600 Karen Refugees Return to Burma

By LAWI WENG
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18172

About 600 Karen refugees return from Thailand to Burma, despite what has been described as the “very unstable” situation there.

The Karen Information Center (KIC), based on the Thai-Burmese border, said the refugees had returned voluntarily but after pressure by Thai authorities.
KIC editor Nang Paw Gay said: “The people lost hope after the Thai authorities told them many times to return to Burma. They decided that whatever happens to them they would go back home.”

Sally Thompson, the deputy director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), said the situation in eastern Burma “remains very unstable. For any of these people returning, it is going to be difficult for them.”

Many human rights groups, including the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, have appealed to the Thai government not to repatriate the refugees in areas where is the risk of landmines, forced labor and army recruitment.

Kitty McKinsey, regional spokeswoman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told The Irrawaddy that there is a procedure in place for refugees who choose to return to Burma. The Thai military noted their names and handed the list to the UNHCR, which then interviewed them.

McKinsey said the UNHCR had interviewed more than 700 people over the past few weeks and they said that they wanted to go home.

“What they are telling us is they wanted to go back because they wanted to prepare their field for planting before the rains,” she said.

“From the point of view of the UNHCR, they shouldn't be forced to return. All return to Myanmar [Burma] should be on a purely voluntary basis.”

About 3,000 Karen refugees in the Tha Song Yang District of Tak Province fled to Thailand in June 2009 following clashes between Karen soldiers and a joint force of Burmese government troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

The Thai military planned to deport all 3,000 to Burma in February, but then shelved the plan after pleas by human rights groups and the international community. Nevertheless, about 300 Karen refugees have returned since February.

Meanwhile, a Karen refugee child was admitted to hospital in the Thai border town of Mae Sot on Wednesday with injuries sustained after reportedly handling an unexploded mortar shell in the landmine-sown border area of eastern Burma. A second Karen child reportedly died in the explosion.