THE NATION: Australian abducted by

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Headlines 

      Australian abducted by
      Burmese

      MAE SOT, Tak -- Pro-Rangoon troops
      have abducted an Australian man and a
      Thai woman as the Karen National Union
      (KNU) vowed to intensify its guerrilla war
      against the Burmese military regime --
      increasing the tension at the border. 

      The abduction came as up to 2,000 heavily
      armed Burmese soldiers massed near the
      border, which has been the scene of
      escalating violence this month, to protect
      towns in the area after KNU rebels attacked
      three pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen
      Buddhist Army (DKBA) camps last week. 

      Local officials said 28-year-old Australian
      Nick Cheesman, a teacher at a border
      refugee camp, and his Thai friend
      Ngamsuk Rattanasathien were last seen
      taking photographs near a refugee camp
      on Friday. 

      Pol Lt Col Noppol Chatiwong, a border
      patrol police chief in Mae Sot, led a team of
      officers to negotiate with DKBA soldiers
      Sunday for the release of Cheesman and
      Ngamsuk. 

      The two sides shouted across the Moei
      River through interpreters. According to
      Thai officers, the DKBA admitted that they
      had abducted the two who had wandered
      too deep into Burmese territory. 

      ''They said they would release them in the
      next four or five days,'' a border patrol
      police officer said. 

      However, sources said that Cheesman and
      Ngamsuk were detained in a camp near
      the border as hostages to prevent attacks
      from KNU troops. 

      Thai Army officers said the Australian had
      asked permission to visit a Buddhist
      monument near the border, in an area
      troubled by several deadly raids on Karen
      refugee camps in recent weeks. 

      Instead of going to the monument, he and at
      least one Thai woman walked to the Moei
      River marking the border, where they were
      reportedly seized at gunpoint by DKBA
      members. 

      Australian Volunteers Abroad chief
      executive Bill Armstrong said in Sydney that
      the abduction was not a ''hostage situation''
      and initial reports said the DKBA troops
      were treating their prisoners well. 

      ''Reports received indicate that they are
      well and are not being mistreated. There is
      no suggestion that this is a hostage
      situation,'' he said, adding the two had
      been taken for questioning. 

      Armstrong said Cheesman, who spoke
      fluent Karen, had been working in Thailand
      with international organisation Burma
      Issues for five years. 

      In Bangkok, KNU spokesman Nerdah Mya
      said the rebel army was not intimidated by
      the build-up of troops and heavy weapons
      along Burma's eastern border. 

      He said several thousand Burmese
      soldiers were massing opposite KNU
      mobile bases and refugee camps in
      northwest Thailand's Um Phang district in
      Tak province. 

      ''We are going to increase our resistance
      and even now we are trying to penetrate
      deeper inside [Burma] every day,'' Nerdah
      Mya said. 

      ''We are dividing into different groups to
      attack the enemy supply lines.'' 

      DKBA troops have been behind a series of
      raids on KNU refugees in Thailand in recent
      weeks, which have left at least four people
      dead and thousands homeless. 

      The KNU -- the last ethnic resistance
      movement still struggling for independence
      from Burmese ruling junta -- retaliated with
      four attacks on DKBA bases last week. 

      Nerdah Mya said the refugees, especially
      those living in Um Phang district's Nu Po
      camp, feared for their lives and had been
      warned that an attack was imminent. 

      ''They will burn down Nu Po camp just like
      they did at Huay Kalok,'' he said, referring
      to another camp with about 10,000
      residents which was razed earlier this
      month. 

      Some of Nu Po's more than 9,000 refugees
      were moving to secret places to sleep at
      night while others were digging trenches in
      preparation for the expected attack, Nerdah
      Mya said. 

      DKBA and Burmese troops could enter the
      camps at will and had no respect for Thai
      forces which have been deployed in the
      area to protect the camps, he claimed. 

      ''The Thais do not have the heart or the
      sympathy to protect the refugees because
      they see it as an internal problem for
      Myanmar [Burma],'' Nerdah Mya said. 

      The camps along the border in Thailand's
      Mae Hong Son and Tak provinces house
      about 90,000 mainly Karen refugees. 

      In Canberra, Foreign Minister Alexander
      Downer told the Australian embassy in
      Bangkok to send a consular officer
      immediately to Mae Sot on the border, a
      spokesman for the Department of Foreign
      Affairs and Trade said. 

      ''The department has spoken to
      representatives of the Thai and Burmese
      governments conveying the seriousness
      with which we view the situation and
      seeking urgent assistance,'' he said. 

      ''We are concerned for the safety and
      welfare of Mr Cheesman and are in close
      contact with Thai and Burmese authorities''.

      The Nation, agencies