Refugees not forgotten: Suu Kyi

Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s opposition leader, pledged to help remedy healthcare and education problems inside the huge camp, while urging sponsors of the facility to review their plans to cut its funding.

Withdrawing financial support would adversely affect the welfare and quality of life of the 49,000 Myanmar refugees, who come from various ethnic groups, she said.

Financial backers should reconsider their budget-cutting plans, as the European Union is moving to reduce financial support for the camp due to the euro-zone crisis.

During her visit to Mae La camp, which is in Mae Sot district about 10 km from the border with Myanmar, several thousand refugees continuously shouted “Mae Suu, Mae Suu” (Mother Suu).

Suu Kyi said after visiting the shelters that she will discuss ways of increasing quality of life and boosting support to refugees with organisations in her country involved with their welfare, as well as with international organisations.

 

Leader thanks Thailand

However, she said she had no plan to discuss the issue with the Myanmar government yet. She said that the plan to visit refugees was her initiative and that her party has put the issue on its agenda.

Suu Kyi thanked Thailand for helping the Myanmar refugees.

“The major concern of refugees is that they want to ensure that they would not be forgotten by their home country,” Suu Kyi said, adding that she hopes these refugees will someday have a chance to go home.

When asked about Myanmar President Thein Sein’s decision to cancel his plan to visit Thailand, Suu Kyi said she didn’t know the reason for the cancellation.

Suu Kyi’s visit to Bangkok to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia on Thursday and Friday was her first overseas trip in 24 years.

This month she will travel to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize she won while she was under house arrest in 1991.

Ali Mohamad, a Hmong refugee in the camp in Tha Song Yang district, said he was really glad that “Mae Suu” had come to visit. Suu Kyi is the first high-profile figure from Myanmar to visit the shelter, he said, adding that he hoped she would help bring him and his family home when the economy and political situation improved.

Tan Ay, a 17-year-old refugee, said she wanted to see Suu Kyi become her country’s leader some day, expecting she would bring development and fairness to all minority people. 

James Lum Dau, Bangkok-based deputy chief of foreign affairs for the Kachin Independence Organisation, said he hoped Suu Kyi would go on to fulfil the promise of her father – independence hero Aung San – to make Myanmar a union in which the country’s various ethnic groups live peacefully together.

He said the fighting between the Myanmar government and rebels continued in Kachin State, and he hoped Suu Kyi would help solve the problem by facilitating political dialogue and peace talks.