Myanmar students warned after locki

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Subject: Myanmar students warned after locking up UN staff - COPY CATS??

Myanmar students warned after locking up UN staff
08:48 a.m. Oct 19, 1999 Eastern

BANGKOK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Premier Chuan Leekpai warned
Myanmar exiles on Tuesday their sanctuary in Thailand could be in
doubt if there was a repeat of an incident the previous day in which
dissidents locked up five U.N. staff at a holding centre.

Janvier de Riedmatten, of the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees in Thailand, said the staff were briefly locked in an office at
the Maneeloy camp in Thailand's Ratchaburi province on Monday
by students protesting against being denied an 800 baht ($20)
monthly living allowance.

He said they were denied the allowance as they had left the
camp in violation of conditions laid down by Thai authorities.

A UNHCR statement said the matter required investigation but
was not a major event and needed to be ``kept in perspective.''

However, Chuan, whose government just had to deal with
Myanmar dissidents taking 89 hostages at the Myanmar embassy
in Bangkok last month, warned against more trouble.

Referring to the incident in the camp, he told reporters:

``They rely on Thailand for refuge but they organised and created a
problem that could be viewed as threating our security, even though
they were not armed.

``If they organise in such a way that undermines Thailand's
interests, the country might not be able to continue to accept them.''

Chuan said if such problems arose in future Thailand might ask other
countries to share the burden of Myanmar refugees.

He said Thailand's National Security Council had told him third
countries like Australia, Canada and the United States were
prepared to accept up to 3,000 of the refugees, who fled military rule
in their homeland.

The Myanmar embassy was taken over by a group of five students
thought to have come from the Maneeloy centre, although the
Bangkok Post quoted Ratchaburi provincial governor Kometr
Daegthongdee as saying they were not connected to the latest protest.

Thailand's decision to allow the embassy attackers free passage to
the Myanmar border after they freed the hostages unharmed has
strained ties with Yangon and led the latter to close its frontier for
trade.

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