Activists flee Myanmar crackdown to Thailand

MAE SOT, Thailand (Reuters) - Defying international callsto relent, Myanmar's junta is still hunting down activistsinvolved in September's monk-led protests, causing scores toflee to Thailand, fugitives and aid workers said on Wednesday.

"They will not stop," said one 36-year-old former politicalprisoner who arrived in the Thai border town of Mae Sot onJanuary 1 after three months in hiding in Yangon, the oldcapital and hub of the pro-democracy demonstrations.

His account of a dramatic escape to Thailand exposes as alie the junta's assurances to United Nations special envoyIbrahim Gambari in November that it had stopped its arrests.

As Gambari was passing on the generals' promises to theU.N. Security Council, police were holding the man's mother fora week to force her to reveal the names, addresses and phonenumbers of her son's friends and relatives, he said.

"Gambari may tell them to stop arresting people but theyjust carry on," he told Reuters in an interview. He asked notto be named as his wife and children remain in Yangon. She hasto report to the authorities every week, he said.

Having been imprisoned twice two decades ago for takingpart in a failed 1988 uprising, the activist knew he would be atarget of the junta's crackdown last September, and decided togo to ground immediately.

"I stayed in friends' houses -- a new house each week --but the authorities got to know all the houses," he said. "OnDecember 25, I decided I had to flee. If I had been arrested, Iwould have been sent to prison for a long time."

Knowing he was on a wanted list, he evaded militarycheckpoints on the road to Thailand by hiding in a truckbeneath crates of fresh crabs. The driver bribed soldiers notto search the vehicle, saying any delay would ruin the meat, hesaid.

"LIKE A DEATH SENTENCE"

Even though the crackdown started more than four monthsago, a steady trickle of fugitive men, women, children andBuddhist monks are turning up in Mae Sot as their bolt-holesare slowly uncovered.

"Some people left immediately but some went into hiding andare only coming out now," said Nay Tin Myint, a senior memberof the 1988 student-led uprising who spent 15 years in prison-- seven in solitary confinement -- before fleeing in May 2007.

Along with an exiled branch of detained opposition leaderAung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, he said hewas helping 83 people, including 22 monks, who had fled sinceSeptember.

"We have new-comers all the time," he said.

A worker at another refugee agency in Mae Sot, who askednot to be named, said four times as many fugitives were nowcrossing the Thai border compared to before the crackdown.

With Bangkok refusing to allow the United Nations refugeeagency to start the asylum process for new arrivals, all thosewho make it across the border live in constant fear of arrestand deportation as illegal migrants.

"It would be like a death sentence for me," Nay Tin Myintsaid. "They have accused me of being a terrorist. I would besent to prison for a very, very long time."

(Editing by Darren Schuettler)