Burmese refugees protest move to ne

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Burmese refugees protest move to new camp

14.2.98
The Nation

Thailand's bid to shift more than 10,000 refugees who fled Burma's military
regime to a new camp ran into trouble when the first batch of refugees
refused to leave, witnesses said yesterday.

More than 100 residents of the Mae Yae Hta camp in northwest Thailand
staged a protest on Thursday and yesterday as the Thai military and
provincial authorities attempted to load them and their possessions into
lorries.

They chanted and waved placards at the camp in Mae Hong Song province,
witnesses said, while other refugees refused to get into the 40 trucks sent
in by the army to transport them.

But men in ski masks working with the authorities began ripping down some
of the grass huts in a bid to move the camp residents after last-ditch
negotiations between the two sides failed, witnesses said.

"Four houses were destroyed and one man was beaten after he refused to
move," a spokesman for the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) here
said. The ABSDF is fiercely opposed to Burma's military junta.

"They initially agreed to move further into Thailand, but their leaders
decided at a meeting on Wednesday that the conditions at the new camp were
not right," a Burmese student representative said.

The refugees say their new camp which will hold 1,800 people - will be
overcrowded and that they do not want to leave their home of more than two
years as the terrain at the new spot is too hilly to live on, he added.

In addition, the proposed new site of the camp is in an area that was
attacked by Burmese troops in 1995.

The Thai authorities say they want to move the camp further into the
country for the security of the refugees, who could be at risk of attack
from Burma, sources said.-But student leaders alleged the move could be
linked to highly lucrative illegal logging activities in the area in which
Thai and Burmese citizens are reportedly involved. The army has said it
will shift the inhabitants of four camps in the area and warned the
refugees on Thursday that if they did not move by today they could face
deportation to Burma, the ABSDF said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra said he will travel to Burma
next month with Deputy Commerce Minister Potipong Lamsam to discuss
bilateral border trade issues and boost mutual cooperation.