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THE NATION: Surin says Asean ought



Politics 

      Surin says Asean ought
      to discuss intrusions

      THAILAND will seek an explanation from
      Rangoon on a series of border intrusions
      by armed groups from Burma and will
      suggest the issue be put on the agenda of
      the forthcoming Asean ministerial meeting
      in Manila, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
      said Monday. 

      His response came as the Democratic
      Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), believed to
      be backed by Burmese troops, attacked
      and burned a refugee camp inside Thailand
      early Monday, destroying 50 homes and
      wounding 14 people, four of them seriously.

      Describing the latest invasion into Thai
      territory from the Burmese side as
      unacceptable and a violation of Thai
      sovereignty, the minister said Thailand was
      unhappy with the recurrence of invasion of
      Thai territory. 

      Surin said these kinds of border problems
      should be dealt with by undertaking serious
      and careful bilateral talks. 

      At the same time he said he believed the
      issue of the intrusions should be raised and
      discussed when Asean foreign ministers
      attended their annual meeting in the
      Philippines this July. 

      The minister also suggested that the Asean
      membership of Burma and Laos,
      approaching their first anniversary this July,
      should be reviewed. 

      He said this would allow the grouping to be
      able to learn whether the new members had
      any problems as members of the grouping
      and find out how the other members could
      help them. 

      The intrusions on to Thai soil by armed
      groups from Burma will be a top priority
      when Deputy Foreign Minister
      Sukhumbhand Paribatra makes an official
      visit to Burma on April 7-8. 

      Surin added that Sukhumbhand would seek
      a dialogue with Rangoon in an attempt to
      ease the problems away from other
      bilateral issues. 

      The minister said he also believed that the
      Thai army, based so close to its Burmese
      counterpart, could talk with them in order to
      curtail border intrusions. 

      However, Army commander-in-chief Gen
      Chettha Thanajaro said over the weekend
      that Rangoon denied its involvement in the
      DKBA attacks on Thai soil and had given
      the army the green light to do whatever it
      could to stop them. 

      The latest raid took place just one day after
      a group of foreign diplomats based in
      Thailand inspected Thai shelters for
      Burmese displaced persons in Tak and
      Mae Hong Son provinces. 

      The attack began about 1 am, when
      attackers fired two artillery shells into Maw
      Ker, a camp sheltering more than 8,700
      refugees from Burma, said an aid worker
      who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

      The invaders then entered Maw Ker and
      burned about 50 homes in the camp, which
      lies some four kilometres from the Burmese
      border. Most of the refugees belong to the
      Karen ethnic group. 

      All the wounded were taken to a hospital in
      nearby Mae Sot, 370 km northwest of
      Bangkok. Two men and two boys were
      seriously wounded. 

      The DBKA is a splinter group of Karen that
      has allied itself with the military government
      in Rangoon. 

      Thai army units were firing shells in the
      direction of Burma in retaliation after dawn. 

      Most of the more than 100,000 refugees
      from Burma living in Thailand are
      sympathetic to the Karen National Union,
      which has been fighting for autonomy from
      Rangoon since 1948. 

      Two weeks ago nearly 9,000 refugees
      were left without shelter when the nearby
      Huay Kaloke camp was burned. 

      Refugees at Maw Ker told aid workers that
      they had heard commands in Burmese
      shouted by the attackers. 

      A spokesman for the Karen National Union
      said Burmese troops had comprised the
      majority of the invading force. 

      Although the DKBA is widely believed to be
      under the control of the Burmese army,
      Burma's military government has denied
      either participating in or directing the
      attacks. 

      The Nation