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Today news from The Nation (r)

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<font size=4><b>Headlines</font></b><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=5><b>Student group says members won't register<br>
</font></b><font size=3>LEADERS of the main group of Burmese dissident
student exiles in Thailand said yesterday their members would not
register for resettlement in third countries, despite the risk of arrest
if they fail to do so. <br>
Thailand's National Security Council has set a Nov 21 deadline for the
Burmese activists to register with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) after armed dissidents took over the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok
for 25 hours last month. <br>
Those who fail to register will be treated as illegal immigrants, the
council has said. <br>
The All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) rejected the deadline.
<br>
''The ABSDF will not register because we do not want resettlement in
third countries. We are fighting for democracy in our homeland,'' ABSDF
chairman Naing Aung told Reuters on the Thai-Burmese border. <br>
ABSDF general secretary Aung Thu Nyein said Thailand was the best place
for dissidents to conduct their struggle against military rule in Burma.
''It's close to Burma and there are many Burmese immigrants here,'' he
said. <br>
He said about 600 ABSDF members living on the border, and another 100 in
Bangkok, had not and would not register for resettlement. <br>
Aung Thu Nyein said the ABSDF was worried those in Bangkok could face
arrest and surveillance if they did not register. <br>
National Security Council secretary-general Kachadpai Burusapatana
yesterday said that so far between 800 and 900 Burmese students in
Bangkok had registered with the UNHCR for resettlement, while some 900 to
1,000 others have yet to do so. He said those who registered would
receive a monthly stipend worth US$100. <br>
Kachadpai reiterated that those who did not register by Nov 21 would face
legal action. <br>
''The point is we want to have these people resettled in third countries
as soon as possible,'' he said, adding that he expected the first batch
of students to leave by the end of the year. <br>
Thousands of Burmese dissidents fled to Thailand after Burma's military
crushed a student-led pro-democracy uprising in 1988. About 2,700 have
registered as refugees with the UNHCR, of which 1,000 live in Maneeloy
holding centre west of Bangkok. <br>
The UNHCR has said a process will begin this week to encourage the
remaining 1,700 registered students to enter the centre. <br>
Some eight or nine countries -- including the United States, Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and some European nations -- have expressed
willingness to take some of the students, according to the UNHCR. <br>
Thailand is anxious to patch up its relationship with Rangoon, which was
soured when Bangkok granted the embassy attackers free passage to a safe
border area after all 89 hostages in the siege on Oct 1 and 2 were freed
unharmed. <br>
Rangoon in protest closed its frontier with Thailand, hitting
cross-border trade and leaving some 100,000 Burmese workers employed in
Thai factories with uncertain futures. <br>
Meanwhile, the UNHCR in Geneva has informed Thailand that it will be able
to find a third country for only some of the Burmese students in
Thailand, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Oum Maolanond said yesterday.
<br>
The UNHCR did not think that it could find a third country for all the
students currently in the country, Oum said. The message was conveyed
during a meeting between UNHCR deputy secretary-general Soren Jessen
Petersen and Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan in Geneva. Surin is
attending an International Red Cross meeting in Switzerland. <br>
Petersen said the UNHCR had tried its best to locate a third country for
the Burmese students. <br>
Surin also requested the UNHCR to convince the Burmese students in
Thailand that they could have their own future in a third country,
instead of residing here without a future. The students should give
themselves an opportunity to continue with their studies for their
future, he added. <br>
Oum quoted Petersen as saying that the UNHCR understands Thai policy
towards the Burmese students, acknowledging that it grants them
opportunity and humanitarian assistance. He continued that it was
understandable that Thailand did not want the Burmese students to use its
territory to launch any ill-intentioned activities towards the Burmese
government. <br>
The Nation, Reuters</font>
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