DPA: CAMBODIA TIGHT-LIPPED ON RETURN OF BURMA REBELS

DEUTSCHE PRESSE AGENTUR

19.1.00/

PHNOM PENH

 

Cambodian authorities remained tight-lipped yesterday about the

fate of two Burmese nationals jailed after they allegedly sought

weapons to fight the military regime in Rangoon.

 

Military intelligence chief Mol Rouep refused to say where the

pair, Mon Say and Kao Sik, were being held. He said authorities

had not yet decided whether or not to send them back to Rangoon.

"The government will decide on this later when we finish our

investigation," he said.

 

The United Nations Convention on Refugees bane the deportation of

nationals who might face persecution in their home country. The

UN human rights office in Phnom Penh is monitoring the case, an

official said.

 

Mon Say and Kao Sik were arrested last weekend by military police

in Battambang province, They had no passports and were officially

charged with illegal entry into Cambodia.

 

But police said the pair, identified by Cambodians as members of

the Mon ethnic minority in Burma, had boasted of being resistance

leaders in a rebel force fighting against the State Peace and

Development Council, the military junta that rules Burma.

The rebel Mon army has made peace with the Rangoon government a

few years ago.