Kasit offers EU help in retraining migrants
BRUSSELS : Burmese migrants hoping to return to their homeland after elections this year should be given retraining first, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya says.
The government will offer the European Union help in providing training to Burmese migrants in Thailand, Mr Kasit said here yesterday at the EU headquarters.
Mr Kasit presented his proposal to the European commissioner on international cooperation, humanitarian aid & crisis response, Kristalina Georgieva, during an official visit to Belgium, which ended yesterday.
Three Burmese groups which need help are Burmese intellectuals, workers and refugees living along the Thai-Burmese border, Mr Kasit said.
“As the Burmese government is holding elections later this year, we should help those who live outside their country to return home and resume their lives in Burma,” he said.
The EU agreed with the Thai proposal.
Mr Kasit will raise the issue in talks with EU ambassadors in Bangkok and the National Security Council on his return home.
Both the EU and Thailand see the election in Burma as a first step towards democracy, but still want the Burmese government to release all political prisoners to make the election transparent. “The success of the Burmese election could create more stability in Burma and Asean,” Mr Kasit said.
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The United Nations said Myanmar denied a visa to investigator for human rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, whose report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday cited growing repression following September’s crushing of monk-led protests.
“If you believe in gnomes, trolls and elves, you can believe in this democratic process in Myanmar,” Pinheiro told a Friday news briefing at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva.
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On the thousands of ethnic Hmong who were deported to Laos from Thailand last year, Mr Kasit told Ms Georgieva EU representatives in Laos could talk to the Lao government directly if the Hmong wanted to settle in a third country.
“As far as I know, the Lao Hmong who returned to their country are happy to stay in Laos,” he said.
Mr Kasit also told Ms Georgieva about Thailand’s recent political troubles, including the red shirt protests. He said they were engineered mainly by a combination of “Marxist-Leninist” elements, disaffected military men and “slum dwellers”, all funded and inspired by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who is now in self-exile.
The EU commissioners are concerned about the prospect of reconciliation in Thailand, sources said.
Mr Kasit also told the commissioner: “The time for compromise has passed, and Thaksin can return only if he is prepared to face justice.”
Thailand and the EU were unable in their talks yesterday to make progress on the the sensitive Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA), a source said.
“I believe that a rapid conclusion of the PCA with Thailand would be in our mutual interest,” Ms Georgieva said.
http://www2.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/39237/kasit-offers-eu-help-in-retraining-migrants
