Australian Opposition ‘Deeply Concerned’ about Burma Policy – The Irrawaddy
February 11th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17786
Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone, Australia’s shadow foreign minister Julie Bishop said that she is “deeply concerned” about Australia’s participation alongside the Burmese regime in a multilateral naval exercise hosted by India. The naval exercise was undertaken just as Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced a 40 percent increase in Australian humanitarian assistance to Burma.
“The Australian government has not explained this at all,” she said, adding that Australia “should not be sending mixed messages to the Burma’s military government.” Julie Bishop is MP for Curtin in Western Australia and deputy leader of the opposition Liberal Party. (more…)
Safe for Refugees to Return: Thai Gov’t – The Irrawaddy
February 10th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17779
At a forum involving various Thai government ministries and agencies, along with representatives of the military and international organizations, a Thai Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesperson said that Karen refugees at Tha Song Yang camp have expressed a willingness to return to Burma.
Karens move out from their refugee camp in Tha Son Yang district, Tak province near the Thai-Burmese border on February 5. Thailand has suspended the forced repatriation of ethnic Karen refugees, heeding calls from US lawmakers and rights groups. (Photo: Reuters)
Today’s statements come despite the Thai authorities suspending plans to deport all the refugees, once numbering over 4500, back to Burma by February 15. However, no definitive answer was given on whether the group of refugees would stay in Thailand or not.
MOFA spokesperson Rachanan Thananand said that the area from which the refugees fled in June 2006 is clear of landmines, according to information received from the Burmese side of the border.
He said that there was no indication that the fighting between the junta-aligned Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) was going to resume anytime soon. His statements were seconded by Thai military representative Col. Phadoong Yingpibool, who said, “We speak the truth about recent events. We would never force people to go back.”
Col Padoong said that “although I wish I could give you more information about these issues, I have been busy with other matters recently.”
However, Guiseppe de Vicentis, the deputy regional representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that there is ample evidence that there are landmines on the Burmese side.
He said that although the refugees would ultimately like to go home, they cannot do so if the situation in Burma “has not normalized,” concluding that the conditions for safe return have not yet materialized.
The Burmese regime has given ethnic militias until the end of February to comply with demands that they stand down and operate as a border guard force for the state security apparatus. The KNLA has not consented to this order, giving rise to fears that renewed fighting looms in Burma’s borderlands.
Going into more detail, a spokeswoman for the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) said that at least nine people have been injured or killed by landmines in the region since the refugees fled in June 2009. (more…)
Former Foreign Minister reviews Thai-Burmese relations – The Irrawaddy
February 10th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17775&Submit=Submit
Former Thai foreign minister Dr Surakiart Sathirathai said that Thailand’s relations with Burma have deteriorated since the 2006 military coup and the current government has been “putting more pressure on the Government of Myanmar [Burma],” with the number of high-level meetings much reduced from the pre-coup era.
Speaking at a forum on Thai foreign policy at Chulalongkorn University, Surakiart said that during the Thai Rak Thai administration, the government “worked to bring Myanmar in from the cold” with Thai diplomacy a key factor in cajoling the junta into a 2003 announcement that they would draft a new constitution as part of their so-called seven-steps roadmap to democracy.
However, the new Constitution, which maintains military rule in Burma, was adopted in controversial and tragic circumstances in the days after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma’s Irrawaddy delta in 2008. (more…)
International Lawyers Question Thailand’s Security Law – The Irrawaddy
February 8th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17761
A weak rule of law is contributing to political division and violence in Thailand, according to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
A report issued by the ICJ at a Bangkok seminar said the Thai government needs to find a balance between protecting citizens and guaranteeing security on the one hand, and maintaining the rule of law under international human rights obligations on the other.
The International Commission of Jurists is a non-governmental organization of lawyers from around the world which works “to ensure that international human rights law is actually implemented” at national levels,
At the Bangkok seminar, held at Chulalongkorn University, a panel discussed Thailand’s Internal Security Act (ISA). One panelist, Roger Normand, the ICJ’s Asia-Pacific director, acknowledged that the ISA is an improvement on original drafts, and is less-restrictive than the Emergency Decree that remains in force in the Muslim-majority south.
But a weak rule of law contributes to political divides and violence in Thailand, according to the ICJ, which said it was concerned at the ISA’s “failure to clearly define the concept of a threat to national security.” (more…)
Karen Refugees Warned Not To Talk – The Irrawaddy
February 7th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17760
The Thai military on Saturday warned Karen refugees at Tha Song Yang not to speak to the media or the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR––or risk arrest and deportation.
According to Blooming Night Zan, a spokesperson for the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), army personnel entered camps where the Karen refugees are staying on Saturday afternoon. She told The Irrawaddy that army personnel entered the camps in plain clothes to evade the attention of international representatives and media.
This comes after an overnight suspension of plans to begin the deportation of all remaining Karen refugees in the area, who fled a June 2009 military offensive in northeastern Karen State by the Burmese army and its proxy-militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), against the rebel Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). (more…)
Thailand remains split as verdict looms on ex-PMs assets – RTÉ World Report
February 7th, 2010
http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0207/worldreport.html
Thailand is divided between Redshirt supports of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecoms billionaire who briefly owned Manchester City, and Yellowshirts, who claim that Thaksin is a threat to country’s revered monarchy.
This has all fed into a new round of military coups rumours. These are nothing new to Thailand, which has endured 18, some unsuccessful since absolute monarchy was ended in 1932.
Thaksin was deposed by the last coup, in 2006, and now is plotting a return to Thailand from exile. The current government is largely backed by the army, and opposes Thaksin. But is unstable, as it depends on a number of former Thaksin supporters for its narrow majority.
(more…)
Thai Govt Responds to Karen Landmine Fears – The Irrawaddy
February 5th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17752
BANGKOK—Acting Thai government spokesperson Dr. Panitan Wattanayagorn has told The Irrawaddy that the Thai authorities have been assured by their Burmese counterparts that the areas to which 3,000 Karen refugees are to be repatriated are clear of landmines.
Earlier, while addressing a forum on the Thai Internal Security Act at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Dr. Panitan said that the Thai government was assured of the sincerity of the Burmese junta, saying, “We do not look down on our neighbors as others may do. We have no reason to accuse them of anything wrong.”
However, at a press conference held at the National Human Rights Commission in the Thai government complex, Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) spokesperson Blooming Night Zan refuted the claims, saying that there is ample evidence that the area to which the refugees will be repatriated is mined. She pointed to injuries sustained by some of the refugees who crossed the border to tend to livestock left behind, including a pregnant woman who had her foot blown apart. (more…)
Forced Repatriation of Karen Refugees to Start – The Irrawaddy
February 4th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17743&Submit=Submit
Thai authorities will start deporting 3,000 Karen refugees living in Tha Song Yang camp back to Burma on Friday.
Karen refugees walk along a road on the Thai-Burmese border around 100 km north of Mae Sot in June 2009. (Photo: Getty Images)
Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) spokesperson Blooming Night Zan said that 35 families comprised of 165 people will be the first to be repatriated, while speaking at a press conference in Bangkok on Thursday.
This is despite pleas from the refugees and from more than 70 Thai and Thai-based Burmese NGOs that the group be allowed to stay in Thailand.
The refugees fled fighting in Burma between the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Karen National Union (KNU) in June 2009, and now fear for their safety if they return to their homes in a heavily mined area still occupied by the DKBA. The DKBA is an ally of the Burmese army.
All 3,000 refugees are to be sent back to Burma by Feb. 15, according to Surapong Kongchantuk, the vice-chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee on Ethnic Minorities, the Stateless, Migrant Workers and Displaced Persons of the Lawyers Council of Thailand.
Surapong said that repatriation should be suspended until landmines are cleared from the refugees’ region of origin, and until the refugees are willing to go back voluntarily.
UNHCR spokesperson Kitty McKinsey told The Irrawaddy: “We met the Thai authorities on Jan. 28 to discuss this issue, and we reached an agreement with them that no forced repatriation would take place.” She said that the UNCHR expects the Thai authorities to honour that agreement.
Blooming Night Zan said that this is the second time the Thai military has sought to send the refugees back to Burma, despite the fact that “landmines are a real danger and there is no indication that these are clear.” (more…)
Assessing Thai Coup Rumors – ISN/The Irrawaddy
February 3rd, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17733
NEWS ANALYSIS/BANGKOK—Coup-mongering is nothing new to Thailand, but speculation about an impending putsch was revved-up last week when a column of more than twenty armored vehicles was seen on the streets of Bangkok.
The column was on its way from Bang Sue railway station to their barracks in Pathum Thani. Apparently the vehicles are being readied for deployment to Darfur, a dusty and desolate terrain vastly different from anything in Thailand. Thai troops are serving as part of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in the vast western Sudan province.
It usually takes more than a few armored trucks to mount a coup, however, and, unexpected as the sight may have been, it takes more than a lone armored column on city streets to suggest that a coup is looming.
But with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in Europe at the Davos World Economic Forum, and an upcoming February 5-14 visit to the US by Army Chief Gen Anupong Paochinda, the coup gossip has gathered steam over recent days, suggesting that elements in the army could move in the absence of either man. (more…)
Burma Election Announcement in February? – The Irrawaddy
February 2nd, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17726&Submit=Submit
BANGKOK — According to sources in the Burmese military, junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe will announce the election timetable and law by the end of February.
The sources, who cannot be named due to the sensitivity of the information discussed, say that the army is recruiting candidates from outside its own ranks to compete in military-backed parties during the election, targeting businesspeople and community figures such as teachers in townships and villages across the country.
Prominent candidates are likely to include leaders of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a “civil society organization” supported by the junta. The USDA has an estimated membership of 20 million people, many of whom have been forcibly recruited. (more…)
