20/9/97:LETTER TO PRESIDENT OF UN G

[uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

/* Written 23 Sep 6:00am 1997 by drunoo@xxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:reg.burma */
/* ----------------" Letter to President of UNGA-97 "---------------- */

[To our friends from Near and Afar: please help raise the
issue of protection of Burma's refugees in Thailand at this
52nd session of UNGA. Following is my appeal letter to the
President of UNGA, Mr Hennadiy Udovenko(Ukraine), to raise
this issue. Approaching your home government may also be
helpful to raise the issue at this UNGA. -- U Ne Oo.]
***********************************************************

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY-1997.
----------------------------------------------------
Dr U Ne Oo
48/2 Ayliffes Road
St Marys SA 5042
Australia.

September 20, 1997.

H.E. Mr Hennadiy Udovenko
President of U.N. General Assembly
United Nations Secretariat
United Nations New YOrk NY 10017
United States of America

Dear Sir,

I am a Burmese national currently residing in Australia. With this letter,
I call Mr President's attention to the continuing volatile situation of
refugees and displaced Burmese people in Burma's neighbouring countries. In
Thailand, there are estimated 100,000 refugees and 600,000 displaced people
who fled from Burma to escape abusive practices of Burmese military
government. Some of these refugees, who are of Burma's ethnic minority
groups, have been displaced in Thailand since 1984.

Although the Thai authorities, in the past, informally allowed Burma's
refugees to stay on the Thai soil, there are recent signs that Royal Thai
Government is increasingly intolerant to the refugees. In this connection,
I enclosed with this letter just two of several reports that indicating
Thai authorities harassment and threatening gestures made to the Burma's
refugee, especially exiled-politicians. Earlier this year also, there are
instances of the Thai authorities forcibly repatriating large number of
Burma's ethnic minority refugees into war zones.

Thailand's recent financial crisis has also brought much further gloom to
the situation of refugees and displaced Burmese. There are more than
600,000 displaced Burmese in Thailand, illegally working in Thai's labour
intensive industries. We have received recent reports of Burmese illegal
workers facing near starvation as a result of a construction company
failing to pay the wages. I fear that more workers have the likelihood of
facing similar difficulties.

I believe that urgent attention from United Nations and international
community are necessary in order to protect our refugees in Thailand and to
find appropriate solution to the problems of displaced Burmese people. I
ask Mr President to address the issues of Burmese refugees and displaced
people in Thailand at this 52nd session of United Nations General Assembly.
I call upon you to encourage the Royal Thai Government at this UN General
Assembly to solve this refugee problem with the help of UNited Nations and
international community. In particular, the UNited Nations General Assembly
should urge the Royal Thai Government to (1) transfer protection
responsibility of Burma's refugees to United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees and (2) to sign a memorandum of understanding with the UNHCR for a
safe and voluntary repatriation of Burmese refugees and displaced people.

In closing, I thank Mr President for your kind attention to this matter.

Yours respectfully and sincerely,
Sd. U Ne Oo.

Copy to:
1. Ms Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for REfugees.
2. Ms Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
3. United States Department of State, U.S.A.
4. Australian Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Canberra, Australia.

/* Endreport */
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	ASIA: THAILAND TO DEPORT MINISTERS OF BURMESE EXILE GOVT/THAI BURMA
	   By Matthew Pennington
	   BANGKOK, Sept 16 AFP - Thailand is to deport three ministers of 
	Burma's government-in-exile, officials said today, despite fears 
	they will be jailed on their return to the military-run country.
	   The three ministers of the National Coalition Government of the 
	Union of Burma (NCGUB), all elected MPs from the leading Burmese 
	democratic party of Aung San Suu Kyi, were arrested in a swoop on 
	their offices here yesterday.
	   Thai immigration officials said today that a total of eight 
	Burmese had been arrested as they did not have passports and were 
	being held in an immigration detention centre in Bangkok.
	   They would be deported back to Burma, from the northern Thai 
	border town of Mae Sot, although it was unclear when this would 
	happen, the officials said.
	   The NCGUB was formed by MPs elected in Burma's 1990 general 
	elections - which were won overwhelmingly by Aung San Suu Kyi's 
	party before the ruling junta disregarded the results - who had 
	fled political oppression in Burma.
	   Burmese dissidents in Thailand expressed fears that the NCGUB 
	ministers and officials who had been arrested with them yesterday, 
	would face persecution on their return.
	   "If they are deported I'm sure they will be arrested by the 
	Burmese government and detained in Burma. It will be very dangerous 
	for them," said one Burmese student here who requested anonymity.
	   The NCGUB is an illegal organisation in the military state. In 
	July, Burma's powerful intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin 
	Nyunt accused the group of masterminding a terrorist conspiracy 
	against the ruling junta.
	   Thai immigration officials declined to comment if any key 
	politicians were included among the eight currently being held at 
	the immigration detention centre in the Thai capital.
	   "We got a tip-off about illegal immigrants and we checked that 
	information before we arrested them," one official said. "We 
	arrested them because they are illegal immigrants, nothing more."
	   Dissidents say the current Thai government is closer to the 
	ruling Burmese junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council 
	(SLORC) than previous administrations. Prime Minister Chaowalit 
	Yongchaiyudh paid a state visit to Burma in May.
	   The NCGUB said yesterday the detained MPs were Teddy Buri, San 
	Aung and U Thein Oo.
	   Representatives of the exiled government have been based in 
	Thailand for more than five years and had not "had problems" before 
	this week, Burmese dissident sources said.
	   A total of 13 people were picked up in raids on the exiles' two 
	Bangkok offices, the NCGUB said late yesterday. Two women and a 
	young man were later released, they said.
	   The others were Burmese staff at the NCGUB office and one US 
	citizen, identified as Michael Deer, believed to be connected to 
	Burmese exiled opposition groups operating in Thailand.
	   Several Burmese exile groups have made their base in Thailand, 
	since escaping across the border.
	   The prime minister of the NCGUB is based in Washington, while 
	ministers and supporters maintain offices in both Thailand and 
	India.
	   AFP gr
	---------------------------------------------------
	Date July 12,1997
	Reported by All Burma's Students' Democratic Front(ABSDF)
	Thai Arrest 10 Burmese Students at TAMHIM Refugee Camp

	On July 9,1997 Thailand's 9th Army Division arrested 10 ABSDF 
	students at TAMHIM Refugee Camp in Thailand's Ratchburi district.
	10 students were among a group of 22 who had been arrested by the 
	Thai authorities on April 12, 1997 for entering Thailand illegally.
	At the time of arrest,they were on their way to Bo Wi refugee camp 
	on the Thai-Burma border in order to escape the Slorc offensive 
	against the KNU's 4th Brigade.
	On July9,1997 the 10 students were released from the Ratchburi 
	Police jail after serving their sentence. They were set free near 
	TAMHIM refugee camp.Afew hour later the army arrested  within the 
	camp.

	The 22 students who were arrested on April 12 were beaten at by 
	the army and their belnogings confiscated.Five of them were released 
	on July 4,and	another hatch of 15 students were released a day 
	later.Ten of them went back to the refugee camp where they were 
	subsequently arrested.

	The students are refugees fleeing the fighting and they were
	returning to the refugee camp because they had nowhere else to go.
	TAMHIM is a large camp with a population of over 7,500. The Thai
	authorities have restricted the movement of the refugee since 
	the beginning of last month.
------------------------------------------------
Subject: The BurmaNet News, September 2, 1997
To: Recipients of burmanet-l <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>

TACDB PRESS RELEASE: BURMESE STARVING ON WORK- SITE
September 1, 1997 From: tacdb@xxxxxxxxxx

        Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
                        URGENT PRESS RELEASE!
           70 Burmese Nationals Starving on the work- site
                 for the next Asia Games in Bangkok.

1st September, 1997.

BANGKOK- Plans for Thailand's stadium and grounds construction for the next
Asian Games are being disrupted by a serious case of migrant worker
exploitation. Over 80 Burmese nationals are starving at the site of the
forthcoming Asia Games in Bangkok's district of Ramkhanheng. The group of
undocumented workers, originating from the war-torn areas of Mon and Karen
state in Burma, have not received wages for over six weeks and can no longer
afford to feed themselves. U Win Aung, leader of the group said that workers
have been subsisting on rice water and salt and that they hadn't been given
any reason for the non-payment of wages by their supervisor.

The National Stadium project in Ramkhanheng is a Thai government funded
project which has been contracted out to STNC Construction Company, 113/26
Onnuch Road, Sukhumvit 77 Road, Suanluang, Praweite, Bangkok 10250, tel:
(+662) 321 8102, fax: (+662) 821 8090. Workers are under the supervision of
a sub-contractor, named Pi Chankaphan, and have been working on building the
foundations for a five floor building behind the actual stadium for the last
two months. Burmese workers refused to continue work on Saturday, while
around 30 workers have already been forced to leave the work-site to find
alternative employment without receiving the wages already owned to them.

Sub-contractor, Pi Chankaphan, came to the work-site over the weekend and
gave workers 132 Baht each in attempt to placate workers and avoid further
absences from the work-site as pressure is now on to finish construction on
scheduled time.

A large number of Cambodian, Laotian and Thai workers are in a similar
situation at the work-site. All workers were denied the chance of
registering as legal migrant workers by the sub-contractor. Often, employers
refuse to register workers because of the cost involved. The situation at
the National Stadium is a serious blemish upon Thailand's regional and
international image. One must question Thailand's sincerity in it's attempts
to resolve the problems created by the presence of so many Burmese nationals
within it's borders.

Workers said that they would not return home to Burma unless they were
forced to. U Win Aung stated that "... there is nothing to do for our
survival in Burma, it is better for us to stay in  Thailand.". He went on to
say that "...we come from an area of Burma where there are very serious
military operations being carried out.... hunger is better for us than
torture and death.".

Action should be taken to ensure the payment and protection of workers at
the site as a matter of urgency. TACDB encourages people to visit the
work-site with donations of food.