Karen refugees say trapped in Myanm

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Subject: Karen refugees say trapped in Myanmar jungle camp

Karen refugees say trapped in Myanmar jungle camp
02:46 a.m. Feb 02, 1999 Eastern
By Sutin Wannabovorn

MAELA PUTHA, Myanmar, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Ethnic Karen civilians who fled
military repression in Myanmar say they have been living in fear and hunger
at this jungle camp after Yangon persuaded Thailand to block their food and
medical supplies.

Camp leaders say 4,387 civilians of eastern Myanmar's largest ethnic
minority, mostly women and children from 636 families, fled their home
villages late last year to this makeshift riverside camp opposite Thailand.

They shelter under whatever protection they can find -- bushes, plastic
sheets and simple bamboo huts.

``The food and medical supplies from NGOs stopped 10 days ago and we are too
scared to go back and retrieve rice from our villages,'' camp leader Saw Di
Di told Reuters.

``Myanmar fears the supplies will go into the hands of KNU guerrillas and
they persuaded Thailand to stop supplies to us,'' he said, referring to the
Karen National Union, one of the last ethnic groups continuing to wage
guerrilla war against Yangon's military government.

Until last month, the refugees received food and medicine from the Karen
Refugee Committee (KRC), the Burma Border Consortium and other
non-governmental organisations based in Thailand northern Tak province.

But the last supply, which was due on January 21, did not arrive after
Myanmar sent a letter of protest to Thai army.

The refugees at Maela Putha first fled the Myanmar army early last year to
live just inside Thailand. They returned to their villages in September only
to flee again two months ago.

Stopped from entering Thailand, they made camp on the Myanmar side of the
Moei River, which borders the two countries.

A senior Thai army officer told Reuters the Karens had returned voluntarily
to the Myanmar side.

``We told them that if they wanted to live in Thailand they would have to
enter a camp and that we could not allow them to live in disorder in the
jungle any more,'' said Colonel Chayudhi Boonpan, commander of the local
military taskforce.

The Karens said they did not want to enter a Thai camp because they arrived
at the border with all their livestock and still needed to be able to return

to their home villages to tend rice and other crops if their district became
safe again.

They said Myanmar troops were currently stationed only about two hours walk
from their camp and they dared not go deeper into the country to harvest
their crops.

``We are too scared to go to get our rice from the villages,'' Di Di said.
``If supplies don't come from the NGOs, people will starve to death.''

The KRC said it was negotiating with the Thai army on the border for a
resumption of food supplies to the refugee group.

``The Thai army has rules and regulations to abide by, but I hope that for
the sake of humanitarianism, the food supplies will resume soon,'' said KRC
chairwoman Mary On.

More than 100,000 Karen refugees live in camps in Thailand after fleeing a
decades-long war in their homeland between the Myanmar army and the KNU,
which is seeking greater autonomy.

On Monday, Chayudhi said the Thai military was poised to deport more than
800 other Karens who had entered Thai camps.

He said the 800 were ``economic migrants'' who sneaked into Huaykalok
refugee camp, in northern Tak province, last month and had not come to
escape fighting.