By David Gollust
05/05/2006

Click here to read the entire article.

Below is an excerpt of an article from Voice of America:

WASHINGTON (VOA) – The Bush administration has authorized a waiver of immigration rules to allow the resettlement in the United States of several thousand Burmese refugees of the Karen ethnic group, now housed in Thailand. The decision came amid reports of a new exodus of refugees after renewed fighting between Burmese forces and Karen rebels.

…

Until a decision by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday to invoke a special waver of resettlement rules, the refugees had been barred from coming to the United States because of their support for the Karen National Union (KNU), a rebel group fighting the Burmese government.

The Karen refugees had been snagged by a provision of the anti-terrorist U.S. Patriot Act and a related law barring entry to anyone providing material support to a terrorist or armed rebel group.

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said as many as 9,300 Karen refugees at the Tham Hin camp in Thailand could be affected by the decision, but that actual combatants or members of the Karen National Union would not be eligible:

…

The waiver granted by Secretary Rice is narrowly focused and does not apply to other Karen refugees in the region, or refugees of other nationalities whose bids to enter the United States have been blocked by the same technicalities.

Refugee advocate groups, including Refugees International, have welcomed the U.S. waiver as a breakthrough, albeit a limited one.

News reports say several thousand more Karen refugees have fled Burma for Thailand in recent weeks after renewed fighting between forces of the Burmese military junta and the rebels.

The Karen have been fighting the Rangoon government for decades in a quest for autonomy and the new fighting came despite a truce accord reached two years ago.

…