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Myanmar ready to shoot workers depo



Subject: Re: Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand

If this is what they threaten to do, isnt it time, that if the refugees
cannot get safety and jobs or welfare support, for themselves and their
children and families, isnt it time to get arms, to defend themselves.
What does it take to destroy a people? Remember what happened to the
Jews in World War II in Europe. And today, French Prime Minister Jospin
speaks of how France has a duty to recognize its responsibility for the
deportation of jews from FRance, by French officials to Nazi death
camps, and certain death. Of course, the do not condemn the State for
his, as pretending they didnt know the Jews would be for certain
killed... But they did just put Papon in prison, after over fifty years
of privileged liberty and a Legion d'Honneur. 

Nobody helped the Jews. So now who is going to help the Burmese
Refugees. And look at Israel today. They said, never again. Isn't it
time, now. Don't extreme circumstances require extreme solutions? 

Johnny and the Vigorous Student Warriors fired shots in the air. All
Burmese refugees able to equip and arm themselves, who are not being
forced back into Burma should well consider going underground and
joining the armed resistance movement.  Instead of being pushed into the
water to drown, or into the jungle to be hunted, starved out, burned
out, and killed.  

What is the logic of the world? Has it helped you. A few lucky people in
exile, in third countries, with over 100 000 in camps?

ds 


> Myanmar ready to shoot workers deported from Thailand
> 
> Varunee Torsricharoen
> 
> Kyodo, Bangkok, 13 November 1999. authorities in Myanmar have
> threatened  to shoot Myanmar workers being deported to Myanmar
> from Thailand, reports reaching Bangkok on Saturday say.
> 
> The threats are exacerbating an already intractable problem that has
> also left many deported Myanmar workers starving in the jungles along
> the Thai-Myanmar border as they try to avoid the authorities in
> their homeland as well as those in Thailand.
> 
> According to sources along the border, Myanmar is refusing to
> recognize the illegal immigrants being sent home from Thailand
> as citizens, has closed many border crossing points, and has threatened
> in other cases to throw migrants into jail for up to nine years for entering
> Myanmar 'illegally.'
> 
> Thailand is trying to repatriate as many as one million people from
> Myanmar,  Laos, Cambodia and some other countries who had been
> working illegally in  Thailand.
> 
> For years, the Thai government turned a blind eye as hundreds of
> thousands  of people fled repressive governments and economic
> hardship at home,  particularly in Myanmar, to seek freedom and
> work in Thailand.
> 
> But with the economic meltdown that began in July 1997 having
> thrown at  least 1.4 million Thais out of work, the government
> decided to deport all  illegal workers who failed to get work permits
> by Nov. 3.
> 
> The process has, however, turned exceedingly ugly.
> 
> Already several hundred illegal workers from Myanmar, mostly members
> of the Shan ethnic minority, have sneaked back into Thailand in Mae Hong Son
> Province after being deported by Thai authorities and then detained in their
> homeland as 'stateless' immigrants there.
> 
> Now, according to Sai Myint, a 27-year-old Shan, he and some 40 other Shan
> workers were jailed by the Myanmar authorities soon after they were trucked
> into Myanmar Nov. 9.
> 
> 'They claimed we were illegal immigrants despite the fact that
> we are Myanmarese,  so we waited until they were inattentive
> and we stole away from the jail,' he said.
> 
> In a report from the province in Thailand's far north, Sai Myint
> was quoted as saying he and the others are now hiding in the
> jungle because they fear arrest in Thailand as well as at home.
> 
> 'We are hiding, but we are also starving, especially the children,'
> he said, adding at least one member of his group has already died
> after the initial 3-kilometer walk into Myanmar.
> 
> And the situation is unlikely to improve soon.
> 
> Myanmar shut border points after five exiled students took over
> the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in early October and held
> hostages there for 25 hours. The ruling junta in Yangon took the action
> because they felt Thailand was too lenient with the student exiles.
> 
> Adding to the overall problem, as of the Nov. 3 deadline for obtaining
> work permits, only about 106,000 of the estimated one million unskilled w
> orkers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in Thailand were given
> permission to remain and take jobs. The rest are to be repatriated.
> 
> Even those 'lucky' enough to get work permits can take jobs only in
> one of 37 provinces and must work in only 18 business sectors,
> including agriculture, fisheries, construction and mining.
> 
> And even those work permits will expire Aug. 5 next year.
> 
> Illegal workers are widely sought by Thai businesses seeking
> to exploit their low wage rates, but the many Thais who are now
> unemployed claim the migrants take jobs away from them and that their
> willingness to work for extremely low wages drives down wages for Thai
> workers as well.
> 
> Thailand's minimum wage for unskilled labor ranges from 130 to 162 baht
> daily (about 3.5 to 4.3 dollars), but illegal workers will work for only
> one-third that amount.
> 
> Thai labor law requires all workers, illegal or not, to be paid minimum
> wage, but the threat of deportation meant many illegal workers could
> be easily intimidated into accepting wages far below the minimum.
> Internet ProLink PC User