Zaw Lwin Oo, November 13, 2003
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

A Burmese woman died on 8 November because of severe harassment by Thai
military personnel who were posted as guards to the "Than Hin" Burmese camp
in Ratchbury district.

The Burmese woman, Ma Pale (age 30), fainted at the sight of her husband
being severely beaten by Thai soldiers and died subsequently.

"Since the beginning of this month, Thai soldiers have come and taken away all mobile phones. They do check-ups every night. On the evening of 8 of November, Thai soldiers beat up Ko Naing while looking for mobile phones in the camp. His wife was so frightened that she fainted. She did not recover", said women from the camp.

Attempting to cover up the event, the Thai authorities have tightened security around the camp, allowing no one to leave the premises.

The camps consists of more than 50 Burmese students and more than 7000 refugees. The Than Hin Burmese student camp was formed by relocating students from the Maneeloy camp.

The camp is surrounded by hills impeding the use of mobile phones. In order to use mobile phones to pass on information, the students have to climb the hills, which takes about an hour. But the Thai military had lately banned the students from climbing up into the hills.

Reportedly, the search for mobile phones inside the students' camp and harassment continue. The students blame the Thai soldiers for violating their human rights: as a democracy, Thailand is a country where everyone has the right to keep and use phones of any type.