– Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre must demand that the Thai authorities stop their plans to force the refugees back to a very uncertain fate at the risk of their lives,” stated Inger Lise Husøy, as quoted in a press release by the Norwegian Burma Committee (in Norwegian).

The refugees took refuge in Thailand in June 2009 after a military offensive in Karen State in eastern Burma. Many have had to leave their homes several times already. Over the past 18 months about 120 000 civilians in eastern Burma have been forced to flee the military.

Atrocities
The area they will be forced to go back to is covered with land mines and is under the control of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

DKBA is allied with the Burmese regime, which is notorious for terrible atrocities against civilians. It includes forced labor, forced relocation, executions, torture and mutilation, and forced recruitment into the military, including child soldiers.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement, has recently issued a report on Burma Army attacks, murders, displacement and forced labor against villagers and the displaced, with shocking photos from different places in Karen.

Refugees can face the same faith upon their return to Burma, if expelled by Thailand.

“Here are photos (right) from one of the areas (Kweh Der, Ler Doh) attacked last week. They show villagers in hiding, burned homes, burning paddy rice, families rebuilding, and the bodies of the two men killed by the Burma Army, Saw Ee Moo and Saw Mya Kaw Htoo,” – reported a Relief Team Leader, Free Burma Rangers, from Western Karen State, Burma.

Find more photos here.

Three families forced back
Norwegian Helsinki Committee is encouraging everybody to sign the letter of Burma Campaign UK to Thai authorities and ask them to stop their plans to force the refugees back to Burma.

According to the Campaign’s website, on 5 February Thailand started then halted the deportation of ethnic Karen refugees to a landmine-infested camp in Burma.

Three families, nine women and four children, including a nine month old baby, were forced back into Burma before the deportations were halted. The halt coincided with the arrival of foreign diplomats and NGOs.

“It is disgraceful that Thailand has forced these families back to Burma,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator from Burma Campaign UK, and herself a Karen refugee from Burma. “Thailand will not stop the deportations because it is the right thing to do, only because they are shamed into stopping them. It is therefore vital the international community keep pressure on the Thais to stop this abuse of the human rights of refugees. The government of Thailand will be responsible for any death or injury to the refugees they force to go back.”