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Bangkok post - Jan 23, 2000
REFUGEES
UN urged to help block Karen inflow
Kachadpai: UNHCR must be aggressive Yuwadee Tunyasiri Atop national security official has called on the UNHCR to take an
aggressive approach in dealing with the problem of Karen refugees in
Thailand.
Kachadpai Burusphat, the National Security Council's secretary-general,
said he was very concerned about the situation as the number had risen from
18,000 to 100,000 as more Karen refugees continued to flee the fighting in
Burma.
Nearly a thousand Karen villagers have crossed into Thailand after Rangoon
resumed its dry season offensive against Karen rebels along the Thai-Burmese
border, he said.
Up to 900 people have sought shelter in Ratchaburi following the fighting
on the Burmese side opposite Ban Suan Phueng. They are under the supervision of
the Surasi Task Force.
The NSC secretary-general said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees should
hold talks with Rangoon to take back the refugees who wanted to return
home.
Unless the UNHCR takes an aggressive approach the refugee problem will
remain unsolved and add to Thailand's burden, he said.
Mr Kachadpai said the increase was posing problems for Thailand and people
living along the border.
Meanwhile, 115 Burmese students at the Maneeloy holding centre have been
resettled in the United States, the NSC's secretary-general said.
Mr Kachadpai, however, was not satisfied and said he would ask the US
authorities to speed up the resettlement programme.
He also said it would take six months for the government's new anti-drugs
policy to bear fruit.
He believed the new amphetamine suppression operations being carried out by
the national anti-narcotics command centre and the Internal Security Operations
Command would prove successful.
Drug problems in the upper North have become less serious as all concerned
government agencies have united to take action, he added.
The NSC chief said more drug dealers have shifted from drug smuggling
routes near Wa territory opposite Mae Ai district of Chiang Mai, to those in Mae
Sot district of Tak and along the Mekong river in the
Northeast. |