relations with Burma on rocks 
sydney morning herald
Date: 09/11/99

BURMA By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok 

Tensions between Thailand and Burma are intensifying as Thailand 
adopts a greater willingness to tackle its neighbour's lack of 
democratic freedoms.

Tens of thousands of Burmese have gone into hiding in Thai border 
towns, and some factories which relied on cheap Burmese labour have 
suspended operations amid
deportations by Thai authorities of illegal Burmese workers.

The repatriations follow Burma's closure of the border in protest 
against Thailand's release of the Burmese activists who last month 
took hostages at Rangoon's
Bangkok embassy.

Locals say the Burmese population has largely disappeared from the 
streets of the northern Thai town of Mae Sot.

''They are afraid,'' said one visitor to the town. ''Police and 
immigration officials are rounding up anyone who looks Burmese. Even 
the Burmese curry sellers, who used
to be everywhere, are gone.''

Thai officials began ferrying Burmese to their homeland across the 
''Friendship Bridge'' that crosses the Moei River on the northern 
border last Wednesday. But Thai
authorities say Burmese soldiers pointed automatic weapons, stopping 
the repatriation attempt.

The group of several hundred illegal workers was then sent back at a 
point on the border not patrolled by Burmese soldiers.

There have been other covert repatriations along the border, according 
to residents, and Thailand has created holding centres for those 
awaiting repatriation. 

Human rights groups in Thailand have voiced concern that people who 
face likely political persecution will be forcibly returned to Burma.

Burmese authorities say they require cross-checks on the identities of 
those returning for security reasons, fearing that some of the 
deportees may be democracy
activists or ethnic insurgents.

The Burmese military regime has complained that pro-democracy groups 
use Thailand as a base to campaign.

Anger grew last month when a Thai minister described the embassy 
hostage-takers as Burmese student democracy activists rather than 
terrorists.

Burmese sensitivities grew when Indonesia's President Abdurrahman 
Wahid said ahead of a weekend visit to Rangoon that he had felt 
personal ''sympathy'' for the
democracy leader Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr Wahid left Rangoon on Sunday to continue a whirlwind tour of 
Indonesia's ASEAN neighbours. The new President had said last Thursday 
that he hoped to meet Ms
Suu Kyi, breaking an Association of South-East Asian Nations tradition 
of shunning dissidents in member countries. 

However, an Indonesian Embassy spokesman said shortly before Mr Wahid 
departed that no such meeting was planned.

The Thai Government has said that as an ''advocate for democracy'' it 
will try to help Burma's ''improvement in every way possible''. Such 
comments, alluding to the
military regime's refusal to restore democracy, were avoided in the 
past.

However, observers say the heavy-handed response by Rangoon to the 
embassy siege has strengthened Thailand's resolve not to bow to 
diplomatic pressure from
Burma.