Burmese refugees head home

Thousands of refugees from Burma headed home Tuesday after fleeing to Thailand as fighting followed a general election that is certain to keep the country's military and its allies in power.

The incident underlined Burma's vulnerability to unrest after the country,also known as Myanmar, had its first election in two decadeson Sunday. Theruling junta billed the election as a key stage in its self-proclaimed road to democracy.

Privately, officials of the junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, have boasted of winning 75 to 80 per cent of the vote, even though just a handful of official results have been announced.

Political opponents say the sweeping victory will be won through cheating and are joined by Western nations in decrying the vote as manipulated and unfair.

Thai authorities said Tuesday that Burmese officials assured them the situation had stabilized in Myawaddy, a border town where ethnic Karen guerrillas attacked Sunday. The refugees who fled to nearby Mae Sot, in Thailand's Tak province, were all expected to be sent home by late Tuesday, said provincial governor Samard Loyfar.

Clashes continue in border town

However, fighting continued at Three Pagoda Pass, another Burmese border town 160 kilometres south of Myawaddy, Thai officials said.

Nataphon Wichienprerd, governor of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, adjacent to the town, said fighting continued late Tuesday between 40 and 50 guerrillas of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and 180 Burmese government troops.

He said casualties included a nine-year-old Burmese girl shot by government soldiers who died in a Thai hospital and a 13-year-old Burmese girl shot by Karen guerrillas who died on the spot.

Nataphon said about 3,500 refugees would get shelter on Thai territory Tuesday night, with assistance provided by Thai and international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

A complete casualty toll was not available, but five people were hurt Monday in Myawaddy, and another five were wounded by stray shots in Mae Sot.

Burma has been ruled by the military almost continuously since 1962, and rebellions by its ethnic minorities predate its independence from Britain in 1948. Ethnic guerrilla armies chafe at the prospect of further tightening of control by the army.

Critics blast election

Anti-government parties claim the polls were blatantly rigged. Khin Maung Swe, chief of the anti-government National Democratic Force, accused the junta's proxy USDP of using every possible method to steal the vote, and said it was "sure to win 90 per cent if they continue to cheat in such manner."

The country's second biggest party, the National Unity Party an outgrowth of the political machine of the late strongman Gen. Ne Win now associated with big business interests joined the chorus of critics, even though it is generally seen as closer to the junta than to the country's pro-democracy movement.

"The election process is absolutely unfair," said 82-year-old retired Brigadier Aye San, a senior party official who claimed there were many cases of election fraud and malpractice.

TheNational Unity Party ran 995 candidates to the USDP's 1,112, giving it hope that it could pick up supporters in constituencies where it was the only alternative to the junta-backed party.

Though most election results had not yet been released, there was little doubt the junta-backed USDP, the only party running practically everywhere, would emerge with an enormous share of the seats, despite widespread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule. At stake are 1,159 seats in the two-house national parliament and 14 regional parliaments. The largest anti-government party, the NDF, contested just 164 spots.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday it was unacceptable for Burma's government to "steal an election," and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimono said the voting was not inclusive enough and lacked transparency.

The West and the UN have long been critical of Burma's military regime, especially for its poor human rights record.

But not everyone was so critical of the election.

"This is a critical step for Myanmar in implementing the seven-step roadmap to transitioning to an elected government and thus is welcome and affirmed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday. Beijing is the junta's staunchest ally.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations,to which Burma belongs, welcomed the vote as a "significant step forward," Vietnamese Foreign Minister Ham Gina Khi said in a statement as the group's chair.

Sunday's election was the first in Burma since a 1990 vote won by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, which was barred from taking power and boycotted the new polls.

Suu Kyi's term of house arrest is supposed to expire Saturday, though the junta has kept silent over whether it will grant her freedom.