"The Thai-Burma border has become a breeding ground for poorly conceived aid projects, leaving the real needs of refugees and exiles unattended... Relief agencies first began working on the Thai-Burma border in 1984 to support nearly ten thousand ethnic Karens who had fled from persecution by the Burmese army. Four years later, as Burmese activists, politicians and intellectuals began fleeing to Burma?s borders with Thailand and India to escape a brutal crackdown on the nationwide democracy uprising of 1988, the need for emergency assistance increased dramatically. Now, with an ethnic refugee population in Thailand that numbers over 135,000, and another 100 Burmese dissidents also believed to be sheltering in the country, Burma?s displaced persons have become one of the region?s major targets of relief efforts...