MP to raise question of Burmese refugees on Thailand border

22 November 2010
By GAYNOR ALLEN
A SCOTTISH MP is raising the plight of Burmese refugees at Westminster, amid fears for their safety and reports of military rape on the sensitive border area with Thailand.
Fiona O'Donnell, MP for East Lothian, is concerned about the human rights of the tens of thousands of people who flooded into the Burmese enclave of Mae Sot, Thailand, after violence broke out in the wake of the elections.

This weekend, the MP met Say Hei, a headteacher from Mae Sot, who is in Scotland on a cultural and educational exchange visit, to hear first-hand accounts about the lives of Burmese refugees in Thailand - and atrocities committed by the military regime in Burma. She hopes to ask a question in the House of Commons about the situation this week.

"Despite the conciliatory words from Aung San Suu Kyi following her release from house arrest, the potential for conflict in Burma never seems far away," said Ms O'Donnell.

"I have heard that the Burmese people living in camps along the border are the only refugees who don't want to return home. That is an indication of the scale of the problem and the abuses of human rights in Burma."

Edinburgh-born Lisa Houston who works in Mae Sot as an administrative assistant for CDC school and the Mae Tao clinic, which coordinated aid relief, has been in touch with Say Hei while she has been on the exchange visit with Campie Primary School in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Ms Houston said: "The situation here is very bad. People fled from their homes in Burma in fear of their lives and although the fighting has stopped and the Thai authorities are telling people to go back, the people are frightened as they believe the fighting will begin again.

"Many people are going into hiding on the Thai side of the river because they are too terrified to return. There are pregnant women and women with young babies who are hiding along the river. We have heard stories of military rape. We are trying to get food to everyone, but this is difficult. Many Burmese people here are taking strangers into their own homes to help."

Ms O'Donnell met Say Hei before she flew home this weekend. The MP said: "I will do every-thing I can to get this raised in the House of Commons. We must do all we can to help these people."

Labour MP Malcolm Wicks has already questioned Department For International Development Minister Alan Duncan on humanitarian aid on the Thai/Burma border and there was a short discussion on Burma in the House of Lords.

Over the last two weeks, an estimated 30,000 have crossed the border into Mae Sot.
About 200,000 Burmese live in Mae Sot, and the community has grown since the uprising of 1988 forced the first to flee Burma into temporary camps, some of which have now become permanent
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