KNU asks Thailand to ensure refugees safety
Posted on February 4, 2010
Filed Under Burma news, Karen news | Leave a Comment
across the border into Karen State
The Karen National Union (KNU) is calling on the Thailand to suspend plans to push around 3,000 Karen refugees back across the border into Burma.
In an open letter to the Thai Government, the KNU calls for the UN High Commission for Refugees to investigate the willingness of the refugees to return.
It was revealed this week, that Thai Authorities had told the refugees they would begin repatriation on February 5, and that everyone needed to have returned by February 15 (see: Karen refugees face mid-February deadline).
The refugees arrived in June following clashes between the KNU and a joint force of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and Burmese Army troops. While some were escaping the fighting, many others were escaping forced conscription as porters by the DKBA.
During and after the clashes, both sides are said to have planted land mines in the area. And the KNU says Thailand should ensure, “concrete measures have been meted out
and implemented to ensure the refugees return to their homeland safely and with dignity as required by
international standards.”
They quote a statement from the Karen Women’s Organization, as saying the area to which the refugees are meant to return is not safe. They note, “In recent months, five refugees from the area have been either
injured or killed by landmines when slipping back into Burma to look after livestock they left behind.”
They said, “As armed conflicts still linger on in Burma, we cannot rest assured the refugees can be safely resettled in their
homeland in the near future.”
“The numerous landmines planted along the border area shall certainly and substantially compromise the
refugee’s safety.”
“And forcing refugees back to an area where they might be subjected to fatal persecution
constitutes an expulsion and is a breach of internally accepted non-refoulement principle.”
They are calling for concerned civil society organizations,
media, NGOs and organizations working on Burma issues, to be consulted regularly to ensure transparency and accountability.
They add, “We believe that fully participatory process will take us to mutually agreeable solutions
based on the respect of dignity and a right to life of all human beings.”
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