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