9,000 War Refugees Still Stranded in Thailand

A Thai official stands guard as refugees from Burma sit at the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot November 9, 2010. (Photo: Reuters).

An estimated 9,000 Burmese refugees who have been stranded at the Thai-Burmese border for almost four months in the wake of border clashes are now being fed basic supplies by local Thai communities, said a relief group that assists the refugees.




The refugees are mostly ethnic Karen villagers from eastern Burma who fled to Thai soil in November after escaping fighting between Burmese government forces and Karen rebels in southern Karen State.


Although there is no official figure, and Thai authorities claim that the Karen refugees have already returned home, Karen human rights groups said that many villagers dare not to return home as clashes continue. Many are in hiding at the Thai border while others work for local Thai villagers on farms to earn enough to survive.


Mahn Mahn, the director of the Back Pack Health Workers Team, a relief group that provides food to displaced people on the border, said that supplies of food are delayed due to logistics problems.


He said his relief workers could only reach a separate group of some 1,000 refugees and provide them with two temporarily shelters in Tak Province.


“They can’t go back to their villages because clashes break out almost every day. Burmese government troops have also planted landmines around their villages,” he said, adding that a 7-year-old boy died last week after stepping on a landmine.


Several thousand refugees fled to various points along the Thai-Burmese border in November when serious clashes broke out between the Burmese army and a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Brigade 5, led by Brig-Gen Saw Lah Pwe.


On Nov. 8, the day after Burma's general election, more than 20,000 residents from Myawaddy Township fled into Mae Sot and sought refuge due to fighting. But one day later they were forced to return home by the Thai authorities.


A few days later, other pockets of refugees fled to Thailand from various parts of southern Karen State, including Myawaddy, Kawkareik and Kya Inn Seik Kyi townships, as fighting escalated.


Poe Shan, the director of Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group, said that despite some of villagers returning home, many are still stranded in Thai villages, with some hiding in the jungle on the Thai border.


DKBA Brigade 5 Commander Saw Lah Pwe said fighting between his troops and the Burmese army has broken out almost every day in southern Karen State since November. He said he did not see any prospect of a cease-fire.


Meanwhile, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, on Friday criticized Burma over human rights violations. He said that Burma is burdening other countries in the region, with an influx of refugees fleeing a host of abuses from forced labor and land confiscation to arbitrary detention and sexual violence.


Despite the promise of political transition in Burma, the human rights situation remains grave, said the UN envoy in Kuala Lumpur at the end of an eight-day fact-finding mission to Malaysia. Countries in the region, especially Thailand, also host a considerable number of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants from Burma, he added.


Thailand currently houses some 150,000 refugees, mostly Karen people who have fled from war in Karen State.


Source:http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20830