AFP-Human rights watchdog calls for

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Subject: AFP-Human rights watchdog calls for protection of Myanmar exiles

Human rights watchdog calls for protection of Myanmar exiles
BANGKOK, Nov 2 (AFP) - A human rights watchdog urged the United Nations
refugee agency Tuesday to protect hundreds of thousands of people it fears
could be deported from Thailand to military-ruled Myanmar.
The call by the Shan Human Rights Foundation came after authorities in
western Thailand were quoted in the press as saying they were preparing to
round up and deport more than 80,000 illegal Myanmar workers.

The group, which represents ethnic Shan people from northern Myanmar, fears
people who fled persecution by the junta and its troops may also be
repatriated to Myanmar.

"Peoples from Burma have been forcibly relocated and have suffered human
rights abuses committed by the military, they have been forced to flee to
Thailand," the foundation said in an open letter to the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR).

"There remain a large number of refugees ... who have not been recognised as
such and are being forced to survive as illegal workers," it said.

The plight of refugees from Myanmar was highlighted when Thailand decided to
speed up resettlement of exiled students as relations with the junta plunged
following a seige at Yangon's embassy here.

The foundation said during the past four years about 100,000 people from the
Shan ethnic minority group had fled to Thailand to escape persecution.

It said most were living and working in rural areas along the Thai-Myanmar
border.

"We thus urgently appeal to the UNHCR to protect and assist these refugees,"
it said.

"We are greatly concerned that no-one will take responsibility for these
people and ensure their human rights are protected," the statement added.

The UN last week released a report accusing the junta of "summary
executions, rape, torture, forced labour" and other abuses of ethnic
minorities, in particular in Shan and Karen states on Myanmar's eastern
border with Thailand.

The violations had been "thoroughly documented by human rights organisations
and newly arrived refugees in Thailand", the report said.

But the junta said the UN had been duped by terrorist propaganda and the
majority of ethnic minority groups in Myanmar were "living peacefully and
enjoying their human rights."

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said it was unsure whether Thai authorities
would be able to carry out the deportation plan as Yangon had closed its
borders with Thailand a month ago.

Yangon shut its border checkpoints with Thailand after Bangkok supplied an
escape helicopter to five anti-junta gunmen holding 38 people hostage at the
Myanmar embassy here.

In the wake of the hostage crisis, Thailand announced it would speed up the
repatriation of exiled Myanmar students to third countries and take legal
action against those who did not register with the UNHCR.

Authorities in Thailand's western Tak province could not be reached for
comment on the reports on Tuesday.