PM orders end to army's buffer strategy ( The Nation ) June 9, 2002


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PM orders end to army's buffer strategy

Published on Jun 9, 2002

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday that Thailand would cease using Burma's insurgent groups as a buffer between the two countries and as well as curtail the activities of non-government organisations along the Thai-Burmese border.

Aid organisations have in the past interfered in the affairs of the two countries and their presence has hindered the government's efforts to improve diplomatic ties with the military regime in Burma, Thaksin told reporters on his way to Chiang Mai to inspect the two-week stand-off between Thai and Burmese troops.

The government has long overlooked the border operations of the armed forces, Thaksin said, but from now on the military would have to toe the government line.

Thaksin's decision to curb the work of local and international aid groups, mostly with ethnic minorities from Burma displaced by decades of war, is likely to set off a storm of protest from the international community, which views the refugees as victims of Burma's oppressive policies.

The military junta has been accused of ethnic cleansing. More than 120,000 refugees, mostly Karen, are still harboured in camps on this side of the border. Many of them arrived with stories of rapes, torture and extra-judicial killings at the hands of Burmese government soldiers.

Thai border forces have grown used to having a free rein in dealing with Burmese insurgent groups, some of which have crossed over to Thai soil to carry out sabotage raids against refugees and villagers.

The United Wa State Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army - both pro-Rangoon armed ethnic militias - have been declared a threat to the nation's security for allegedly intruding on numerous occasions to burn down refugee camps or shell border villages.

Other groups, namely the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, both of which are fighting the Burmese government for autonomy, are deemed as "friendly" to Thailand. Rangoon has consistently accused the Thai Army of supporting these two groups, a charge that Bangkok always denies.

The latest border confrontation, which started two weeks ago, has sent bilateral ties to one of their lowest ebbs in years. Rangoon has accused Thai troops of supporting the Shan rebels by shelling a Burmese army outpost. The Thai Army said it was merely responding to stray mortar and artillery shells fired from the Burmese side.

THE NATION

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