In a move that threatens to displease Myanmar's military regime, Japan will provide between 5 million yen and 10 million yen in grant-in-aid to help relieve the suffering of Karen refugees in Thailand, Foreign Ministry sources said March 31.

The sources said the aid will be provided later this month or early next month through the Burmese Border Consortium, a Western nongovernmental organization helping more than 100,000 Karen refugees living in camps in northwestern Thailand along the Myanmarese border.

The Burmese Border Consortium will use the money to purchase rice and edible oil for the refugees, who crossed into Thailand to escape attacks from the Myanmarese military, the sources said. Myanmar was formerly called Burma.

It is the first time for Japan to provide the refugees with such aid and the offer comes amid heightened tensions along the Thai-Myanmarese border in the wake of repeated attacks on the camps by armed ethnic rebels allied to Myanmar's military junta.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter group of the ethnic Karen insurgents, attacked camps in northwestern Thailand three times in March alone, reportedly killing four and injuring more than 50. The refugees are mostly Christians.

Since taking power in a 1988 coup, the Myanmarese military has reached peace settlements with all the country's ethnic rebel groups except the Karen National Union, the largest rebel group that has fought for greater autonomy for the ethnic Karen minority for 50 years.

The Myanmarese junta-backed assaults on the Thai camps have raised deep international concern. On March 13 -- two days after the first of the attacks that month -- Britain, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation European Union, issued a statement calling for an immediate end to the raids.

Bangkok has also complained to Yangon over the attacks. In an apparent policy reversal, Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said last week that Bangkok will allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to participate in efforts to ensure the security of the refugees.

The Thai government had previously been reluctant to let the UNHCR get involved in such efforts and had tried to resolve the issue through bilateral talks with Yangon over fears that the UNHCR's presence would lead to the refugees being settled in Thailand.

The Japanese aid package will be provided as part of the "grant assistance scheme for grassroots projects," which was introduced in fiscal 1989 to support relatively small projects not considered suitable for ordinary grant-in-aid schemes, the sources said.

The provision of the aid follows a decision by Tokyo last month to disburse about 2.5 billion yen in low-interest official yen loans to Myanmar for the repair of Yangon's international airport.