Thai army chief talks with Myanmar over refugees' return

Thai army chief talks with Myanmar over refugees' return

MAE SOT, Thailand (AFP): Thai army chief Chetta Thanajaro crossed into Myanmar yesterday to discuss border conditions and the return of 100,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees when fighting in the region stops.

Chettha met generals Maung Aye, head of Myanmar's military, and Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar junta, a day after a Thai foreign ministry statement called for the return of the refugees as soon as fighting stops.

Human rights organizations have accused the junta of widespread burning, looting and forced relocation of villages, forced labor, extrajudicial killings and rape in the course of ongoing military campaigns.

The latest offensive began last month, and appeared to give Yangon control of almost all the territory still held by the Karen National Union (KNU), the only major armed ethnic group not to sign a ceasefire agreement.

Clashes continue in the region, but if the regime's attempts succeed, it will be the first time the Myanmar capital has controlled all of the 2,500 kilometer border with Thailand.

A statement Tuesday from the Bangkok office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said its director for Asia and the Pacific, Francois Fouinat, met Khin Nyunt and other senior officials in Yangon last week to offer to monitor the area once peace returns.

The KNU, however, which has fought for greater autonomy in a democratic and federal system since Myanmar gained independence in 1948, said its fighters would continue to re-establish bases in the coming wet season.

A Thai military officer said here the generals had come to the meeting -- in Myawaddy, across the Moei River from the Mae Sot district of Thailand's western Tak province -- to observe the removal of earth put into the Moei River on the Thai side to reduce erosion.

Myanmar has demanded the removal of the earth as a condition for allowing the completion and opening of a bridge across the river to trade, saying it could alter the river's flow and the demarcation of the border in favor of Thailand.

But Thai Foreign Minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn said in Bangkok before his departure on a visit to Vietnam yesterday the army chiefs would discuss ethnic minorities and the refugees.

Thailand has denied accusations refugees have been forced back across the border into areas threatened by Myanmar troops -- the latest incident was reported Monday -- to remove them from areas where joint development projects are planned with the junta.