Suu Kyi meets Burmese refugees in Thailand

AP © Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has visited

Burmese refugees at a camp in Thailand.

Democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in northern Thailand to visit Burmese refugees who have been in camps along the border for decades.
Thousands of Burmese ethnic minority people, many of them dressed in traditional costume, gathered at Mae La camp, 50 kilometres north of Mae Sot, to greet Suu Kyi on Saturday.
The congested camp of bamboo houses with thatched roofs holds 50,000 refugees of the Karen, Kachin, China and Muslim minorities.
Many have been in the camp for 20 years. Half the population was born in the camp, officials said.
Hopes are high that Suu Kyi, 66, will help them return safely to their homes in Burma.
"We want to go back to Burma, but not now," said Ma Bee, 47, a Karen refugee who has lived in Mae La since 1995.
About 145,000 refugees live in border camps near Mae Sot, Tak province, 500km north of Bangkok.
Most come from the Karen State, where the Burmese army has been fighting the Karen National Union for two decades.
The government of President Thein Sein that took office in March 2011 has signed a tentative ceasefire with the Karen, but scepticism runs high.
"Full participation for refugees in all planning for return," read one placard in Mae La.
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel laureate who spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest, became a member of parliament last month after winning an April 1 by-election, paving the way for her to travel abroad for the first time since 1988.
Suu Kyi arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia. She also visited Burmese migrants working in the Thai fisheries industry.
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