Mizzima News

Mae Sot (Mizzima) - Unidentified offenders used weed killers to poison the water supply of the Mae La refugee camp on April 11.

The camp, on the Thai-Burma border, home to more than 30,000 people, was bereft of water for four days, as pumps and water treatment plants were sent to Bangkok for analysis and scrubbing.

No deaths were reported, although a number of people were said to have fallen ill with vomiting and diarrhea.

The water supplied to the camp is pumped from underneath the Mae Yuam River, which runs through the camp.

It is then pumped to a high point near the camp’s northern end and gravity fed to tap stations and wells throughout the sprawling bamboo shanty-town.

Empty broad-spectrum herbicide containers were discovered near the pumping station on the morning of April 11. Camp residents were immediately warned not to drink any water drawn from wells throughout the camp.

One camp resident, who asked not to be named, said there was great dismay when the discovery was made.

But more sinister rumours spread throughout the settlement when old, faded and empty poison canisters were found nearby, suggesting that dumping the weed killer into the camp’s water supply might have been a long-term project.

Some people in the camp are convinced they will be dead within six months.

An official head count at Mae La in 2005 put the population at 52,000.

Since then 18,000 people have been relocated to third countries, but camp residents said the population really remained static, because there were more people arriving all the time.

The Mae Yuam River runs north through Mae La camp and then feeds the Moei River to the west, passing through the Karen National Liberation Army’s Seventh Brigade region.

This month’s poisoning scare is not the first. About five years ago a Burmese national was caught at the main elevated holding tanks with containers of poison. He was nabbed before he could carry out his plan to poison the water.

The Thai camps, considered temporary havens for people displaced by fighting in Burma, have long been a touchy bilateral issue between Thailand and Burma on the international stage.

The ruling Burmese military junta claims they serve dual roles, as a breeding ground for insurgents and a place for KNLA soldiers to hide and be fed when not active.

An investigation is underway, but as yet there have been no arrests.

Asked who he thought could have been responsible, a senior camp administrator said it was anybody’s guess.