ANOTHER SHAN REFUGEE SETTLEMENT CAUGHT IN NO-MAN'S LAND

C O N F I D E N T I A L CHIANG MAI 000101

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/6/2017
TAGS: PREF PHUM PINS PGOV TH BM
SUBJECT: ANOTHER SHAN REFUGEE SETTLEMENT CAUGHT IN NO-MAN'S LAND

REF: A. 06 CHIANG MAI 59, B. 05 CHIANG MAI 245 AND PREVIOUS

CLASSIFIED BY: John Spykerman, Con/Pol Officer, Consulate
General Chiang Mai, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)





1. (U) Human rights organizations have protested that a Royal
Thai Army unit last month forced villagers fleeing unrest in
Shan State to move from a settlement within sight of the Thai
border to a location further inside Burma. Several Shan NGOs
based in northern Thailand wrote to Thai Prime Minister Surayud
Chulanont that this move puts the villagers at greater risk of
violence from fighting among the Shan State Army-South and Burma
Army, and the latter's ceasefire allies, the United Wa State
Army (UWSA).


2. (C) Amid several versions of the events circulating in the
media and among Shan watchers, RTG officials have countered that
the temporary settlement of almost 100 villagers just 200 meters
from the Thai border -- in an area that still has many pockets
of disputed border demarcations -- could have eventually spilled
over into Thailand and lead the Burmese junta to make claims on
Thai territory. An RTA source also worried that the original
location would have placed villagers in the way of RTG drug
interdiction efforts against the UWSA. The RTG said it worked
with villagers to re-locate them to a larger settlement of
displaced persons a few hundred meters further inside Burma.
Shan activists say the move was done by force, with RTA troops
arriving at the end of May to dismantle shelters, and puts the
villagers in a less-desirable position more vulnerable to
fighting and landslides.


3. (C) The dispute mirrors other recent problems faced by ethnic
Shan fleeing violence in Burma (reftels). Unlike ethnic Karen or
Karenni victims of Burma's instability, Shan are denied refugee
status in Thailand. The RTG has long sought to discourage Shan
-- close ethnic cousins of the Thai and thus easily able to
blend into Thai society and find work as illegal laborers --
from crossing into Thailand, even though hundreds do every week.
Thai officials have blocked organizations such as the United
Nations High Commission on Refugees from engaging Shan, leaving
thousands to live in de facto statelesness while Shan NGOs work
quietly with other relief organizations to provide assistance on
both sides of the border.


4. (C) The RTG's Shan anxiety has led to similar attempts to
re-locate other settlements. In most instances, the RTG has
eventually relented or reached compromises with villagers after
heavy lobbying from Shan activists. Shan Women's Action Network
leaders told PolOff they view last month's RTA move inside Burma
to dictate the location of Shan villages as part of an increased
frustration by the RTG and its military leaders over illegal
immigration. RTG contacts, for their part, say they see the Shan
NGOs' uproar as a continuation of a larger campaign to draw
attention to the legal limbo and humanitarian predicament faced
by hundreds of thousands of Shan refugees and migrant workers in
Thailand.

CAMP