Burmese get warning

Published on Dec 26, 2001

Thailand may refuse to accommodate any more displaced Burmese unless the ones already in a holding centre in Ratchaburi province accept the government's decision to close the centre, Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said yesterday.

"Thailand has taken care of Burmese on humanitarian grounds for decades. The camp inmates must be grateful for our mercy. If chaos erupts from the protest, we may consider not allowing any more Burmese to [stay in] our country," he said.

Ministry shuts Maneeloy

Published on Dec 28, 2001

RATCHABURI - The Interior Ministry yesterday officially closed down the Maneeloy Centre, the holding camp for Burmese dissidents, and moved the residents to a new location.

Hundreds of police and defence volunteers watched as the Burmese, many of them university and college students who fled the bloody crackdown on democracy demonstrators by the military junta in 1988, were loaded into five trucks.

Many of the Burmese wept and chanted pro-democracy songs as they left for Tham Hin camp in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district. One of their leaders said that they did not want to be moved to a new location but agreed to it because they were afraid of being arrested.

Initially, the Burmese inmates did not agree to being moved to the new camp and staged noisy demonstrations and hunger strikes against the government's decision.

They said that they were vulnerable to attack from Burmese agents in the new camp, which is closer to the Thai-Burma border.

Leaders of the Burmese Students Association (BSA), the main group representing camp residents, said about 100 people had fled during the night to avoid transfer and possible repatriation. The authorities said three people had been detained.

At the request of the Burmese dissidents, deputy permanent secretary to Interior Ministry Pairote Promsarn gave a written guarantee of safety at the new camp and said that they would still have postal access.

"The closure of the camp and the transfer of the Burmese residents to the new location was peacefully conducted, contrary to my initial thoughts that it would turn out to be chaos," Pairote said.

He added that the new camp, which has ten dormitories, met the standards of the UN High Commission for Refugees.

The government said most of the 197 recognised "refugee" students at Maneeloy were in the process of resettlement, but it added "there are 300 illegal migrants from Burma at Maneeloy" of whom only 170 are recognised by the UNHCR as "persons of concern".

The Nation, Agencies

Source : The Nation