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The Nation (14/11/99)



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<font face="arial" size=4><b>Headlines</font></b><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=5><b>Surin plans Rangoon visit to ease tensions<br>
</font></b><font size=3>FOREIGN Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday he
plans to visit Burma to discuss improvements in bilateral relations,
soured since the October storming of Burmese embassy in Bangkok by five
armed Burmese activists. <br>
''I will go to Burma when everything is ready,'' he said, without
revealing the dates of his visit. <br>
Surin said in Trang he had discussed the visit on Nov 4 with his Burmese
counterpart, Win Aung, who was in Bangkok on a stopover flight from New
York. <br>
Rangoon has sealed its border with Thailand and terminated all Thai
fishing concessions since the embassy incident, which saw the Burmese
militants taken to the Thai-Burma border by Thai authorities and
released. <br>
Rangoon has demanded the five be arrested and punished before it resumes
normal ties with Thailand. <br>
Surin has repeatedly said that both governments were cooperating with
each other and looking for solutions to settle the matter. But some
recent incidents have indicated otherwise. <br>
Last week's forced repatriation of Burmese illegal workers has been
marred by a series of incidents. Burmese border authorities had
threatened to shoot people entering Burma, arguing they were unsure that
all those entering would be Burmese nationals. <br>
The repatriation order, which was first mooted more than two year's ago
as a way to create jobs for Thais suffering because of the economic
crisis, had frequently been postponed because of complaints by powerful
employer lobby groups. <br>
In Mae Sot yesterday about 3,000 Burmese workers were forced back home,
while about 100 others were rounded up for deportation in Bangkok as a
sweep of illegal workers continued, police said. <br>
In the border town, police said repatriation has been stepped up to ease
the financial burden of having to feed arrested illegal workers. Police
Lt Col Chatree Heepthong, an inspector at the Mae Sot immigration
checkpoint, said a holding centre for the migrant workers had to be
cleared to make way for those arrested in Bangkok and sent to the
frontier. <br>
The repatriation was proceeding at a smoother pace since Burmese
authorities were allowing the workers to return after initially refusing
to grant them entry, Chatree said. <br>
However, more than 100 Thai border patrol policemen were still stationed
along the frontier near Mae Sot to ensure security, said Police Capt
Noppakhun Bamrungpatra, a Border Patrol Police officer. <br>
While thousands of illegal immigrants were being sent across the border
every day, an unknown number of them had returned and were hiding in
jungles and corn fields on Thai soil, he said. <br>
''We are worried about the safety of Thai people as the returnees may
commit crimes if they are cornered,'' Noppakhun said. <br>
Meanwhile, In reaction to rising crime by foreigners, police in Bangkok
also began simultaneous raids on suspected criminals from abroad, said
Police Maj Gen Wiboonsakde Sithidecha, Commissioner of the Bangkok
Metropolitan Police. <br>
The Nation, Associated Press<br>
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