REUTERS_30.1.97:BURMA REFUGEE SITUA

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Subject: REUTERS_30.1.97:BURMA REFUGEE SITUATION DETERIORATED.

	ASIA: THREE KILLED IN BURMESE REFUGEE CAMP RAID
THAI REFUGEES
   By Somchit Rungchamratrasami of Reuters
	   MAE SOT, Thailand, Jan 30 Reuter - At least three people were 
killed and thousands of refugees left homeless after armed Burmese 
rebels raided and torched three refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma 
border, police and refugees said today.
	   Thousands of Karen refugees who used to live in the sprawling 
camps just inside the Thai side of the border fled and spent last 
night in the rice fields or in the jungle far away from the camps, 
a refugee official told Reuters.
	   Karen officials said about 200 armed men speaking Burmese 
divided into three groups on Tuesday night, and raided and set fire 
to three separate camps -- Hway Kaloke, Don Pa Kiang and Mae La.
	   Thai police who went to check the camps today said three people 
were killed and several wounded after the intruders opened fire.
	   A Thai trader, a Karen refugee and an intruder said to be a 
member of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) were killed. 
	   The Rangoon-backed DKBA is the armed rebel group that broke away 
from the predominantly Christian Karen National Union (KNU) in 
early 1995.
	   The KNU was formed in 1948 to fight for autonomy from Rangoon 
shortly after Burma gained independence from Britain. The KNU is 
one of the only remaining armed rebel groups still fighting Burma's 
military government.
	   Since their 1995 breakaway, DKBA troops have entered Thailand 
and attacked camps housing about 70,000 refugees on the border 
several times. Scores of KNU members and members of their families 
have been killed or wounded over the past two years.
	   A DKBA commander told Reuters after the split that the group 
planned to continue to harass Karen refugees seeking shelter in 
Thailand until they returned to Burma and surrendered to officials 
from the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
	   Colonel Suvit Maenmuan, commander of the Thai task force that is 
responsible for security along the Thai-Burma border, said today 
Thailand would protest to Burma over the incident.
	   Rangoon has not responded to a series of Thai complaints in 
recent years that soldiers had crossed the border and attacked 
refugees on Thai territory.
	   Many ethnic minorities have fled to Thailand to escape alleged 
human rights abuses from Burmese soldiers.
	   REUTER   ts

	ASIA: BURMA ADMITS PRO-RANGOON GROUP ATTACKED REFUGEES
BURMA REFUGEES (CARRIED EARLIER)
   BANGKOK, Jan 31 Reuter - Burma's military government said today 
pro-Rangoon rebels attacked refugees on the Thai side of the border 
earlier this week as a retaliatory measure.
	   Three camps in Thailand housing nearly 26,000 Karen refugees 
were torched on Tuesday night after armed rebels made separate 
raids on the camps. Three people were killed in crossfire during 
the raids, Thai police said.
	   A statement issued by Burma's ruling State Law and Order 
Restoration Council and obtained by Reuters today said the 
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a breakaway faction of the 
ethnic Karen rebel group, was responsible.
	   It said members of the Karen National Union (KNU) -- the armed 
group fighting for autonomy from Rangoon -- had entered Burma from 
Thailand in December and killed six people in an attack on a DKBA 
village.
	   "On the 28th of January some members from the DKBA retaliated by 
attacking some KNU camps," the statement said.
	   KNU officials could not immediately be reached for comment on 
the December attack.
	   The DKBA was formed in 1995 after a mutiny within the 
predominantly-Christian KNU. It is supported by Rangoon's military 
government, rebel sources say.
	   The KNU was formed in 1948 to fight for autonomy from Rangoon 
shortly after Burma gained independence from Britain. The KNU is 
one of the only remaining armed rebel groups still fighting Burma's 
military government.
	   Since their 1995 breakaway, DKBA troops have entered Thailand 
and attacked camps housing about 70,000 refugees on the border 
several times. Scores of KNU members and members of their families 
have been killed or wounded over the past two years.
	   Thai border police said on Friday troops have sent 
reinforcements into areas near the Burma border, and sent planes to 
drive out any intruders.
	   The police said the army was using planes to bomb the jungle 
areas on the bank of the Moei River which divides the two 
countries.
	   "Hundreds of Thai troops and armoured personnel carriers are 
deployed in the area to prevent another intrusion, and they are 
prepared to fight," a border police officer said.
	   There were no reports of any casualties, police said.
	   Many ethnic minorities have fled to Thailand to escape alleged 
human rights abuses from Burmese soldiers.
	   REUTER    ts

	ASIA: BARRICADE OF SUU KYI RESIDENCE TO REMAIN: AUTHORITIES
BURMA SUUKYI
   RANGOON, Feb 1 AFP - Barricades cutting off traffic and access 
to the home of National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San 
Suu Kyi would remain in place, Burmese military intelligence 
officials said today.
	   The checkpoints were in place for security reasons and for her 
own safety and would only be removed "at the appropriate time," 
Colonel Thein Shwe said at the ruling junta's monthly news 
conference.
	   Barricades were put up in front of Aung San Suu Kyi's Rangoon 
residence to stop the NLD from holding a planned national congress 
at the end of September and have since brought a halt to weekly 
public addresses by party leaders.
	   Thousands of NLD supporters gathered outside her residence every 
weekend following her release from six years of house arrest in 
July 1995.
	   The National League for Democracy won eighty per cent of the 
vote in a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military 
regime refused to hand over power.
	   The military government have tried to cut the NLD leadership off 
from the public, but have ceased to blame the party for instigating 
student demonstrations last month, the largest since those put down 
when the junta took power in 1988.
	   External organisations, associated ethnic groups and the All 
Burma Students Democratic Foundation, based in Thailand and the 
border areas, were found to have been behind the unrest in Rangoon, 
intelligence officials said.
	   AFP ab/de