Awkward question on the Thai-Burma

[mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx]

Awkward question on the Thai-Burma border

5/4/98
The Nation (Sunday Review)

The cross-border raids by Rangoon-backed guerrillas against Karen refugees
sheltered on Thai soil raise some awkward questions on the way the Thai
army have been handling the border incidents. The Nation's Thana Poopat
analyses the situation. 

The Thai armed forces look their best in their military splendour on the
parade ground. The rest of the time, people do not see much of the
soldier-like charade in them. 

Not when Buddhist Karen insurgents have been allowed to make incursions
with impunity to harass refugees sheltered on Thai territory. 

Since last year, Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) insurgents, backed
by Burmese government troops, have on several occasions launched
cross-border raids to burn down refugee camps housing civilians belonging
to the mostly-Christian Karen National Union (KNU). 

The Third Army Region, which is in charge of the western border with Burma,
offered virtually no resistance. 

The DKBA is a splinter faction of Gen Bo Mya's Karen National Union. It is
now allied with the Burmese government, which has been at war with Karen
nationalists for decades. 

Along with Burmese government troops, the DKBA has threatened Karen
refugees in Thailand with violence in an effort to get them to return to
Burma. 

The standard response to a fresh incursion by the DKBA guerrillas and
another burnt-down refugee camp is a security beef-up, peppered with some
tough talk of future drastic retaliation against intruders. 

No one can really tell if a threat by the Third Army that they will
actually perform their duty to defend Thailand's sovereignty has ever
worked as a deterrent. One can only assume that it works until the DKBA
guerrillas decide to launch another cross-border raids. 

The regularity and in recent months even predictability of an incursion by
the DKBA have raised some troubling questions. We already know the what,
the who, the when, the where, and the how of the border incidents. The only
unanswered question is the why. 

As in: Why has the Thai army failed to stop the embarrassing incursions? 

Are the DKBA intruders too good at evading the Thai army troops manning
numerous border outposts, or are Thai army personnel too weak to put up a
fight to defend the sanctity of Thai territory, or have the DKBA guerrillas
been given a green light by the Thai army to commit such outrageous acts? 

That the DKBA insurgents are so good at avoiding detection by the Thai army
is out of the question. In recent months, even refugee workers coordinating
emergency relief to the KNU refugee camps knew in advance when the DKBA
intruders would strike. 

It is difficult to say if the Thai army is too weak to put up a fight to
defend territory. But it is hard to imagine that an army that is better fed
and better armed than most of their counterparts in Southeast Asia, with a
high estimation of itself to match, should not have a matching high morale
and the will to fight. 

The most difficult question to answer is whether the DKBA guerrillas have
been given the green light by the Thai army to trespass on Thai soil,
harass defenceless refugees and humiliate the Thai people. 

How can one explain how consistently the cross-border raids that have so
far eluded news-gathering by the Thai army's intelligence unit, or how
opportunely Thai army personnel conveniently absent themselves from their
border outposts during the incursions. 

Every time a cross-border raid has taken place, the army has suggested the
KNU refugee camps be moved further away from the Thai-Burmese border, and
that able-bodied men be separated from women, children and the elderly. 

If it sounds like the army is blaming the KNU refugees, who are on the
receiving end of the attacks, it is not too far off the mark. That perhaps
partially reflects the attitude of many Thai army officers, who see it as
none of their business to get involved in the fighting of two foreign forces. 

But the fact that the harassing of refugees have been happening on Thai
territory under the watch of the Thai army makes such rationalisation
unacceptable. And there is no law that says the Thai army has the
discretionary power to decide when to allow violation of Thai sovereignty. 

All Thai soldiers make a solemn vow to defend the sovereignty of Thailand
with their lives -- never mind if no one cares about the Karen refugees
being sheltered on Thai soil. But the international community and a lot of
Thai people do care about the refugees. 

The Third Army has been slammed by refugee workers for alleged inaction
during the recent DKBA guerrilla attacks even though warnings had come
several hours in advance.

No one in the Thai army has ever said burning the refugee camp is a serious
affront to the Thailand, the Thai government and Thai people. 

It took the Burmese government-in-exile, the National Council of the Union
of Burma, to make a statement last month calling the attack a serious
violation of the sovereignty of Thailand and a direct insult to the Thai
government and the Thai people. 

An insult the Thai government and people have to endure, apparently. 

The Thai armed forces should realise that even if the Thai people have not
been very demanding of their military, it does not mean Thai people do not
know that the armed forces have a rule of engagement to stop intruders,
disarm those who are armed, or apply lethal force if they resist. 

The fraternisation of Thai military officers with their counterparts in
neighbouring countries has apparently become a tradition. Personal
relations may be a good way to solve minor border disputes and should be
encouraged so long as a mutual respect is maintained and no violation of
another's sovereignty is involved. 

When Thailand's sovereignty is violated, however, the Thai people expect
the Thai military to live up to its professional standards and perform its
duty simply, decisively, and if necessary forcefully. 

-----
CCT