Shans move out

Human Rights

Shans move out

Facing pressure both from the inside by the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army and from the outside by the Thai Army, the besieged Shan State Army had decided to relocate the 200 refugees under its protection away from the Thai-Burma borderline, according to sources close to the SSA:

"The Thais had actually made allowance for the refugees to move out by the end of June", the source who was recently at the SSA stronghold of Loi Taileng opposite Maehongson's Pang Mapha district, "but the joker was that no provisions from the outside would be going in until all had departed. To the SSA that has been expecting another attack by the Wa in mid-June, it had become not just a political question but a matter of life and death. So the decision was taken to complete the relocation by 7 June."

Thai authorities had relented to the extent that the school and its 250 orphans, both boys and girls, would be allowed to stay until the end of the academic year, another source added.

Thai-based Shan groups had on 28 May protested against the refoulement of Shan refugees into the war zone. There are 1,819 people under the custody of humanitarian agencies in Loi Taileng.

Altogether, there are 5,323 Shan refugee along the Thai-Burma border:

The people in Loi Taileng are relatives of Shan State Army soldiers, according to the Thai Army. Most of the refugees had denied it. "The only reason we took refuge with them is safety from persecutions from the Burma Army," said an elderly Shan.

The number of Shan refugees, who have been denied the status, arriving in Thailand since 1996 was estimated by Shan Human Rights Foundation at over 230,000 at the end of 2002.