The BurmaNet News: November 22, 199

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Subject: The BurmaNet News: November 22, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: November 22, 1999
Issue #1406

Noted in Passing: "Allow me to state that Myanmar does not commit
buses."  - Lt.-Gen. Khin Nyunt (see AFP: MYANMAR PRAISES AUSTRALIA HUMAN
RIGHTS BODY)

HEADLINES:
==========
XINHUA: LEADER WARNS AGAINST THREAT FROM WESTERN
AP: UN MYANMAR OPIUM FUNDS FALL SHORT
AFP: MYANMAR PRAISES AUSTRALIA ON RIGHTS BODY
NATION: OBUCHI TO HOLD TALKS WITH BURMESE LEADER
BKK POST: OUTBREAK IMMINENT
NATION: GOVT URGED TO STOP FORCIBLE REPATRIATION
BKK POST: MAJORITY SIGN UP FOR RESETTLEMENT
NATION: SURIN DEFENDS STRICTER WATCH ON BURMESE
ASIAWEEK: REPLIES TO ROGER MITTON
*****************************************************

XINHUA: MYANMAR LEADER WARNS AGAINST THREAT FROM WESTERN NATIONS
19 November, 1999

Xinhua, Yangon, 19 November 1999. Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Khin
Nyunt warned Thursday that the world is encountering a number of new
challenges, particularly in international affairs, as it enters the 21st
century. \

Addressing at a course of diplomacy here Thursday night, the first ever
organized by the Myanmar foreign ministry, Khin Nyunt, first secretary of
the State Peace and Development Council, said some powerful western nations
are attacking the very foundation of international relations, which is based
on equality between independent and sovereign states, in their efforts to
shape the world according to their mold.

He noted that such a situation is a source of great concern for third world
countries.

The Myanmar leader accused these western countries of trying to impose their
own concepts and values on the rest of the world in their attempt to exert
influences on others without paying any regard to the historical background,
cultural heritage, traditions or objective conditions of other nations,
warning that these trends pose a great threat to small and developing
countries.

Khin Nyunt stressed the supreme importance of unity and solidarity among
developing nations under such circumstances.

He pointed out that another feature in today's international relations is
that some nations are using the facade of democracy and human rights to
interfere in the matters that are essentially within the domestic
jurisdiction of other states.

He reaffirmed that Myanmar continues to faithfully adhere to its policy of
striving to maintain friendly ties with all nations in the world in
accordance with its independent and active foreign policy.

*****************************************************

ASSOCIATED PRESS: UN MYANMAR OPIUM FUNDS FALL SHORT
21 November, 1999

MONG PAWK, Myanmar (AP) - The U.N. drug control agency is struggling fund an
anti-opium offensive in impoverished Myanmar villages.

In a bid to drum up money from donor nations, diplomats were flown by
helicopter this week to the eastern Shan state, the heartland of Southeast
Asia's Golden Triangle and the target of the U.N.'s $15.8-million project to
wean communities off poppy cultivation.

The U.N. International Drugs Control Program so far has received a total of
nearly $8 million from the United States and Japan, chief technical adviser
John Dalton said Friday.

The project targets nearly 600 villages in territory close to the Chinese
border controlled by the United Wa State Army. The army, which reached a
cease-fire with Myanmar's military regime in 1989, is regarded by U.S.
narcotics officials as the nation's leading producer of heroin and
methamphetamines.

Army chairman Pau Yu Chen told the visiting diplomats in a speech that the
U.N.'s proposed $15.8 million would not be enough to improve the living
standard of villagers who sell opium as a cash crop.

People in the region already live in poverty, reaping little profit from
their crop. Most opium money goes to drug dealers who process it into heroin
and sell it in other countries like Thailand and Laos.

Diplomats from Britain, Germany, France, China were among those who traveled
to Myanmar to hear about the U.N. project, which also calls for building
roads, schools, health clinics and fresh water supplies.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is the world's second biggest source of
heroin, after Afghanistan. Heroin is made from opium gum, which is harvested
from poppy plants that thrive on mountainsides in the north and eastern part
of the country.

*****************************************************

AFP: MYANMAR PRAISES AUSTRALIA ON RIGHTS BODY
19 November, 1999

AFP, Yangon, 19 November 1999. Myanmar says "fruitful" talks are taking
place on Australia's bid to set up a human rights commission here in an
initiative condemned by pro-democracy activists.

In a major policy speech, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, head of military
intelligence and a leading member of the junta, denied his country was
guilty of human rights abuses.

He said in remarks published by the official press Friday that Myanmar had
been holding "fruitful and meaningful" talks with Australia on its plan to
set up a commission.

"Allow me to state that Myanmar does not commit abuses," he told an invited
audience at the end of a diplomacy course here.

Australia's proposal has stirred the ire of many foreign campaigners and
opponents of Myanmar's military rulers.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was angered Australia thought it could
work with the junta to improve human rights.

"It's a bit like asking the fox to look after the chicken," she told AFP in
August.

Her criticisms followed a visit by the head of the Australian Human Rights
Commission, Chris Sidoti, to Myanmar earlier this year.

Australia has defended the plan as a means of engaging the junta, which is
accused of perpetrating forced labour, rape and torture, and other human
rights violations.

In his remarks, carried by major newspapers here, the general claimed no
death sentences had been carried out since 1988, when the current junta
seized power, and pointed to Myanmar's decision to allow the Red Cross to
visit its prisons as proof of its innocence.

Khin Nyunt said the military had "no desire whatsoever to hold power for a
long time ... once the constitution has emerged, there must be a transfer of
power to the constitutional government."

Opponents of the junta ridicule this stand, saying a convention is dragging
its feet on drafting a new constitution for Myanmar, which is anyway
specifically designed to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi from power.

They suspect the military will try to establish state apparatus similar to
that of Suharto-era Indonesia when the army kept a tight grip on power.

Khin Nyunt also advised opponents of his regime not to be swayed by
"negative images" of the country.

He did not refer to Aung San Suu Kyi by name but she is the constant target
of attacks by the military and the official press.

Government should "give priority to the entire population of 48 million,
rather than putting emphasis on one individual or one organisation," he
said.

His remarks were published a week after it was revealed the World Bank had
advised Myanmar sweeping political reform was vital if it was to
reinvigorate the struggling economy.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide
victory in a general election in 1990 but the military has refused to
relinquish power.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: OBUCHI TO HOLD TALKS WITH BURMESE LEADER
20 November, 1999

KYODO

[Japanese] Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi plans to hold talks with the leader
of Burma's junta on the fringes of a Nov. 28 summit in Manila of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) plus China, Japan and South
Korea, government sources said yesterday.

Tokyo is now making final arrangements for the meeting with Gen Than Shwe,
prime minister and chairman of the military government, called the State
Peace and Development Council, the sources said.

The meeting would be the first between a Japanese prime minister and a
leader of the junta, which seized power in 1988.

Obuchi is expected to press for economic and political reforms in Burma and
to urge the junta to promote dialogue with the National League for
Democracy,(NLD), a pro-democracy force led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Obuchi has yet to decide whether to include Burma in his new initiative
expected to be announced at the summit to facilitate the flow of "people,
money, goods and information" between Japan and other Asian nations to help
revitalise the Asian economy.

The NLD won the 1990 general elections, but the junta refused to recognise
the results and hand over power.

The Obuchi meeting is likely to invite mixed reactions, with the 10-member
Asean expected to welcome it and the US and some other nations to criticise
it.

Unlike the US, which maintains economic and travel sanctions against Burma,
Japan and Southeast Asian nations have been
pursuing flexible engagement with the junta.

Tokyo has even partially lifted the freeze on its yen-denominated loans to
the country.

In Rangoon, news reports quoted junta leader Lt Gen Khin Nyunt as saying
that the military regime plans to transfer power to a government that will
emerge after a new constitution is drawn up and adopted by a new parliament.

But he added that the move to democracy will take time because of "special
circumstances" in Burma. He did not elaborate.

Khin Nyunt made the comment while speaking on Thursday at the Foreign
Ministry. "The military has no intention of holding power for a long time,"
the general was quoted as saying.

"Some Western countries are pressuring us for not establishing a democratic
system immediately, but they should realise we have the common objective of
establishing a democratic system in Myanmar [Burma]," he told Burmese
diplomats who had been attending a course in diplomacy.

A general election would automatically nullify the results of the 1990
general election, in which the NLD won 392 seats out of 486 constituencies.

The military government has refused to recognise the results of the 1990
election, insisting that a new constitution is necessary before transferring
power to a new government.

Instead, the junta convened a national convention with 700 delegates in
January 1993 to draw guidelines for the constitution. The 1974 constitution
based on the one-party socialist system was revoked in 1988.

The NLD, which fielded the largest number of delegates among the eight
groups represented in the convention, withdrew all of its 86 members from
the body in November 1995, five months after Suu Kyi was released from house
arrest. The convention went into recess in March 1996.

By that time, the convention had adopted guidelines for six chapters of the
constitution. Nine more chapters remain to be dealt with.

Though the national convention commission sits three times a week, according
to government newspaper reports, there is no indication when the convention
will resume to continue the process of drafting a constitution.

*****************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: OUTBREAK IMMINENT
21 November, 1999 by Joshua Kurlantzick

MALARIA WARNING: DESPITE SOME SUCCESSES, THE MALARIA SITUATION IN THAILAND
STANDS BALANCED ON THE PRECIPICE OF DISASTER

Sitting in the open-air clinic at Mae La refugee camp in northwest Thailand,
the young woman's placid demeanor belies the difficulty of the task she has
just completed: summoning enough energy in her malaria-wracked body to carry
her underweight baby to the post-natal care section of the field hospital.
Like most people at Mae La, the woman is Karen.

As Rangoon has tightened its control over outlying regions of the country,
she fled to Thailand. Younger than 25, the woman has spent her life with a
constant companion: malaria, the world's most dangerous tropical disease.

Constantly anemic due to bouts with malaria, she has struggled to maintain
enough fat to prevent her body from consuming its own tissues.

Her first two children died shortly after birth of diseases related to their
mother's malaria. Doctors give her third newborn a 25% chance of survival.

Ten years ago, this woman's story would have been brutally common at Mae La,
which is home to approximately 30,000 displaced persons. Today, her
situation is more rare.

Working together, malariologists at Mae La and the Karen themselves have
virtually driven falciparum malaria, the potentially deadly form of the
disease, out of the camp; moreover, they have fought vivax malaria, the
non-fatal strain,
to a standstill.

"There are no guarantees, but P. falciparum is being eradicated from the
camp," says Dr Francois Nosten, a malariologist at Mae La.

A FEROCIOUS FOE

One of the world's most persistent killers, malaria is caused by
single-celled parasites and then carried by Anopheles mosquitoes,  which the
World Health Organisation (WHO) recently called "public health enemy number
one."

Once in a human, malaria parasites travel to the liver, invade red-blood
cells, and burst out, destroying the cells. Globally, malaria is on the
increase, primarily because the parasite that causes the disease is becoming
resistant to antimalarial drugs.

If Anopheles is "enemy number one," then northwest Thailand's mosquitoes are
the worst offenders. Thailand has a lower incidence of malaria than many
African states, but has become the locus of the most drug-resistant strains
of the disease.

No one knows for sure why malaria along Thailand's borders has developed
resistance to one drug after another. Strains of
malaria in Thailand simply may be naturally more elusive than their African
cousins. But it is clear that human error has exacerbated resistance.

According to Dr Pratap Singhasivanon, a professor at Mahidol University's
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, "Indiscriminate use of anti-malarials by
workers along Thailand's borders has helped create super-resistant
parasites."

By the 1990s, malaria was ravaging refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border.
In July 1996, approximately 650 cases of
falciparum were reported in Mae La, about 45 minutes drive from Mae Sot
town. In January of that same year, roughly 650 cases of falciparum were
reported in Maeramuklo camp.

According to one doctor who has worked in Mae La for a decade, "the
situation was really horrible. Walking around the camp, you would see
people. . .with no life in them, lying totally still. Pregnant women. . .
would have many fetal deaths, or would die themselves. . . leaving behind
anemic orphans who would not be given names because they had little chance
of growing up."

PLAN OF ATTACK

Yet by January 1'998, a multi-faceted attack strategy had begun to pay
dividends in the camps, and today some of those gains have been
consolidated. Doctors (mostly from the foreign-funded Shoklo Malaria
Research Unit) working at the camps gained the trust of the population by
meeting camp leaders and by using local staff for tasks in which having a
familiar face around would reassure patients.

Then, health professionals initiated a significant education programme
designed to inform refugees about the symptoms of malaria and about the need
to come in for diagnoses if they think they have contracted the disease.

"We held many meetings with camp elders and travelled around the camps
ourselves. . with local staff. . .telling people how to recognise high
fevers and other symptoms," says Dr Nosten. "After a while, the refugees
knew the symptoms and knew to come in to the clinic. . . and more people
used bed nets."

Insecticide-impregnated bed nets help prevent bites during the night, when
Anopheles mosquitoes are most active.

"But more importantly," continues Nosten; "we got through to pregnant
women." Shoklo doctors began inviting pregnant women in refugee camps to
visit on-site clinics every week, during which time they are screened for
malaria. Unlike other killers like tuberculosis, there is no easy test for
malaria-diagnosis requires viewing a blood sample under microscope. But like
most diseases, when malaria is caught early, it is easier to fight; if
pregnant women test positive, doctors immediately begin treatment.

"A little surprisingly," says another malariologist at Mae La, "the pregnant
women were receptive. . . Pretty early on, the clinics became crowded with
expectant mothers. I think that working with community leaders, and us
living near here, built trust. And everyone in the camps knew (people) who
had died of malaria. . . so the mothers recognised the importance of coming
to the clinic."

Visiting the malaria clinic at Mae La today, it seems like half the pregnant
women in Thailand have come for a consultation. Karen women dressed in
sarongs sit on the clinic's wooden floor, chatting conspiratorially like
long-time members of a sorority. Foreign doctors, as well as Karen staff,
examine "charts" (ratty, palm-sized notebooks detailing medical histories),
scan slides, and try to keep up with arrivals.

"Yes. . .it is impressive," says Dr Nosten. "In developed countries pregnant
women usually go to the doctor three times in nine months, and here we are
asking for 20 visits."

But education and consultation might not have made inroads against malaria
in the camps if not for a change in drug treatment. By the 1990s, parasites
in northwest Thailand had developed resistance to chloroquine, mefloquine,
and other antimalarials. Scrambling for options, malariologists tried
combining derivatives of a newer drug called artemisinin with old stalwart
mefloquine - a strategy similar to Aids "cocktails".

The artemisinin-mefloquine combinations have proven effective. Malaria
parasites in the camps remain sensitive to artemisinin, and the combination
therapy has halted the progression of mefloquine resistance among refugee
populations.

In short, artemisinin-mefloquine combinations work because of the
differences in how the medications attack malaria. Artemisinin kills
quickly, drastically reducing the number of parasites in the bloodstream,
and is rapidly eliminated from the body, allowing remaining parasites little
chance to develop resistance to it. Mefloquine, on the other hand, acts
slowly and stays in the body for a long time. "After a short course of
artemisinin rids the body of 99 percent of parasites. . .we use mefloquine
to finish malaria off," says Dr Nosten.

By January 1999, the number of cases of falciparum malaria in Mae La camp
had fallen to approximately 300. Vivax malaria had been contained at early
1990s levels. Results in Maeramuklo camp were more impressive: by January
1998 the number of falciparum cases had dropped to 50 per month. "We started
seeing healthier mothers, less anemia, heavier babies," says one
malariologist.

OUTBREAK

The situation is far from perfect, however. Although falciparum rates are
down, the deadly strain of malaria has not been
eradicated, and the camps have experienced occasional epidemics - in July
1999 there were almost 1,000 falciparum cases in Mae La. Nets are not always
effective (because many mosquitoes bite before bedtime,) many refugees still
do not seek prompt treatment, and drugs cannot save everyone.

While it is heartening to see expectant mothers being screened at the camp
clinic, one metre away a middle-aged man whose wasted body soon will no
longer have the strength to fight falciparum spends his time whimpering in
pain, sweating, and vomiting up medicine.

Still, the inroads made among refugee populations have prompted some Thai
public health officials to suggest that strategies employed in the camps
could be utilised elsewhere. Around Mae Sot town, malaria is not under
control. On an average morning at the town clinic, staff attempt to process
ten times the number of patients that doctors at Mae La see in one day.

The number of cases of falciparum malaria at Mae Sot Regional Hospital has
only slightly declined in the past five years, and malaria remains the
leading cause of admission and death at the hospital. Acknowledging the
depth of the problem, Dr Ronatrai Ruengverayuth, Chief of Medical Department
at Mae Sot Hospital, says, "we are open to new approaches and looking for
new treatments."

Transferring policies adopted in the camps may be difficult. Outside the
camps, the majority of patients are migrant workers, many of whom are
foreign nationals living illegally in Thai jungles, where they are
alternatively tolerated by businesses who need their labour and deported by
the Thai government.

Although Thai doctors use the same artemisinin-mefloquine combinations as
camp physicians, migrants' mobility makes it difficult for physicians to
supervise treatment and thus to rid their bodies of parasites. "In the
camps, the population is stable... they can follow case, and then get
patients to come for early diagnosis," says Dr Ronatrai. "Our migrant
patients come in (sporadically)-when work is available they do not go to the
hospital- and then leave, and we have no idea if they will come back. . .
This makes early detection tough."

Many migrant workers are unaware that malaria can only be confirmed with a
laboratory test, so when they develop potential symptoms, they buy drugs in
local markets. Self-medication allows illegals to continue working
throughout their illnesses. But presumptive treatment of malaria is almost
always counter-productive. Labourers often unwittingly buy ineffective drugs
like Fansidar or fake artemisinin derivatives that essentially are sugar
pills.

Not only early detection but also supervised outpatient treatment is
difficult for Thai hospitals. "Again, at Mae La, the (Shoklo doctors) have
fewer patients and they only deal with malaria. . .so they can give out the
drug combinations, watch the (Karen) take the pills, and make sure they do
not vomit them up," says Dr Ronatrai. "Here, we do not have the time or
money to watch each outpatient take his drugs. All we can do is tell
(foreign workers) to take their medicine accordingly."

Often unable to read the Thai writing on the bottles, foreign patients
sometimes fail to complete their courses of drugs, allowing super-resistant
strains of malaria to survive in their bodies.

Recently, the Thai government has stepped up malaria education and outreach
along the Burmese border. According to one official in the Ministry of
Health, "People in the government are realising that Thailand cannot control
migration, and cannot limit drug-resistant malaria to the borders. We have
to work more with the migrants and with other states."

Tangible evidence of this attitude is easy to find. Posters warning workers
of the symptoms of malaria have become omnipresent around Mae Sot. Thai
physicians have begun training community-based health workers to take blood,
make diagnoses, and distribute drugs, which would come prepackaged in
correct dosages, with instructions written in several languages.

Employees of the local hospital operate a mobile blood clinic in the
outskirts of Mae Sot. The clinic makes early diagnoses and tracks the
disease- when the mobile unit sees a spike in the number of malaria cases in
one migrant population, it rushes treatment to that area. At Thai hospitals,
doctors assure foreign workers that their records are kept confidential. And
in a new spirit of coordination (or mutual fear), Thailand even has given
anti-malarial drugs to Burma.

FUTURE HOPES

Ultimately, a vaccine may be the only answer. Dr Nosten, who has observed
trends in malaria in Thailand since 1983, says, "For now, we do what we can.
Drug combinations, a cheap test that does not require a microscope... these
can help. But it is probably true that a vaccine is the only hope for
controlling the disease."

Having seen supposed breakthroughs founder in clinical trials, physicians in
Thailand are not optimistic about potential vaccines. Developing weapons
against malaria is difficult. The parasites that cause malaria quickly
change their protein coats making it hard for drugs to keep up with them.

"I am not so hopeful," says Dr Ronatrai. "Malaria changes too much. I think
a field-effective vaccine is many years away."

In the meantime, despite limited successes in the refugee camps, the malaria
situation in Thailand stands balanced on the precipice of disaster.

"We are on our last line of drugs," says a physician at Mae La. "If those
go, who knows what will happen?"

Actually, doctors have a pretty good idea what will happen.

"Without a vaccine, and if patients living on the border cannot get adequate
diagnosis and treatment, we are looking at resistance to artemisinin and
then untreatable malaria here," says Dr Nosten.

As international travel and global warming (which could expand mosquitoes'
habitats) spread the disease's reach, this untreatable malaria could migrate
to Africa and ultimately to the temperate zones, triggering a global health
disaster.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: GOVERNMENT URGED TO STOP FORCIBLE REPATRIATION
20 November, 1999

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

An open letter to various government departments:

The non-governmental organisations named below are deeply concerned about
the ongoing mass arrest and repatriation of migrant workers, especially
those from Burma, because of the following:

1- Relations between Thailand and Burma have not yet returned to normal. The
Burmese government has kept the border closed and forbids migrant workers
from going home.

2- The Burmese government continues to refuse to allow the return of its
people, as has been reported by the media, to the extent that soldiers have
threatened the migrant workers and forced them to return to Thailand at
gunpoint. This confirms that even though Thai authorities were able to find
channels to push the people back, those returnees might not be able to make
it back home safely.

3- Though the news on human rights abuses against the repatriated migrant
workers - such as rape, bribery, investigation and extrajudicial killings -
cannot be confirmed since the events happened within Burma, human rights
violations in the country have been documented and circulated in Thailand
and the international community. We therefore cannot deny that there is no
truth to the news.

4- Among the estimated one million migrant workers from Burma in Thailand,
there are refugees who are recognized by the United Nations High
Commissioner on Refugees, refugees who are registered in the border camps
and refugees who have not yet passed the process of status consideration,
especially ethnic Shan people. These people are in danger if they are sent
back to Burma.

5- The strategy disclosed by Thai authorities to pressure male workers by
arresting and repatriating their children and wives first, is a clear
violation of the rights of the child not to be separated from their parents,
especially when there is no guarantee of their families being reunited.

Due to these fact, the non-governmental organisations demand the Thai
government reconsider its policy of repatriation of migrant workers and
consider the following recommendations:

1- The Thai government should halt the repatriation until the Burmese
government officially accepts the returnees without investigations and
punishment. The Thai government should provide border shelters for the
people who are awaiting repatriation.

2- The Thai police should stop arresting the migrant workers until the
situation changes, since the immigration police department is not able to
provide enough shelters for more people.

3- The Thai government should allow the UNHCR to officially monitor the
repatriation of migrant workers so that international organisations will be
able to provide protection for the refugees who might be arrested,
especially the ethnic Shan and Karen, who are from states where internal
wars are still going on.

4- The Thai government must order local authorities to stop the strategic
plan of arresting children and wives of the migrant workers to pressure the
men. This act violates the rights of the child, according to article 9 of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Thailand is a signatory to.

The non-governmental organisations demand the Thai government follow the
principle of non-refoulement of refugees. In addition, though the migrant
workers from Burma have not yet been considered as refugees, if the
repatriation pushes people into life-threatening situations, the Thai
government should reconsider its policy based on humanitarian concerns and
the principle of universal human rights.

FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT
FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN
FRIENDS OF WOMEN FOUNDATION
GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST THE TRAFFIC OF WOMEN
MIGRANT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
EMPOWER FOUNDATION(CHIANG MAI)
THAI ACTION COMMITTEE FOR DEMOCRACY IN BURMA
CHILD'S RIGHTS-ASIA NET
ASIAN FORUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT(FORUM-ASIA)
FRIENDS WITHOUT BORDERS: PROJECT TO PROMOTE POSITIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN THAI
AND BURMESE PEOPLE

*****************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: MAJORITY SIGN UP FOR RESETTLEMENT
19 November, 1999 by Yuwadee Tunyasiri/Temsak Traisophon

OF 900 APPLICATIONS, 567 ASK TO GO US

About 85% of the former Burmese students at Maneeloy holding centre have
applied for resettlement in third countries, the
secretary-general of the National Security Council said.

Of the 900 applications, 567 asked to go to the United States, Kachadpai
Burusphat said yesterday.

Another 263 had opted for Australia, 53 for Canada and the rest for other
countries. He said Washington had offered to take up to 1,500 Burmese in the
initial stage.

The NSC chief said he had invited representatives of the countries offering
to accept the students to a meeting later this
month to discuss the resettlement programme.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had urged a speeding up of
the resettlement process. The first batch were due to depart Thailand before
the end of this year.

"The quicker the Burmese are sent abroad, the less burden Thailand will have
to shoulder," Mr Kachadpai said.

No matter how Thai officials tried to keep the holding centre in order, some
trouble-makers would always try to incite trouble and defy the rules.

It was Thailand's sovereign right to maintain peace and order at the holding
centre, whereas the UNHCR was obliged to oversee the humanitarian problem.

Thai authorities have banned all the student exiles from leaving Maneeloy
holding centre without permission after two incidents on Tuesday. One
student was shot and wounded when he allegedly tried to steal a duck from a
Thai neighbour, and Thai security guards brawled with the students who
refused to allow a search for concealed weapons.

There are also 1,700-2,000 former Burmese students living in Bangkok, of
whom 750 have so far reported to the UNHCR and will be sent to Maneeloy
camp.

Mr Kachadpai warned that students who refuse to report in by Sunday face
arrest and could be charged with illegal entry.

"There will be no more reprieves," he said. The UNHCR had already been
notified of Thailand's toughened position against delinquent students.

He supported the Interior Ministry's plan to lock up trouble-making Burmese
students at the police private school in Bang Khen to separate them from the
peaceful ones.

The NSC chief also said forced repatriation of illegal Burmese workers was
proceeding well and the measure would continue. The illegal workers could
pose a security and social threat in the long run if they were allowed to
stay.

Veerachai Naewboonnien, interior deputy permanent secretary, said he
expected the situation in Maneeloy camp would return to normal at the end of
the month after the completion of the barbed wire fence.

The flare-ups resulted mainly from the Burmese' dissatisfaction with the
stricter regulations.

*****************************************************

THE NATION: SURIN DEFENDS STRICTER WATCH ON BURMESE
21 November, 1999

Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan yesterday defended the government's decision
to curb the movement of Burmese refugees and students living in the country,
saying it's for their own good.

He did not elaborate.

Surin said that in the past, enforcement was not strict and the authorities
were too lax about the movement of the students.

National Security Council chief Khachadpai Burusapatana has said many
Burmese exiles and asylum seekers are living outside the camp without
permits and demanded that they return to the camp or face charges of illegal
entry.

Surin said the ultimate aim of all relevant government agencies is to calm
the growing tension between the authorities and Burmese students at a
holding centre in Ratchaburi.

In the past months there have been a number of disputes between the two
sides, including a demonstration in which one student was shot in the leg,
and a fist fight between three camp guards and a Burmese student.

Both sides have filed charges with police over the incident. A .22 calibre
bullet was found in the left leg of the student, but
camp officials claim they do not know who shot him.

Burmese student leaders at the camp have threatened to post their message on
the Internet to condemn the Thai government's recent decision to ring the
camp with barbed wire, calling the action a violation of humanitarian
principles.

A leading human rights activist, Somchai Homlaor, has strongly criticised
the government.

He said the exiled students and asylum seekers should be allowed to enroll
in colleges and universities instead of being contained in a camp surrounded
by barbed wire.

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