Myanmar refugees return but agencies prepared for another influx

MAE SOT, 10 November 2010 (IRIN) - Although almost all the 20,000 refugees from Myanmar who fled to Thailand on 8 November following post-election violence have now returned home, aid groups on the Thai border are prepared for another round of violence.

"We have contingency plans in place and there is now extra mobilization," Leonard Buckles of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium told IRIN from Mae Sot on 10 November.

The main camp, Base 369 of the Thai Border Patrol Police in Mae Sot district of Tak province - the scene of the major humanitarian relief effort following Myanmar's 7 November elections - was completely empty by 10 November.

But tensions remain high between ethnic Karen forces and the Myanmar army. "We are preparing for attacks by the SPDC [Myanmar government soldiers]," said Colonel Ner Dah Mya, a commander of the Karen National Liberation Army, one of the many ethnic forces fighting the Myanmar government. "We are expecting more fighting and that more refugees will be crossing into Thailand."