Sam Brownback: “Thailand has been a strong ally of the United States for some period of time and has worked closely with us on a number…”

“Thailand has been a strong ally of the United States for some period of time and has worked closely with us on a number of issues in which we have a strong interest in the region. Yet on this issue of Burma, Thailand has not been constructive. As a matter of fact, it has put forward a number of really quite negative comments. The current Thai Prime Minister most distressedly has begun an assault on Burmese exiles living as refugees on the Thai-Burma border. The exiles, because of the Burmese Government, have fled to the Thai border and are in refugee camps. They are subjected to all sorts of horrific conditions--living conditions that are not appropriate, sanitation conditions that are not appropriate, and then they are being trafficked, as people move through, trying to take young women and children into the sex trade that flourishes in Thailand and other places, but particularly in Thailand. We have seen a rapid slave trade, trafficking in persons.”