The Nation - EDITORIAL: Sympathy gr

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Subject: The Nation - EDITORIAL: Sympathy grows for the exiled Burmese 

The Nation -Nov 1, 1999.
Editorial & Opinion
EDITORIAL: Sympathy grows for the exiled Burmese

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has reassured
Thailand that it will help expedite the relocation of Burmese students to
third countries willing to take them. The UNHCR will open registration early
next month in order to identify those refugees who want to be resettled.

The students, who have been in border camps since 1993, are eligible to be
resettled overseas. They will be asked to give information on their
education and employment background, relatives overseas and resettlement
preference and have their photos taken for identification purposes. Those
who stay outside the centre will not be considered as the UNHCR will not
recognise them.

This is an important step to allow those who have been left behind in the
previous screening process to be considered. The Foreign Ministry has been
trying hard to find third countries who are willing to take the students and
provide them with an education. Spokesman Don Pramudwinai said that at least
16 countries have expressed readiness to accept them.

This is welcome news. Such a high number of resettlement countries is
indicative of the sympathy towards Thailand and the Burmese students in
exile who are stranded inside the student centre and along the porous
Thai-Burmese border. The resettlement countries in the West have suffered
from refugee fatigue and have restricted their intake for quite sometime.
However, by accepting these students now, they will be helping to build up a
new Burmese generation who one day will take charge of their country's
destiny. The students will be able to attend schools and take care of their
families, unlike at home where universities and other higher education
centres have been shut down because the junta fears they will become
cauldrons of student anti-government activism.

Followed the Burmese embassy siege on Oct 1 and the Oct 18 incident at the
centre in which five UNHCR officials were locked in their office, there has
been growing sympathy worldwide about the fate of the young Burmese
students. They have fought for democracy within their country but their
future appears limited to that of exile in Thailand. For those students who
have been using peaceful means to remind the world of the political
oppression in Burma, the past 10 years have been a great disappointment. It
may not be that way from now on.

Since 1988, the lack of strong coordinated pressure among the West, Asean
and concerned countries have allowed the military junta leaders to rule
Burma with terror and get away scot-free. But the trend is shifting. It is
evident that more and more countries want to help Thailand to successfully
deal with the Burmese students in exile, especially after the latest
economic fallout caused by Thailand's firmness towards Burma. Western donor
countries are contemplating additional financial assistance to the most
affected Thais as a result of the border closure and the fishing ban by
Burma. To them, essentially, it is a struggle between an open society and a
closed one. There is no doubt which side will prevail.

But for the time being, there is a need for closer cooperation between
officials of the Interior Ministry and UNHCR staff. All too often some Thai
camp officials have worked in collusion with trouble-making students to
create confusion and problems within the centre and among the students. More
stringent enforcement of camp procedures and regulations, therefore, is
required. Camp procedures have not been fully explained, and officials with
dubious intent manipulate the system to their own advantage, much to the
detriment of the students.

But while the relocation of the students to a third country is welcome news,
the best situation of all would be for them to be able to go home. A
democratic Burma is really the only suitable solution to their plight. Let's
hope that those countries taking the students, and all freedom-loving
countries around the world, will continue to put pressure on the junta to
honour the result of the 1990 election.

The Nation