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NEWS - Food Shortage Drives Hundred



Subject: NEWS - Food Shortage Drives Hundreds of Myanmar Monks to Thailand

Food Shortage Drives Hundreds of Myanmar Monks to Thailand

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) -- Hundreds of Buddhist monks and nuns have
illegally sneaked into Thailand from Myanmar to seek offerings because
of food shortages. 

Their plight stems from the Myanmar military regime's closure of the
frontier Oct. 2 in response to Thailand's handling of the takeover of
Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok by armed student activists. 

The monks and nuns, who normally eat only what they are given by
devotees, are not getting enough from their own people after the
suspension of cross-border trade sent food prices soaring. 

Somchai Issaman, secretary of the Wat Luang temple at this border town,
told The Associated Press on Monday that at least 320 monks and 30 nuns
have sought shelter at the temple, seeking food. 

The temple received a good supply of rice, dried food, and other
necessities from worshippers during the past three months of Buddhist
Lent, which ended Sunday, Somchai said. 

The monks and nuns come from as many as 80 temples inside Myanmar, also
known as Burma, Somchai said. Their entry into Thailand under the
current circumstances would be illegal on both sides of the border, but
police on the Thai side have looked the other way. 

Myanmar has been incensed that Thailand allowed a group of student
activists, who held 38 people hostage in a two-day siege, to fly to the
border and disappear. Thailand has said that letting them go was
necessary to resolve the crisis without bloodshed. 

Some 3,000 students from Myanmar have sought refuge in Thailand since
street protests against military rule were crushed by the army a decade
ago.