Demonstration.

[dvb@xxxxx]

By Saw Nelson Ku

February 4, was so  wonderful a day. People in Oslo were out without heavy
warm colthing.  At noon 18 Norwegians and 6 Burmese some carrying posters
placards gathered together outside a concrete grey  building which house the
Royal Thai Embassy. 
One  would also find a grey car with  two blue flashing lights on the top
and the word  "Politi" on its sides, meaning "Police" in English.  
A few moment two Norwegian entered the building to give their letter of
protest to the Thai embassy. And then  the group started protesting and
condemning the Thai government for sending the Karen refugee back to Burma.
The signboards they carried said "Don't send refugees back to Burma;  Slorc
is killing Karen people;  Stop dealing with the SLORC; Slorc is a muderer;
help the refugees" and etc. Then half an hour later, the group started
shouting these slogans at the top of thier voice for about 30 minutes.  

"We satgeed a demonstration to protest against the Thai army for pushing
back the Karen refugees into Burma. ' It is very mportant that the refugees
must not be send back to the battle zone in Burma' siad Tusa, of the
Norwegian Burma Council.
After the demonstration at Thai Embassy, some proceeded to the doentown Oslo
to distribute  leaflets. 
While holding handing out leaflets Knut Staring, member of the Norwegian
Burma Support group said, 'The Slorc is very very brutal military regime and
because of this I  don't think the Thai army or Thai gorvenment should send
people back in to Burma now. The refugees and the Karen people are trying to
escape from the SLORC atrocities, and they should really be given refugee
status in Thailand. 

"It was a really wonderful day, but unfortunately we were allowed by the
Police to  demonstrate in front of the Thai embassy for one hour only . I
think we were not given enough  time to explain the plight of Karen refugees
to the Norwegian public", Said  a  Norwegian boy who asked for anonymity.
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Following is the letter of Burma Support Group to the Embassy of Thailand in
Oslo.
March 4, 1997

Embassy of Thailand
Oslo

We are writing this letter in order to express our concern over the
situation for the Karen refugees who are fleeing the offensive by the armed
forces of the military junta in Rangoon, the SLORC, and to appeal to
Thailand to continue receiving and protecting these refugees according to
accepted internationally recorgnized noms and standards.

We are aware of, and appreciate, the support which the Thai authorities
traditionally have given to the refugees from Burma during the past decades,
and we hope that this policy will continue along with increased efforts to
solve the underlying political issues which cause the influx of the refugees.

We would like to draw the attention of the Embassy to the following
incidents which has caused us to bring this matter up:

1.	The repartiation of a bout 900 refugees from the Paw Klo River area.

2.	The trucking back to the Burmese border at Kanchanaburi of villagers
from Amla Kee (2 trucks)

3.	The February 26 reversal of the agreement of 3 February to relocate the
refugees from Wangkha and Donpaking camps. This means that the 	refugees
would be concentrated at Wangkha camp,  which was razed to the 	ground
in the fire attack in the night of 28 January. As all concerned know,
Whangkha is close to the border, and has been under constant threats and
incursions before the burning of the camp.

We sincerely hope that Thailand will continue its generous policy towards
the unfortunate Burmese who have to flee their country because of military
repression.

With best regards

For the Burma Support Group
Post Box 6906 St. Olavs Plass
0130 Oslo

Knut Staring.
Tel: 22 23 12 54