The BurmaNet News: November 15, 199

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Subject: The BurmaNet News: November 15, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: November 15, 1999
Issue #1401

Noted in Passing: "Many with well-founded fears of persecution in Myanmar
are at risk of being returned with no opportunity to claim asylum." -
Amnesty International (see THE BANGKOK POST: LIVES PLACED IN DANGER)

HEADLINES:
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
AFP: WORLD BANK TAKES AIM AT MYANMAR MILITARY
TIME: BURMA - SIGNS OF HOPE?
REUTERS: ETHNIC LEADERS WHO MET UN OFFICIALS HELD
NATION: SURIN PLANS RGN VISIT TO EASE TENSIONS
BKK POST: EMBASSY RAIDERS TO FIGHT ON
BKK POST: FUGITIVES AWAIT THEIR FATE
BKK POST: LIVES PLACED IN DANGER
***************************************************

AFP: WORLD BANK TAKES AIM AT MYANMAR MILITARY OVER ECONOMY WOES
14 November, 1999

Bangkok - The World Bank has blamed Myanmar's military for the country's
stagnant economy, telling its ruling generals political and human rights
reform are the solution to achieving prosperity on a par with its
neighbours, it was reported.

Copies of the scathing assessment were delivered secretly to Yangon's
generals and democratic opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi by a special representative of UN chief Kofi Annan last month.

The leaked document, the conclusions of which were published in the
International Herald Tribune Saturday, is based on an examination of
Myanmar's economy that received "unusual cooperation" from the junta.

Its findings are critical of the military's economic management, pointing
an accusing finger at the generals rather than Asia's financial crisis as
the main source of the country's economic malaise.

It says the country is facing the same economic woes it did a decade ago
when the current junta took power, and that no progress has been made.

The junta's current policies are likely to exacerbate poverty and devastate
national cohesion, it adds.

The World Bank's findings stand in contrast to Myanmar's official policy,
and that of some Asian governments, that a firm economic base can and must
be achieved before the country can risk giving its people more political
freedoms.

The document represents continued cooperation between the World Bank and
the United Nations, who last year are reported to have unsuccessfully
offered the junta one billion dollars in aid to open dialogue with Aung San
Suu Kyi's opposition, the Tribune said.

It was delivered to the generals last month by UN special envoy Alvaro de
Soto. A representative of the World Bank joined de Soto's mission.

The UN envoy met with the junta's powerful first secretary Lieutenant
General Khin Nyunt and twice with Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the National
League for Democracy (NLD).

The NLD under Aung San Suu Kyi won 1990 polls in a landslide, but has been
denied power by the military.

The junta has so far declined to comment on the leaking of the secret=
 report.

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

TIME: BURMA - SIGNS OF HOPE?
15 November, 1999 by Sandra Burton

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: Full transcripts of the author's interviews with
both Daw Aung Suu Kyi and SPDC Foreign Minister Win Aung will be sent as
special postings of The BurmaNet News because they are quite lengthy.]

Burma's ruling junta continues to squabble with Aung San Suu Kyi, but the
generals now seem more attentive to international calls for reform

The monsoon season is ending, and Burma's military regime is gearing up for
combat on two fronts. One is the dry-season skirmishing against ethnic
insurgents along the border with Thailand. No less important is the annual
charm campaign at the United Nations, where this year's debate on Burma's
human rights record is just under way. Temperatures--and voices--began
rising inside the U.N. Human Rights Commission last week with the release
of a report by the special human rights rapporteur. It accused Burma--also
known as Myanmar--of practicing forced labor, summary executions, abuses of
ethnic minorities and repression of civil and political rights. "At the
very worst, we are faced with a country which is at war with its own
people," says the report. "At the very best, it is a country which is
holding its people ... hostage."=20

The pressure may be getting through. For the first time since the 1995
release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house detention, the
junta is responding to international condemnation with more than the usual
empty rhetoric. Earlier this year, the regime surprised its critics by
suddenly granting permission to the International Committee of the Red
Cross to inspect Burma's prisons and report on the condition of "security
detainees," the state's euphemism for the political prisoners it claims not
to hold. That concession, along with moves to enter into talks on
establishing an independent human rights commission and to entertain
lawsuits filed by the opposition, has given the junta a toehold from which
to respond to critics, and perhaps to begin experimenting with political
and economic reforms. Last week the generals, with a nod, no doubt, to the
U.N., made a more conciliatory gesture: they freed Rachel Goldwyn, a young
British activist who had been arrested in September and sentenced to seven
years in jail for staging an anti-government protest in downtown Rangoon.
"What we are seeing is not so much a thaw as the slow movement of a glacier
that may finally be gaining momentum," says the former director of a U.S.
humanitarian aid organization in Burma.=20

Despite such conciliatory signs, the two sides of Burma's political debate
are still far from a breakthrough. Suu Kyi, whose National League for
Democracy (NLD) won an 80% majority in 1990 elections that the regime
refused to recognize, has called for the release of political prisoners and
freedom for political parties to operate openly before she will enter into
a dialogue with the ruling State Peace and Development Council. And she is
not likely to bend to the junta's condition that the opposition abolish a
committee comprised of elected MPs, which the junta denounces as a
"parallel government." Until the two sides find some common ground, donor
nations aren't likely to authorize any major funding; the U.S., meanwhile,
won't allow its companies to make new investments in Burma. In Asia,
Rangoon's more forgiving neighbors continue to promote a "constructive
engagement" policy, offering incentives to coax the regime to lighten up
and reduce its growing dependency on China for trade, infrastructure
funding and arms.=20

A potential breakthrough came late last month when U.N. special envoy
Alvaro De Soto visited Burma to try to break the political stalemate.
Though the mission apparently failed to bring the two sides closer on the
big issues, it set off a chain of follow-up discussions that could lead to
progress in forging a dialogue--a prerequisite for the release of major
funding. In the meantime, says Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of
Human Rights Watch Asia, "If Burma were to make economic reforms and
respond to various political resolutions, some doors might open to at least
low-level aid and poverty reduction funds."=20

The visit offers the clearest hopes for some sort of compromise. The U.N.
special envoy met separately with both General Khin Nyunt, the junta's
Secretary One, and Suu Kyi. The talks were shrouded in secrecy, and rumors
abound that the meeting with Suu Kyi was tense. Still, there is hope that
the discussions will lead to something concrete. Suu Kyi apparently seemed
prepared to make some concessions. De Soto reportedly asked if she would
object to proposed World Bank technical assistance to train and develop the
country's civil service: she has insisted on approval over such grants to
ensure that they would not indirectly strengthen the junta. This time she
neither rejected the proposal outright nor imposed strict conditions on its
disbursal, asking only that the World Bank's dealings with the government
be "transparent" and that the opposition be kept informed. "The government
portrays Aung San Suu Kyi as an iron lady, but she is not," says U Tin Oo,
deputy chairman of the NLD. "She can make compromises, with no winners or
losers, for the sake of democratization."=20

Still, there are ample signs that the government is not ready to repent,
even after 10 years of international ostracism. It is still holding more
than 40 elected parliamentarians from Suu Kyi's NLD in jails and military
guesthouses, following a crackdown on the party late last year. And more
than 1,000 of the party's rank-and-file members languish in jail. A World
Bank official who accompanied De Soto to Rangoon filed a scathing
assessment after the visit. The still-confidential document concludes that
there is little commitment to economic reform within the junta's high
command. "The Ministers for Finance and Planning and the governor of the
Central Bank understand the need for reform, but cannot pierce the glass
wall above them to reach the higher authorities," says a summary of the
report. In any case, it adds, "the capacity to undertake reform does not
currently exist."=20

As the regime dithers, the economy continues to suffer. The generals who
are running things routinely work round the clock to keep the system
afloat. So frequent are midnight cabinet meetings that ministers and
bureaucrats openly joke that they are permanently enrolled in night school.
New foreign investment in Burma has plunged 51% over the past year, due
largely to the Asian financial crisis, and plans to generate foreign
exchange by exporting more gas are well behind schedule. Nonetheless, the
military government continues to spend six times as much on defense as
health. Inflation, meanwhile, is running at 40%: the price of rice is 60%
up from last year.=20

The major victims of economic disarray are, of course, the country's poor.
Though Burma is rich in natural resources, years of mismanagement have
created miserable conditions. More than half the population has no access
to clean water. Ignorance and poverty have contributed to an aids epidemic
that has infected an estimated 500,000 people. Nearly one-third of children
in what was once one of Asia's most literate countries now receive no
formal education. With a per capita income of only $400 a year, Burma's
citizens have the lowest purchasing power in the region. As a result of
international sanctions, Burmese receive only $1 in overseas assistance for
every $82 that aid agencies give their Laotian neighbors.=20

International non-governmental organizations are increasingly skeptical
about the wisdom of withholding humanitarian aid for political reasons.
Many NGOs are searching for a way to deliver such aid to Burma's poor
without inadvertently strengthening the junta in the process. "If we just
stand by and allow the poor to become poorer, then we are systematically
destroying the fabric that will eventually be needed for a democratic
society," says an American health care worker in Rangoon. NGO staff members
say that in the past six months they have begun to enjoy more options.
"There is to some extent already a middle way that requires talking to more
than the junta," says Maureen Aung-Thwin, Burma project director for the
Soros Foundations network. "Potential donors don't have to have a
t=EAte-=E0-t=EAte with Suu Kyi every time they want to give some humanitaria=
n
assistance, but such groups increasingly manage to talk to her about their
plans."=20

Progress elsewhere has been subtle but unmistakable. Red Cross head of
delegation L=E9on de Riedmatten says the regime's willingness over the past
six months to grant his delegation access to 19,000 inmates and to
interview more than 700 security detainees (with repeat visits to three of
the prisons in which they are held) is "a significant breakthrough." He
hopes that the visits will help promote an improvement in prison
conditions. That might, in turn, prompt the opposition to view the
government more sympathetically and lead to dialogue.=20

At some point, ASEAN could flex its muscles. The organization's members
probably have the capacity to prod Rangoon out of its isolation and into
the international mainstream. "Western governments have not been able to
exert the sort of influence that Burma's neighbors could," says a Western
diplomat in the capital. The recent attack by armed dissidents on the
Burmese embassy in Bangkok offers a glimpse of how Burma's authoritarian
government could find itself increasingly isolated in an expanding sea of
democracy. Thai officials defused the crisis by trading the hostages for
Bangkok's deputy foreign minister, Sukhumband Paribatra. He helicoptered
with the gunmen to the Thai-Burma border and let them go free, depriving
Rangoon of the international sympathy it had expected as a terrorist
target. The junta retaliated by closing down Burma's 2,100-km border with
Thailand and ordering Thai fishing vessels out of its waters.=20

Relations with the region's other democracies are not much better. Even
politically conservative Singapore, one of Burma's biggest investors, has
grown impatient with the regime's inability to break the political
stalemate and get on with economic reforms. And with the fall of Suharto
and the rise of democracy in Indonesia, Burma has lost another powerful
ASEAN patron. In time, the junta may discover that it is easier to
cooperate with its own democrats than fight the new ones rising across Asia.

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

REUTERS: MYANMAR ETHNIC LEADERS WHO MET UN OFFICIALS HELD
12 November, 1999

YANGON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Myanmar's main opposition said on Friday the
military government had arrested leaders of two allied ethnic parties who
took part in talks with a U.N. envoy last month aimed at breaking the
country's political deadlock.

The National League for Democracy said Naing Tun Thein, 82, chairman of Mon
National Democratic Front, and Kyin Shin Htan, chairman of Zomi National
Congress, were arrested on November 3 for the second time in two years.

It said no reason had been given for their detention and they should be
immediately released without conditions.

The two were among four ethnic leaders who met Assistant U.N.
Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto last month when he came to Myanmar to try
to promote dialogue between the ruling generals and the beleaguered
opposition led by 1991 Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD's
secretary-general.

``It is very narrow-minded to unlawful to arrest the leaders of the
nationalities,'' the NLD said in a statement. ``The political, economic and
social problems being faced in the country will not be resolved by=
 arrests.''

The two were among three ethnic leaders arrested in September last year
after backing a committee the NLD set up to represent a parliament never
allowed to form following the party's landslide election victory in 1990.

ANOTHER ETHNIC LEADER HELD SINCE 1998

They were subsequently freed to allow them to receive medical treatment,
but the third leader arrested with them, Saw Mra Aung, 82, of the Arakhan
League for Democracy, remains in detention.

Earlier this week, the NLD issued a statement saying the government had
freed members of its central youth and women's committees detained since
September last year. They had been held at Yangon's Insein Jail and a
military camp and were freed in groups up to November 4, it said. It gave
no numbers.

The party praised the ``perseverance and courage'' of the committee members
and said they had been unlawfully detained.

The government spokesman declined to comment on the latest arrests reported
by the NLD.

De Soto's Myanmar mission followed a visit last year during which he raised
the possibility of World Bank development aid if the government initiated a
dialogue with the opposition.

So far the military has refused to negotiate with Suu Kyi's party unless
she disbands the committee set up to represent parliament, a challenge to
its rule.

The U.N. General Assembly, as well as Western countries led by the United
States and the European Union, has condemned Myanmar for failing to
democratise and severe human rights violations, including forced labour and
torture.

On Friday official newspapers in Myanmar reported that 70 fighters from the
Karen National Union, an ethnic group that has fought the central
government since the late 1940s, defected on Wednesday along with members
of their families.

The KNU is the largest of a handful of armed ethnic groups fighting the
central government. The KNU and the government blamed each other for the
failure of their last round of peace talks in November 1996.

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

THE NATION: SURIN PLANS RANGOON VISIT TO EASE TENSIONS
14 November, 1999

FOREIGN Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday he plans to visit Burma to
discuss improvements in bilateral relations, soured since the October
storming of Burmese embassy in Bangkok by five armed Burmese activists.

"I will go to Burma when everything is ready, he said, without revealing
the dates of his visit.

Surin said in Trang he had discussed the visit on Nov 4 with his Burmese
counterpart, Win Aung, who was in Bangkok on a stopover flight from New=
 York.

Rangoon has sealed its border with Thailand and terminated all Thai fishing
concessions since the embassy incident, which saw the Burmese militants
taken to the Thai-Burma border by Thai authorities and released.

Rangoon has demanded the five be arrested and punished before it resumes
normal ties with Thailand.

Surin has repeatedly said that both governments were cooperating with each
other and looking for solutions to settle the matter. But some recent
incidents have indicated otherwise.

Last weeks forced repatriation of Burmese illegal workers has been marred
by a series of incidents. Burmese border authorities had threatened to
shoot people entering Burma, arguing they were unsure that all those
entering would be Burmese nationals.

The repatriation order, which was first mooted more than two years ago as a
way to create jobs for Thais suffering because of the economic crisis, had
frequently been postponed because of complaints by powerful employer lobby
groups.

In Mae Sot yesterday about 3,000 Burmese workers were forced back home,
while about 100 others were rounded up for deportation in Bangkok as a
sweep of illegal workers continued, police said.

In the border town, police said repatriation has been stepped up to ease
the financial burden of having to feed arrested illegal workers. Police Lt
Col Chatree Heepthong, an inspector at the Mae Sot immigration checkpoint,
said a holding centre for the migrant workers had to be cleared to make way
for those arrested in Bangkok ant sent to the frontier.

The repatriation was proceeding at a smoother pace since Burmese
authorities were allowing the workers to return after initially refusing to
grant them entry, Chatree said.

However, more than 100 Thai border patrol policemen were still stationed
along the frontier near Mae Sot to ensure security, said Police Capt
Noppakhun Bamrungpatra, a Border Patrol Police officer.

While thousands of illegal immigrants were being sent across the border
every day, an unknown number of them had returned and were hiding in
jungles and corn fields on Thai soil, he said.

We are worried about the safety of Thai people as the returnees may commit
crimes if they are cornered, Noppakhun said.

Meanwhile, In reaction to rising crime by foreigners, police in Bangkok
also began simultaneous raids on suspected criminals from abroad, said
Police Maj Gen Wiboonsakde Sithidecha, Commissioner of the Bangkok
Metropolitan Police.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: EMBASSY RAIDERS TO FIGHT ON
13 November, 1999

The five gunmen who stormed the Burmese embassy have vowed to fight on
against the Rangoon junta.

The pro-democracy gunmen, not seen since their dramatic escape into the
jungles of eastern Burma aboard a Thai helicopter, denied reports they were
about to surrender.

"We, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, who claimed responsibility for
the 24-hour embassy hostage drama, do not have a plan to surrender to the
Thai government," they said.

"We decided to fight against the military dictatorship and to continue our
revolution until we are dead. We are ready  to die in action."

The gunmen took the embassy on Oct 1, holding 38 people hostage for more
than 24 hours.

Last week it was reported the five had written to the government seeking
permission to go to a third country if they surrender to Thai authorities.

But Akapol Sorasuchart, the government spokesman, has said the reports were
untrue and even if they were Thailand would not co-operate.

"It is impossible [for them to seek refuge abroad] because they violated
Thai law and must face legal action in Thailand," Mr Akapol said.

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

THE BANGKOK POST: FUGITIVES AWAIT THEIR FATE
14 November, 1999

A NO-SHOW: AFTER TWO FAILED ATTEMPTS TO NEGOTIATE THE SURRENDER OF THE
BURMESE DISSIDENTS WHO RECENTLY LAID SIEGE TO THE BURMESE EMBASSY IN
BANGKOK, THEIR LIVES STILL HANG BY A THREAD

Everything was set to happen on Thursday, November 4. The five Burmese
embassy hostage takers were to turn themselves into the hands of the police.

The dissidents expected criminal charges to be brought against them for
seizing the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on October 1. But they also expected
trial in the World Court or a third country under the international
extradition law.

They believed that they would be extradited for trial anywhere but Thailand
and Burma.

Nevertheless, the question remained: Why surrender?

LOGIC OF SURRENDER

In fact, close associates had convinced the five- Capt Kyaw Nee (alias
Johny), Bay Dar, Aung Lwin, Than Lwin and Maung Than Naing - that
surrendering to the Thai police and facing the expected punishment was
their best option.

The arguments they used were that:

1. They had achieved their mission.

2. They had gained worldwide publicity.

3. They had successfully evaded Bangkok's reach.

4. They had already enjoyed a month of freedom.

5. Their surrender would relieve mounting military pressure on them.

In the days after a Thai government helicopter brought them to the Huadsud
pass in Ratchaburi, the band of Burmese dissidents discussed the buildup of
Burmese military operations against them, as well as the increasing
difficulty for other Burmese migrants and exiled student colleagues to
resume normal life.

The group ran through their options for the best way to surrender,
including taking into consideration the Thai police reaction to the idea of
extraditing them. On this score, the dissidents received a very positive
reaction  with police operatives signalling that the precondition was
eminently acceptable.

"This could ease away much of the tension," several security officers said.

The sources reported that extensive pressure from the international
community had persuaded the Thai government to allow the dissidents to
leave the country after their surrender.

Adding to the tension was the Burmese government's suspension of Thai
fishing rights in Burmese waters, as well as the closure of the border to
Thai traders.

Late in October, the five hostage takers sent three letters of intention to
surrender to the police, who responded positively, according to Sunday
Perspective informants.

The letters, addressed to the Prime Minister, were passed through Burmese
dissidents at the Maneeloy camp in Ratchaburi.

A Burmese dissident leader, Aung So, who has been in Maneeloy for over a
decade, has established contacts with local officials and the police.

It took some time for the letters to reach the Royal Thai Police Office,
the Interior Ministry, the National Security Council, and the Prime=
 Minister.

Still, the police programme was ready the day before the surrender was due
to take place. A policeman confirmed that they had coordinated with the
highway police to clear the road for the dissidents to be brought to=
 Bangkok.

LOOKING GOOD

A security official said the police liked the surrender plan. "It would
also be a great credit to the police to have the wanted persons in hand,"
he noted.

"However," he added, referring to the media hype following the

police's disclosure of the planned surrender on November 4, "they were too
optimistic.'

"They were so confident that they planned a press conference to highlight
their achievement."

The police planned to bring the dissidents overland from Ratchaburi,
arriving in Bangkok on the morning of Thursday, November 4, and taking them
directly to a pre-arranged press conference at the Thung Songhong police
station.

The police had also arranged for seven of those taken hostage to be present
to identify the dissidents.

When the day came, the Thung Songhong police station on the outskirts of
northern Bangkok was besieged by news reporters, photographers and
television crews from both local and foreign agencies.

Police sources revealed that two top police officers were responsible for
the investigation of the Burmese embassy seizure: Metropolitan Police
assistant commissioner Pol Lt Gen Chakthip Kulchorn na Ayutthaya, and
Special Branch 2nd Subdivision commander Pol Maj Gen Sawek Wathanakit. The
sources also assured the, assembled media that the two would chair the
press conference.

And then nothing happened.

No Burmese dissidents came to surrender, no former hostages came to
identify them, and no top police investigators chaired a press conference.

NON-EVENT

Policemen reluctantly informed the media that the surrender had been
postponed, although they still claimed that the dissidents were in police
custody.

They could not answer any further questions and declined to admit that it
might have all been a hoax.

Late in the afternoon, the remaining media people at Thung Songhong were
told that the seven persons who were held hostage at the embassy had
already gone home.

National police chief Pol Gen Pracha Promnork admitted that police had made
arrangements for the surrender, including the participation of the former
hostages, "in case the dissidents did show up."

"Due to the Burmese military pressure," he said, "there was a strong
possibility that the hostage takers would surrender."

Pol Gen Pracha did not discuss the preconditions set by the dissidents or
why the surrender failed to materialise.

Late that day, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said that the five Burmese
embassy raiders were still outside Thailand.

"They will be arrested when they enter Thailand. They violated Thai laws.
We have issued warrants of arrest," he said.

The prime minister confirmed that he had received information a day earlier
that the five wanted to give themselves up. He did not speak of any
surrender preconditions.

However, a source close to the National Security Council (NSC) told Sunday
Perspective that the prime minister knew about the precondition. The source
said that the prime minister strongly objected to the idea of sending the
five to the World Court or a third country.

"These hostage takers will definitely be arrested  if they set foot on Thai
soil again. There cannot be any preconditions," the prime minister told the
media.

The prime minister also confirmed that Thailand does not have a policy of
handing over dissidents to the Rangoon government.

"They committed the crime on Thai soil. It would not make sense for us to
extradite them to another country if they are captured here."

The premier's remark was much discussed in the dissidents' camp, leading
many to believe that, after all, there was no realistic hope for trial
outside Thailand.

However, they were reassured to hear that at least they would not be handed
over to Rangoon.

An inside source said that "the police were too quick to accept the
preconditions, just to get their hands on the five. They did not think of
other consequences and complexities. They planned a press conference before
getting approval from above. They were so quick that they failed to think
about credibility."

SURRENDER BACKFIRES

Although the media were disappointed with the police performance, a
surrender of sorts eventually did take place late in the afternoon of the
same day in Ratchaburi.

Pol Maj Gen Chakthip and Pol Maj Gen Sawek went to Ratchaburi to meet the
dissidents at a place near the Krachom mountain area in the Suan Phueng
district, according to a reliable source. Present to witness the surrender
were non-governmental and UNHCR officials.

It was very quiet at the foot of the mountain. About 30 armed men, most of
them in fatigues, appeared at the edge of the forest and walked towards the
policemen. Leading them was a commander in the self-styled God's Army, Capt
Sui Bia.

"The God's Army is an armed unit formed two years ago under Col Maung Mae,"
explained an eyewitness at the scene. "The group is made up of Karen and
Mon tribal fighters from the southern Ratchaburi border, but they are now
based here on the Khao Krachom, about five kilometres away."

The source revealed that the God's Army had been protecting the five
dissidents since their flight from Bangkok.

But something had gone wrong again: only three dissidents surrendered: Aung
Lwing, Than Lwin and Maung Than Naing.

Capt Sui Bia told Thai officials that, for safety reasons, they would turn
in Kyaw Nee (Johny) and Bay Dar later.

"They are still worried about their safety,"  Capt Sui Bia said.

Due to the breach in the agreement for all five dissidents to surrender
together, the proceedings broke down. Capt Sui Bia led his men and the
three dissidents back into the jungle.

Other security sources close to the NSC told Sunday Perspective that both
Kyaw Nee (Johny) and Bay Dar were in fact on their way to the rendezvous to
give themselves up too.

"But they were nabbed, whisked away by a group of armed men, dressed in
Thai or foreign military uniform. The God's Army escorts dared not resist."

The source said that the two were now in the custody of these uniformed
persons, whoever they are.

LEGAL NICETIES

Inside observers said that the break down of the surrender process was not
just because two of the dissidents failed to show up: "There was also
intervention from the NSC."

Prime Minister Chuan confirmed that he learned of the possible surrender
from NSC secretary-general Khajadbhai Burusphat on November 3. At that
point, the police had everything planned, including the press conference.

An NSC source confirmed that after the premier heard the preconditions of
the surrender, he rejected them, insisting that the five be arrested and
tried in a Thai court. The police had to abandon their well-laid, plans.

However, there were other reasons why the police had to break their promise
to the dissidents: The premier wasn't the only one who wanted them caught
and tried in Thailand. Other influential sources backing the dissidents,
such as the UNHCR, wanted the dissidents to surrender to Thai police.

UNHCR officials wrote to the Thai government that all the dissidents were
exiled students and, as such, under their care and accorded political
asylum status.

Thai government officials disagreed.

Several ranking NSC officers, expressed the view that the UNHCR is an
organisation, not a country.

"It's nonsense for an organisation to say that the dissidents are under
political asylum in their protection," one said.

The source said that the five could be handed over to the UNHCR, but only
after they have served their punishment on Thai soil.

"The crucial fact is that these people committed crimes," the source said,
"and anyone who commits a crime must be tried in a criminal court in that
country."

However, Thai security authorities admit the argument remains open to
interpretation. According to one, 'As long as there is no total agreement
on international legal points, it is best that no surrender has occurred."

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

THE BANGKOK POST: LIVES PLACED IN DANGER
12 November, 1999

The crackdown on illegal workers has jeopardised the safety of thousands of
people who fled persecution in Burma, Amnesty International said yesterday.

Authorities have deported more than 1,500 illegal Burmese workers over the
past week.

"Many with well-founded fears of persecution in Myanmar[Burma] are at risk
of being returned with no opportunity to claim asylum," Amnesty said.

"Amnesty International is further concerned at reports that those deported
are being refused entry or being arrested for illegal entry by the Myanmar
authorities.

"This has resulted in many being stranded in the Moei river which separates
Thailand from Myanmar ... and in the surrounding jungle on Thai territory
where they have no food, water or shelter."

A number of people were reported to have drowned while trying to return to
Thailand.

The repatriation has been complicated by Rangoon's decision in October to
close its border with Thailand.

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



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