MOREH, INDIA, Reuter: About 1,000 Burmese fleeing last month’s military coup in Rangoon are trying to slip into India where they have been promised Asylum, officials and refugees said.
Refugees reaching a relief center in the Indian border town of Noreh at the weekend said many of their companions had been stopped by Burmese troops attempting to seal the border.
Jachandra Singh, Chief Minister of India’s Northeastern Manipur state, said some 1,000 people are moving along the Burmese side of the 1,000 km (600 miles) border looking for ways into India.
Student leaders among the Moreh refugees said they fled after the army took over in Arangoon on September 18 following weeks of violent street protests over demands for democracy.
Pamphlets urging refugees “come let us fight for democracy” and advising them that shelter was available in India were circulating on both sides of the border, they said.
After border guards turned back one group of about 180 refugees early this month, the Indian Government agreed to grant asylum to future arrivals.
A government spokesman in New Delhi said the new policy ‘was unlikely to change because of the influx, but social workers in Moreh said they had received no aid from the central government.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 21, 1988
