Burmese demand justice

Burmese demand justice

By Grant Coleman and Jane Armanasco

PERTH — Members of the Burmese community held a protest outside the Thai consulate here on February 3 to demanding that those responsible for killing 10 Burmese freedom fighters be brought to justice. Protesters were carrying placards with the slogans: "We are left with only children to fight for peace" and "We didn't start it — but we will be the last to end it".

The freedom fighters had taken hostages at the Ratchaburi Hospital near the Thai-Burma border. They were all killed when Thai commandos stormed the hospital.

A statement released by the Burmese community in Western Australia demanded that the Thai government immediately carry out forensic examinations and a judicial investigation into the siege at Ratchaburi Hospital.

A woman who had been held hostage in the hospital described the government operation as an over-reaction. She said that the hostage-takers were about to lay down their weapons and surrender when 400 commandos belonging to the Thai Special Forces stormed the hospital 22 hours after the siege began. "I thought they would just arrest the rebels because they had already surrendered", she said.

The guerillas believed that authorities had agreed to meet their demands and that a helicopter would pick them up at the hospital at about 10am. Both they and the hostages were taken by surprise by the commando raid.

On their surrender to Thai Special Forces, "the freedom fighters were taken into a room, forced to strip and kneel and each was shot in the head", another of the hostages revealed.

The freedom fighters were members of God's Army, an offshoot of the ethnic Karen guerrilla movement. The Karen have been fighting for equal rights for the past 50 years.

The freedom fighters had demanded the immediate cessation of shelling of the God's Army border camp, where Karen refugees have sought refuge, immediate medical treatment for wounded civilian refugees and Thailand's commitment not to allow Burmese troops to use Thai soil to launch their attacks on refugees or on God's Army positions.

From GLW issue 392