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Karen refugees flee to avoid forced



THAILAND 
Monday, March 9, 1998


Karen refugees flee to avoid forced relocation 


By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok

Thousands of Karen refugees from Burma have fled from three camps in
north-western Thailand to avoid efforts to move them outside the Salween
National Park, according to officials and aid workers.

The 10,000 Karen at the centre of the dispute are among 116,000 members of
Burmese ethnic minorities in Thai camps scattered along the poorly
delineated border.

The involvement of some Karen refugees in the illegal logging of highly
valuable teak trees in the national park is partly behind the Thai
Government's decision to move the camp inmates.

But Karen leaders say that only a small minority of the refugees were
involved in the logging and that a crackdown on official corruption would be
the best way to protect the forests.

Of 8,000 people at three camps in the same area of the park, only 1,300 have
been moved to a resettlement site. Instead, an estimated 2,000 Karen
refugees have disappeared into the dense forest, hoping to join the Mae Hta
camp on the Salween River.

Aid workers say another 1,000 Karen have moved to a small existing camp just
inside the national park boundary.

Some camp leaders and students who fled brutal repression in Burma in 1988,
say the new site is vulnerable to cross-border attacks by Burmese soldiers
and members of an opposing Karen Buddhist splinter group.

Thai authorities say the dangers are being exaggerated because the Karen
National Union (KNU) army wants to maintain the existing isolated refugee
camps as de facto support bases.

The authorities claim the camps act as a channel for funds, supplies and
information to advance the rebel campaign for a separate Karen state which
has been going on since 1948.

The Thai military has recently intensified surveillance, and on Friday six
heavily armed Karen fighters were arrested on the Thai side of the Salween
River.

The existing camps in the national park have a village atmosphere, and
proximity to the border allows residents to sneak back to Burma to check on
their property or visit friends and relatives.

Some aid workers feel that the refugees are becoming pawns, squeezed between
KNU political tactics on the one hand and Thailand's attempts to manage
relations with the Burmese military junta on the other.

Improved access at the resettlement site will make it easier for foreign aid
workers, many from Germany, France, Britain and Australia, to provide
medical and educational facilities.

"Those arriving are saying they would have come earlier if they had known
what it was like," said Mr Paul Taylor, from the Burmese Border Consortium,
a non-government group which has played a leading role in providing
humanitarian assistance to Karen refugees.

But he is concerned about a Thai Government order which has insisted aid
groups cut food and other assistance to families who are trying to escape
relocation.

Humanitarian organisations are attempting to dampen unrealistic expectations
that the Government will abandon its relocation program and Thai patience is
being encouraged.

However, those with a long involvement in the Burmese refugee saga are
worried that a lack of co-operation will eventually see the military using
force to either relocate Karen refugees out of the National Park or
repatriate them back to Burma.


Thirty three long-neck Karen villagers have been reunited with their
families in a refugee camp in north-west Thailand after spending three years
in a "human zoo" tourist attraction.
Thai authorities, severely embarrassed by articles in European newspapers
which criticised the exploitative style of the tourist operation, moved
quickly to shut the show "village" and return the Karen to their families.