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Myanmar dissidents riot at Thai holding centre

  
BANGKOK, Nov 17 (Reuters) - About 100 Myanmar dissidents have clashed with
guards at a holding centre in western Thailand, leaving at least two people
injured, police said on Wednesday. 

The dissidents started the hour-long riot on Tuesday night after guards at
the Maneeloy camp in Ratchaburi province refused to let them out to get a
colleague who had been arrested over the weekend for stealing. 

One Myanmar dissident suffered a gunshot wound and was hospitalised, as was
a Thai security guard who was beaten up by the mob, a police spokesman told
Reuters. 

``Investigators will be dispatched to the camp on Wednesday to find the
wrongdoers and they will be punished in accordance with Thai law,'' the
spokesman said. 

About 1,000 dissidents, who fled violence and political suppression in
Myanmar in 1988, have been held in the Maneeloy centre since 1993 under an
arrangement with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

Frustrated by tight regulations governing their movements out of the centre,
they have been restless in past weeks. 

Last month, a group of dissidents held five UNHCR employees hostage for
several hours after they were denied their monthly living allowance of $20 a
month for violating camp rules. The issue was later resolved. 

The dissidents have also come under pressure since five armed Myanmar
dissidents raided the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok on October 1 and held 89
people hostage for about 25 hours. 

The embassy attackers later released their hostages and flew to freedom in
the jungles around the Myanmar border near Ratchaburi. But the incident
embarrassed Thai authorities who have since taken a harder stance on the
dissidents. 

The latest incidents have prompted the Thai government to impose tougher
measures on their movements and work with the UNHCR to speed up their
resettlement in third countries. 

Thailand has set November 21 as the deadline for nearly 2,000 Myanmar
dissidents living illegally in Bangkok to register with the authorities and
be sent to the Maneeloy centre pending resettlement abroad. 

More than 200 of them have registered. 

23:30 11-16-99