By Myat Soe*

PHUKET, Thailand - Naing Naing, a 20-year-old Burmese migrant worker,  is tired of hearing the government of Thailand's repeated promises of  catering to the needs of the disaster victims.

   He knows first hand that little has been done to alleviate the  sufferings of the Burmese migrant community who bore the brunt of the  disaster on Dec. 26, 2004. He has neither been given the bodies of  his mother and niece, who perished in the tsunami, nor any promised  compensation. The Thai government ceremonies marking the first  anniversary of the tsunami last December, therefore, to him was just  a "song and dance" routine.

   Naing Naing, whose family lived and worked on the beaches of Nam  Tong village in Phang Nga province, remembers the dark night vividly.  He remembers finding the body of his four year-old niece on a wet  concrete floor, cleaning it and leaving it there momentarily to  search for his mother, who also died in the tsunami. When he returned  empty-handed, his niece's body was gone, taken away by authorities.  To this day, he has not been able to get her or his mother's body.

   "I lost my mother and my niece. I saw the body of my niece only,  not my mother's. And I didn't have the chance to arrange a proper  funeral for them. I still have not received any help from  authorities," he says.

   Naing Naing's plight is an example of the suffering of Burmese  refugees, mostly migrant workers, who fled turmoil in their homeland  for a better future in one of Asia's booming economies. Before the  tsunami, many of the two million or so Burmese refugees toiled in the  tourism sector as well as in fishing, rubber and construction  industries. In Phang Nga province - home to Phuket beach, the famous  tourist attraction - 35,000 Burmese migrants were registered to be  working there. Overall numbers, including unregistered workers, could  have been as high as 70,000. When the tsunami struck, these migrants  were utterly devastated.

   Figures compiled by the Thai Action Group (TAG), an NGO working  to help Burmese tsunami victims, reveal that over 5,000 people died  or were lost in the tsunami in Thailand. At least 2,000-2,500 of them  are thought to be Burmese migrants in Thailand's six tsunami-hit  provinces. Most of the dead, however, were in Phang Nga province.

   If TAG's figure is correct, then the largest percentage of  tsunami victims in Thailand among any nationality may have come from  the Burmese community. And yet, many Burmese survivors feel  victimised and discriminated against in the post-tsunami relief and  reconstruction measures in Thailand.

   "According to Thai laws, the rights of migrant workers must be  equal to the rights of Thai workers but it's not so in reality," says  Ko Htoo Chit, a TAG official who is also a Burmese national. "The  Thai government doesn't respect the Burmese workers' rights if we  look from the human rights point of view."

   While that may not entirely be the case, the shoddy response by  official agencies, compounded by the continuing problems within the  Burmese community, has certainly created that impression. Many  Burmese also feel that they have been discriminated against in the  slow and cumbersome process of victim identification.

   As of late 2005, of the 1,442 bodies lying in makeshift morgues,  only 83 have been identified as Burmese through fingerprints and DNA  testing. And till January 2006, only four Burmese dead were able to  be given proper burial by their families after official  identification procedures were completed, says Aiko Kikkawa, project  officer of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The  rest of the Burmese bodies, including that of Naing Naing's niece,  are still lying in the temporary morgues in Bang Maruan near Takuapa  town and Mai Kon Camp near Phuket beach, awaiting identification and  burial.

   Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has remarked that all the  remaining bodies could be of Burmese victims. The seemingly innocuous  remarks only proves that Thai officials were late in identifying  Burmese dead, say critics. They point out that identification of  Burmese dead began only in July 2005 after identification of bodies  of all other nationalities were completed, a sign of discrimination.

   In their defence, Thai officials say since most of the victims  were undocumented workers, this is hampering the body identification  process. "We don’t have the full list of the Burmese victims. We are  now collecting information from the victims' families. But the  problem is, most of the victims were illegals," Kemmarin Hassiri,  police superintendent and deputy commander of information management  centre, says.

   Officials say all the bodies will be buried if they are not  identified within three years, depriving grieving families the chance  to give their loved ones a proper burial. Says Ko Khin Hlaing, a 31- year-old Burmese migrant worker in Ban Nam kham village, "It's my  last wish to have the chance to bury my wife and my baby. I do not  have any other expectation."

   The slow identification process has further been delayed by the  lack of DNA samples from survivors. Such samples are essential to  match and establish identity of the dead bodies, officials say. Ko  San, the official in charge of Disaster Victims Identification (DVI),  an NGO, says, "DVI has been searching for the remaining Myanmar  survivors to run DNA tests. So far we have only completed five  percent of those tests."

   Identification of the bodies is only the first step. The follow- up process is long and cumbersome as well, further delaying the body  hand-over to kith and kin. For instance, after identification, a list  is sent to the Burmese Embassy for approval. It is here that many  families fear delay, a fear borne out by the slow approval by the  Embassy, if at all.

SILENCE FROM BURMA?

   "There is no hope of getting the bodies until we receive the  confirmation from Burmese Embassy," Ko Aung Myo Min, the TAG official  says. Even the Thai government is critical of Burmese authorities.  "No response from Myanmar Embassy yet. I don't get any," Kiat Pikun,  deputy spokesperson of the Thai Foreign Ministry said.

   The Burmese military junta appears to be trying to avoid the  issue of tsunami victims among the large Burmese community in  Thailand. It does not even allow the media inside Burma to publish  about the Thai victims, says TAG's coordinator Ko Aung Myo Min.

   The Asian tsunami, in many ways, worsened the Burmese community's  struggles in Thailand.   While the Thai government, aided by  international NGOs and relief agencies, was prompt in responding to  the needs of western victims of the tsunami, many Burmese victims,  often without papers, were running scared from Thai police for fear  of being deported. Even some Thai victims felt that they were treated  as second-class citizens in their own country compared to western  victims, says the TAG official.

   Government officials deny such charges. "In fact, the Thai  government constructed 1200 houses for Thai victims and gave 15,000  baht (375 dollars) for each dead Thai person, and 25,000 baht (625  dollars) if the person was head of the family. Plus, the Office of  the Prime Minister gave 20,000 baht (500 dollars) each as  compensation," asserts Kemmarin Hassiri, deputy commander of the  Information Management Centre (IMC).

   No such compensation was ever given to the Burmese victims,  either documented or undocumented. "Everyone should be treated in the  same way when they are suffering from a natural disaster whether they  have ID cards or not. Discriminating people in this kind of situation  is an unsuitable work for a government," Ko Aung Myo Min remarks.

   Another TAG official, Ko Htoo Chit, adds that the Burmese  government made the matters worse by refusing to acknowledge that  there were many Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. "The Burmese  government said there are no Burmese workers in this region. We can  do nothing while our mother country ignores us," he lamented.

   Now the Thai government is promising to compensate 20,000 baht  (500 dollars) to all the registered migrant workers who died in the  disaster. But many Burmese workers are afraid to claim compensation  because even those who had registered documents lost the papers in  the tsunami. And reports of arrests of Burmese migrants on charges of  looting and entering Thailand illegally have not helped overcome  their fears.

   Critics say the Thai government ignored its duty to compensate  all registered workers immediately after the tsunami, when they did  compensate Thai and other victims. Announcing compensation now is too  late, and does not quell the fears of Burmese migrants, they add.  These fears were heightened immediately after the tsunami when a Thai- language newspaper, ‘Matichon’, published a story about Burmese  workers looting Thai tsunami victims, causing misunderstandings and  triggering a cat-and-mouse game between the Thai police and the  Burmese tsunami victims.

   "Though the Thai government has a duty to provide compensation  for registered workers, they have not taken any steps for the Burmese  tsunami victims," charges Ko Htoo Chit. "Labour cards for the  registered workers were issued by Thai
government itself. And it also covers the costs for health care and  life insurance, but we haven't heard anyone receiving allowance or  life insurance money from the government."

   "We didn't receive any assistance. And nobody collects the list  of Burmese victims," says Ma Htwe Yu, a worker who lost everything  she owned in the tsunami.

   If not for a few NGOs working to alleviate the suffering of  Burmese migrant workers - such as TAG, DVI and IOM - many of these  desperate tsunami-hit migrants would have no one to turn to.

   But these endless stories about misery has sometimes been broken  by positive news. Thai hospitals particularly treated all tsunami  victims, whether locals or illegal Burmese migrants, with equal care  and respect. Best of all, it was all free. And despite the scorn  heaped on it, the Thai government too doled out much-needed clothes  and food to the victims.

   Much of the rancour is perhaps inevitable given the scale of the  disaster, and the pressure it has brought to bear on the government  and communities. In Thailand's case, testy relations between the  local population and migrants have made the matters worse. But some  critics single out the heartless response of the Burmese military  junta for particular scorn.

   Nassir Achwarin, coordinator of Thai Action Committee for  Democracy in Burma, says, "In my opinion, the Burmese military  government and Myanmar embassy in
Thailand don't have any interest in this case. I think the Thai  government also...cares about the Burmese people. They need to go on  with their business."

   Meatime, the uncertain plight of the Burmese in Thailand  continues. Those who migrated illegally don't even have the option of  returning because they will be charged by the military junta and  perhaps put in jail. To stay in Thailand means, particularly for the  undocumented ones, a life of uncertainty and discrimination.

   "We will be charged if we go back. And we are living here with  fear. That's
our life," says Ko Chit Lwin, a rubber plantation worker from Ban  Laom, Khao Lak, who lost his wife in the tsunami.

   It's an unpleasant life, but one that has to continue. Laing  Laing, even as he awaits the repatriation of the bodies of his mother  and niece, is now working again in the construction sector. A  Buddhist, he believes the future will be better if he does good  things with good intentions."Don't think about the past. Don't waste  time. We have to keep going. Be practical," he says. (END/IOM/MZ/SP/ JS/06)

*Myat Soe wrote this story under the Imaging Our Mekong media  fellowship programme (www.newsmekong.org)