The Nation - Relocation of 8,000 Ka

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Subject: The Nation - Relocation of 8,000 Karen refugees begins

The Nation - Aug 24, 1999.
Headlines
Relocation of 8,000 Karen refugees begins

TAK -- The Army and international aid workers started the relocation
yesterday of 8,000 ethnic Karen refugees from a camp near the border town of
Mae Sot to a new site that is supposed to be less vulnerable to cross-border
attacks.

About 300 Karen from 80 households from the Huay Kalok refugee camp were put
on Army trucks yesterday and moved to Tak province's Oumpium village.

The new site is about 12 kilometres from the Thai-Burmese border. Oumpium
village will also be a new home to other Burmese refugees who will be moved
from two other camps, Maw Ker and Nhunpho, in the coming months, said Col
Chayudh Boonbarn, a local commander who supervised yesterday's operation.
About 90,000 Burmese refugees will live in Oumpium once the move is
complete, he said.

According to Chayudh, it will take about 40 days to relocate the 8,000
refugees from the Huay Kalok camp. He did not provide a time-frame for
moving the two other camps.

About 200 refugees had declined to go along with the move and instead
returned to Burma, he added.

The relocation came about 18 months after a pro-Rangoon breakaway Karen
faction torched the Huay Kalok camp. It was the second time that the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, allegedly with the help of Burmese soldiers,
burnt down the camp.

Thailand came under international criticism because of its failure to
provide adequate protection to the refugees, who were staying just walking
distance from Burma.

There are over 100,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, who have
escaped fighting and mass relocation in Burma and fled to Thailand where
they have been sheltered in border camps.

Many are loyal to the Karen National Union (KNU), the largest major ethnic
army that has not signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military
government. The KNU has been fighting the Burmese government for the past
five decades since the country gained independence from Britain.

Efforts to locate a new home for the refugees were delayed because of the
difficulty in finding a site that is acceptable to all the government
agencies involved.

The Nation