Authority:Fire at Myanmar refugee camp is not a sabotage

BANGKOK, Feb 24 (TNA) Tak Deputy Governor Wut Sitthisurat confirmed on Friday that a fire which hit a Myanmar refugee camp in Phop Phra District Thursday night was not caused by a sabotage as earlier speculated but by cooking inside the shelter. According to the deputy governor of the northwestern Thai province, an official investigation into the incident is continuing with its results to be released later. Officials said that more than 1,000 houses inside the refugee centre, bordering Myanmar, have been burned, forcing about 3,000 people to be left homeless, 20 of them were also injured. Meanwhile, border patrol police have distributed consumer goods to the affected refugees; while doctors are providing treatment to those injured. Delegates of several charitable organisations have also visited the refugee camp after learning that part of it was burned. Some 19,000 Buddhists and Muslims from Myanmar, as well as Karens have fled their country on either fear of fighting between government forces and rebels or political persecutions and have stayed at the Thai shelter since 1996.(TNA)