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THE NATION - November 12, 1999



THE NATION - November 12, 1999

Headlines

Employers targeted in crackdown

IMMIGRATION officials have set priorities for rounding up illegal foreign
workers and threatened to go after factory owners who knowingly employ them.

Pol Maj Gen Charnvudh Watcharapuk, deputy commissioner of the Immigration
Police, said the government has created three categories for illegal foreign
workers and worked out which group requires immediate action.

The most urgent group will be people suspected of being involved in
organising the trafficking of workers into Thailand, including those who
make false travel documents, Charnvudh said.

The second group will be those who cross back and forth frequently, causing
disturbances, such as committing robberies and petty crime.

The third will be those who come in illegally to take jobs in factories.
This group, Charnvudh said, is the largest and will take some time to deal
with.

''This should give factory owners some time to make necessary adjustments as
we go after the first two groups,'' Charnvudh added.

However, if there is no progress, authorities will move against the
employers of illegal aliens, he said.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, amid growing pressure from the private sector
to reverse the government policy on the deportation of the Burmese workers,
dismissed calls by factory owners to create a special economic zone in the
border area of Tak province.

A ''special economic zone'' would provide tax breaks for enterprises in the
zone. However, Chuan said the issue at hand is about immigration and foreign
workers, not whether factories need tax breaks.

Board of Investment deputy secretary general Pairote Sompouti yesterday said
the board would revoke the privileges to board-approved factories whose
owners knowingly employ illegal foreign workers.

The board's investment policy is to promote jobs for Thai nationals in
various regions and the board is against hiring illegal workers, he said.

Concerning an ongoing rumour that the military government of Rangoon had
threatened to revoke the nationality of all Burmese workers who do not
return by Nov 14, foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan urged reporters not to
jump to any conclusions as the story has yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, more than 300 Burmese workers were massing in front of a garment
factory behind Mae Sot municipality, demanding the owner pay them their
salaries for the past month.

The workers said the owner of Kings Body Concept garment factory cheated
them out of their last month's pay.

A representative from the factory met workers in the afternoon and agreed to
pay them. He did not give a definite time or date for the payment.

Similar demands were launched by about 1,000 workers at nearby TK Garment
factory, but there were no reports of an organised protest.

In a separate development, about 500 Thai nationals, residents of Mae Sot
district, led by a local politician, gathered in front of the Central Hotel
Mae Sot Hill urging the government not to give in to factory owners.

Two years ago, before the economic crisis emerged, Thailand hosted about a
million foreign workers. Since then some 300,000 have been repatriated as
the government tries to make jobs available for unemployed Thais.

On Nov 4, the government launched another massive crackdown to send home a
further 600,000. About 70,000 of the workers have jobs in Mae Sot, which
lies opposite eastern Burma's Karen State.

Immigration police in Trang have detained about 1,000 Burmese workers, while
in Phuket only 12 have been arrested on charges of illegal entry.

The latest crackdown comes amid strained relations between Thailand and the
Burmese government. Rangoon ordered its border shut after five armed
dissidents seized the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, taking 38 hostage at
gunpoint and preventing 51 more from leaving the compound.

Police were also concerned that criminal gangs had brought their disputes to
Thai soil and have attributed much of the recent violent crime to foreigners
who were most likely staying here illegally.

A case in point was the execution-style shooting of three Hong Kong men
connected to Macau gambling on the airport freeway. Police said the incident
was probably connected to Chinese triads, which are know to operate illegal
businesses in Thailand.

BY CHAIYAKORN BAI-NGERN

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THE NATION - November 12, 1999

Headlines

Protests out, Burmese students told

THE Interior Ministry yesterday insisted that Burmese students at the
Maneeloy holding centre in Ratchaburi province have no alternative but to
respect the camp's regulations and Thai laws.

The holding centre's permanent secretary Chanasak Yuvapurna said the place
is only meant to serve as a transit point before the students proceed to a
third country.

''They cannot launch any protest here. They have to abide by Thai laws and
regulations which bar them from political activities,'' he said.

The Burmese students at the holding centre protested on Wednesday after
officials put barbed wires fences to separate present residents from
newcomers, and deployed hundreds of security officials to guard the area.

They demanded that the fences and the security officials be removed.

The Thai government has set Nov 21 as the deadline for Burmese students to
report to the Interior Ministry and enter the camp.

Ratchaburi Governor Komet Daengthongdee said that more than 200 Burmese
students from Bangkok had already reported and entered the camp.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan fully supported the stricter
measures at the holding centre, saying that they have to abide by the Thai
laws and regulations.

Surin added that the Burmese students should enter the holding centre so
that they have the opportunity to pursue their studies in a third country.

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THE NATION - November 12, 1999

 Mailbag

Burmese students reject terrorist link in newspaper story

I WISH to clarify an issue of grave concern to me. On Wednesday (Nov 10),
The Nation printed an article by Juergen Dauth of Frankfurter Rundschau, in
which my name was used. I wish to state unconditionally that I have never
conducted an interview with this individual.

The words he quotes are not mine, and I am troubled and concerned that these
quotes have been attributed to me and the organisations with which I am
affiliated. Dauth's article insults my commitment to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and her abilities.

The group with which I work is not affiliated to terrorist organisations,
nor do we receive money from international terrorist organisations. We do
not have plans to organise terrorist acts.

Moe Thee Zun

vice-chairman

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THE NATION - November 12, 1999

 Mailbag

All Burma Students' Democratic Front

There are a number of conceptual as well as factual errors contained within
this article which are of concern and which illustrate the lack of research
carried out by this journalist.

Anyone at all familiar with the Burmese student groups based along the
border will be well aware that the tone of this article is actually opposite
the reality of the pro-democracy movement.

To begin with, the main body of Burmese students, the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front (not the Democratic Front of Burmese Students as labelled
in the article) is publicly committed to focusing on political tasks and
remains committed to non-violence. It has not ''shattered into myriad
factions'' as reported. While it is true that there was previously a split
in the group, the group has been reunited since 1996. As an observer of the
Burmese movement for democracy, I have never heard Moe Thee Zun, vice
chairman of ABSDF, make quotes in the tone described in the article.

Inside Burma, members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) resign
their membership because of intimidation and pressure from the military
regime. They are not ''deserting'' as reported -- rather they are being
forced to resign under threats of arrest, detention, loss of livelihood and
loss of educational opportunities for their children. A copy of the standard
letter they are forced to sign can be found on the World Wide Web.

God's Army (not God's Warriors as labelled in the article) is not a splinter
group of the student movement. Members of the group have never been
affiliated with the students. This army emerged at the time of the Slorc
offensive in their area in the beginning of 1997. An article in The Sunday
Nation of May 17, 1998, describes this group. Gen Bo Mya is not the head of
this group -- he is the chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU). God's
Army is said to be headed up by a set of young twin boys.

Finally, the military regime in Burma is no longer known as Slorc -- the
change of name occurred in November 1997. They now call themselves the State
Peace and Development Council.

Could someone please give this German journalist access to the World Wide
Web so that he can check his facts.

A Burma observer

BANGKOK

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THE NATION - November 12, 1999

 Mailbag

Violence is the one choice left for Shans

THE indigenous people of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) have suffered and lost
their basic human rights because of tyrannical Burmese dictators. And as the
economy of the state has declined, the life of the people has become
miserable and poverty stricken. They try their best to survive, with many
going to neighbouring countries, where they have become mere slaves, cheated
and bullied, but they accept it to be better than living in their native
land.

But now the Thai government's policy to repatriate illegal immigrants, which
is aimed at protecting the labour rights of their own people, is a big blow
to them. On landing on their native soil, they are detained, robbed, raped
and abused by Burmese soldiers. Of those who were deported through Tak, 15
were raped by the Burmese soldiers and two others drowned in an attempt to
swim back to Thai soil.

The condition of the returned ethnic is more serious than for the Burmese.
On Nov 7, 30 ethnic Shans were detained by Burmese authorities on entering
Ban Na Mon Long, opposite Mae Hong Son. Some were tortured and interrogated
after being accused of belonging to the anti-Rangoon Shan State Army. Some
were killed during the interrogation and the rest are still working like
animals for the Burmese soldiers. They face nine years in jail for illegal
migration.

There is nowhere to go, nothing to eat. Who will take care of us? Who will
protect us? We have been suffered for decades, should we have to suffer any
more? So we have to find a way out. But, which way? Nobody likes violence,
nobody likes to shed blood.

We are not the aggressors, but for us it means survival. We should
understand the feelings of the freedom fighters who take up arms upon
impulse. So, when we ask, ''where do these freedom fighters come from?'',
the answer will be ''from the land where men have no pity and justice''.

For us, what is our choice? There is only one left, that is ''to take up
arms and drive the tyrants from our homeland''.

Kham Serng

Shan State

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