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HEADLINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Thailand asks UN to convince Myanmar to accept refugees The Daily Star - Myanmar mango traders incur loss at Teknaf BKK Post - Poaching leads to calls for camp's removal Sunday, July 2 8:20 PM SGT
Thailand asks UN to convince
Myanmar to accept refugees
BAN MAE LA, Thailand, July 2 (AFP) -
Thailand Sunday appealed for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help it convince Myanmar to take back the 100,000 Myanmar refugees living in camps on Thai soil. "The refugee situation is a problem which must be urgently solved," Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said on a visit to the largest of the camps, Ban Mae La, 426 kilometres (264 miles) west of Bangkok. But he and other senior ministers said Myanmar was hampering the return of the refugees, which Thailand wants to complete within three years. "We are not sure that we can achieve that time frame if Myanmar doesn't take their people back," the prime minister said. National Security Council secretary general Khachadpai Burusapat said the UNHCR should send a delegation to discuss the issue with Myanmar's leaders. "The UNHCR is only interested in the camps. They should play a bigger role in negotiating with Myanmar's leadership," he said. "We believe the UNHCR can convince Myanmar." Deputy foreign minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said that, despite having said it was willing to accept the refugees, Myanmar was putting hurdles in their path. "Myanmar has said it will take only their citizens back, and it is very hard to prove the nationality of these people as they have no identity papers," he said. "We are ready to set up a committee (to discuss the issue), but Myanmar is not yet ready," he told reporters. "We need full cooperation from Myanmar or otherwise we can't do anything." Chuan said Ban Mae La must be closed and the 30,000 people there, mostly ethnic Karen tribespeople, be repatriated. "Sending them back is the best way for them, but we won't do so until we are sure they will be safe in Myanmar," he told reporters. "Staying here no longer serves any purpose because there is no future for them in the camp." The Karen at Ban Mae La fled their homelands in the mid-1990s to escape fighting between the junta and Karen National Union troops, and alleged human rights violations by the military. They are among some 100,000 displaced people from Myanmar living in Thai camps. Chuan said the camp's residents wanted to return to Myanmar. "I have asked them and they said they want to go back home if it is safe, so we will contact the Myanmar authorities and see what the situation is inside the country," he said. But many refugees said that in fact they did not want to return, and some of them told the prime minister so as he toured the camp and stopped to speak with them. "I don't want to go back because it's not safe in Myanmar and I will not be able to earn a living there," one man told Chuan through an interpreter. "At least if I stay in the camp I will have rice to put in my mouth," he said. While the Thai government has for many years taken a benign approach to dealing with the displaced people, recent incidents have led to a change in its approach and a broad crackdown on Myanmar refugees. Earlier this year a group of ethnic rebels crossed into Thailand and staged a siege of a provincial hospital. And last October, Myanmar student gunmen briefly took over Yangon's embassy in Bangkok. Human rights groups have said the incidents were the work of small, radical organizations, and should not be used to justify a wider crackdown. The Daily Star - June 30,
2000.
Myanmar mango traders incur
loss at Teknaf
COX'S BAZAR, June 30: As mango season begins in Myanmar its
traders, who are doing legal border trade with Bangladesh, have tried to export
mangoes to Bangladesh but met with heavy loss as the price offered here is much
less than what they expected, reports BSS.
Traders from Arakan state and other parts of Myanmar carry mangoes via water route and sell them to the wholesale dealers at Taknaf.
Bangladesh traders at Taknaf are offering one taka (about seven kyats) per mango, Myanmar traders said.
The traders had to buy a mango with ten kyats at home, but the total cost reached to 15 kyats (about Taka two) after all "Hafta" or protection money imposed by police, customs and army personnel was added, they said.
"If we don't sell the mangoes with the price given by the Bangladeshi traders, as soon as we could, our mangoes will get perished," said a Burmese trader.
As a result, a trader loses one taka per mango, he added.
UNB from Natore says: Mango traders of the region are doing good business this year even the price of the delicious fruit is high in local markets.
Market sources said a good number of varieties of mangoes, including Gopalbhog, Khirshapat, Mohonbog, Langra, Kalua and Himsagor have flooded the markets but the prices are higher than those of the previous year.
In consideration of size and quality per kg standard size of mango is being sold between Tk 30 and 50 while Guthi mangoes at Tk 15-20. The Nation - July 2, 2000. Poaching leads to calls for camp's removal
MAE HONG SON - The Third Army Region is hoping to relocate a shelter for displaced people in the Salween National Park to Ban Mae Lama Luang, Sob Moei district, because of fears the wildlife in the park is being wiped out, the park chief said. Manopat Huamuangkaew said that the Khun Mae Kong Kha temporary shelter was set up in the national park in 1995, with most of the displaced people being Burmese Karen. Since the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has only provided them with a minimum amount of aid, the Karens go into the forest to hunt and some sneak out to work illegally, he said. If the shelter is not moved soon, both the park and the animals will disappear, Manopat said. Also causing problems, Manopat said, were some Thais who hide in the camp and then poach animals to sell. He said that fish, birds, wild roosters, even beavers, were hunted for food. In addition, a lot of bamboo shoots have been cut, and many of the trees have been felled and their bases burnt to make charcoal. The camp residents were only supplied with 6.5 kilograms of charcoal a month, which was not enough for their cooking needs, Manopat said. Around 1,400 rai has so far been damaged and the river running through the camp has become so polluted that people living to the south cannot drink it, he said. The park chief said that it is difficult to catch the poachers because of the mountainous terrain of the park, while there is also a lack of staff to monitor the 14,000 people in the camp. He added that the Third Army Region had proposed moving the camp to Ban Mae Lama Luang in Mae Hong Son province but it was still waiting for a reply from the government. "We, the Army and the Royal Forestry Department, would like to transfer them to an area well away from the park and it would be better if the UNHCR helped us teach these people to live in harmony with nature," the chief said. The Khun Mae Kong Kla temporary shelter is 12 kilometres from the Burmese border. The 721-square-kilometre Salween National Park stretches over the Mae Sarieng and Sam Lab districts in Mae Hong Son. BY Jeeraporn Chaisri The Nation
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