U-N / DRUGS (r)

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

THAILAND 
Wednesday, April 1, 1998
The Sydney Morning Herald

Border line of fire

The kidnap of Australian teacher Nick Cheesman on the Thai-Burmese border
has highlighted the plight of thousands of Karen refugees and the guerilla
war that rages around them. CRAIG SKEHAN reports. 


THE FRONTIER town of Mae Sot in Thailand's northwest is a cultural
crossroads of different races and minority groups as well as a notorious
haven for smugglers of gems, teak and drugs.

For the past few years it has been home to Nick Cheesman, a 28-year-old
Australian described by friends as an idealist who, while working as a
teacher, became passionately concerned over the plight of ethnic Karen
refugees from Burma.

A series of attacks three years go by the Burmese army wiped out key
strongholds of the secessionist Karen National Union (KNU), driving an
estimated 20,000 Karen into Thailand. They joined 70,000 Karen who had
already fled their homeland as refugees since 1984.

Humanitarian organisations from around the world provide food, clothing,
medical clinics and schools in dozens of Thai refugee camps. As well as
foreign aid workers and local staff employed by the various organisations,
who are issued with official passes by Thailand's Interior Ministry, a small
number of unofficial volunteers have been involved in various projects. The
volunteers have generally gained acceptance at a local level as personal
relationships developed with Thai officials and soldiers posted at
checkpoints outside camps. Cheesman works as a volunteer in association with
a non-government group called Burma Issues, which has sought to improve life
for inmates in the village-like camps dotted along the Thai-Burmese border.

Burma Issues has also been active in trying to focus international attention
on refugee concerns, including their vulnerability to cross-border raids
aimed at putting pressure on the leadership of the KNU.

For the past couple of years, Cheesman had been teaching English at Huay
Kalok camp, an hour's drive from Mae Sot and within sight of the Burmese
border. The camp consisted of some 1,400 bamboo and thatch houses and a
scattering of more substantial buildings, including classrooms and a Baptist
church.

Cheesman got to know camp leaders such as Mary On, a charismatic woman in
her 60s who has devoted her life to the cause of Karen autonomy from
Rangoon, a bloody conflict that has dragged on since 1948.

On is close to the KNU leadership and views suffering as part of the price
to be paid for refusing to buckle to Burma's military junta. However, even
she was surprised by the ferocity of an attack on Huay Kalok shortly after
1am on March11.

A barrage of mortar shells was followed by a line of more than 80 soldiers
moving systematically through the camp, setting bamboo and thatch houses
alight, spraying automatic gunfire and firing rocket-propelled grenades.
Most people fled in the dark to surrounding rice fields, but dozens were
seriously wounded by bullets and shrapnel, an elderly man was killed, a
pregnant woman was burnt to death and two children later died of their
injuries. The once colourful community was reduced to smouldering ruins and
more than 9,000 people were left homeless. The attack was carried out
ostensibly by members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which
split from the Christian-dominated KNU three years ago and has been seen as
a tool of the Burmese military.

Some refugees said that Burmese soldiers were among the raiding party at
Huay Kalok. Rangoon denies this, but clearly it has used the DKBA to
increase pressure on the KNU. This pressure has included attacks on refugee
camps in Thailand, whose residents Burma accuses of giving sanctuary and
logistical support to KNU guerillas.

The situation along the border is complicated by the involvement of some
members of the KNU and the DKBA in illegal cross-border trade, particularly
the smuggling of teak logs.

Until 1995, the KNU received a substantial cut from the smuggling of an
estimated $US500 million ($750million) a year worth of Burmese teak into
Thailand through Mae Sot. Corrupt Thai military officers also used contacts
with ethnic Karen and Burmese army officers for a plethora of murky
dealings. However, the DKBA has come to dominate the logging trade, much of
it now involving teak poached from Thai forest reserves but given official
documentation as Burmese timber.

Terrorising refugees has become a tactic in a dirty war in which insiders
say prisoners are routinely executed by both sides. In the complex ethnic
and political mix of northern Thailand, there are some established Buddhist
Karen communities on the Thai side, with residency rights, who align with
the DKBA; however most so-called "Thai Karen" favour the KNU. Nick Cheesman
liked riding his bicycle in the area around Huay Kalok and made contacts in
the various factions. A Thai military officer says Cheesman and a colleague
from Burma Issues, Ngamsuk Rattanasathien, were cycling along an isolated
part of the Moei River on Friday afternoon when they were seen by soldiers
at a temporary DKBA camp on the Burmese side of the border.

Details of what happened then are sketchy. However, sources say the heavily
armed Buddhist rebels insisted that the pair return with them to Burmese
territory by wading across the shallow river. Since then, Karen
intermediaries reporting back to Burma Issues say, the DKBA has not sought a
ransom and neither Cheesman nor Ngamsuk has been mistreated. Thai soldiers,
who have their own go-betweens, say the DKBA pressed Cheesman to take
photographs of Buddhist Karen villages allegedly attacked by the KNU in
revenge for the raid on Huay Kalok. The DKBA maintains civilians were
targeted by the KNU, with at least eight women and children killed.

The escalating violence means the atmosphere on the border is tense and the
Australian Embassy in Bangkok remains concerned about Cheesman's welfare,
despite reports that he may be released in the next few days. Two consular
officers have been sent to the area on the Thai side and the Australian
Embassy in Rangoon is trying to arrange access to Cheesman in Burma.
Australia has urged the Thai military not to take any "precipitous action"
that could put his life at risk. There has been no argument from the Thais
on this point as indications are that a negotiated release will be achieved.

However, there remains the danger that Cheesman and Ngamsuk could get caught
up in crossfire if there are clashes between the group holding them and the KNU.

The Cheesman kidnapping has also affected small voluntary groups, which
operate without official recognition and which fear that publicity may lead
Thai authorities to stop their activities.

At the sprawling Mae La camp, several hours' drive from Mae Sot, volunteers
a year ago were barred from helping the estimated 35,000 residents. Border
sources say KNU members within Mae La have been involved in helping KNU
guerillas on the Burmese side, including through arms supplies. Such
activities have led to a recent crackdown by Thailand, including searches
for weapons and threats to repatriate to Burma able-bodied Karen men, all of
whom would be assumed to be combatants rather than refugees.

However, the presence of aid workers and volunteers - who have access to an
Internet site on Karen refugee issues - could complicate Thai moves on this
front. At a time when Bangkok needs international assistance to deal with
its economic crisis, it is sensitive to accusations of human rights
violations in its handling of the refugee situation.

Canberra makes a substantial contribution to the annual $US13million cost of
supporting Burmese refugees in Thailand, most of whom are Karen. The
ambassador, Bill Fisher, recently visited Huay Kalok and saw the misery
being inflicted by increasingly violent attacks on Thai soil.

Fisher, along with other Western envoys and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), has urged Thailand to do more to protect camp inmates.
However, the residents of Huay Kalok have yet to be moved to a safer site
and many refugees have little more than sheets of plastic for shelter.

The risk of foreigners getting caught up in the conflict is exacerbated
because of a perception by the DKBA and Burmese soldiers that foreign relief
workers side with the KNU. Efforts are under way to secure a direct role for
the UNHCR on the border to help protect camp residents.

However, while the Rangoon regime may have some concerns about is
international reputation, its soldiers in the north, and the allied DKBA,
are preoccupied with strategic objectives. The Karen in Thai camps are seen
as pawns in a bigger game.