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articles 3 Oct 94 (fwd)





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Bangkok Post, 3 Oct 94
PLAN TO SUPPLY ELECTRICITY TO LAOS RECEIVES APPROVAL
by Taksina Khaikaew and Subin Khuenkaew Bo Keo, Laos 
 
THE Cabinet has approved an Electricity Generating Authority of 
Thailand plan to sell electricity to Bo Keo Province of Laos, opposite 
Chiang Kong District of Chiang Rai. 
 
Chiang Rai Governor Kamron Booneherd made the announcement after 
meeting Bo Keo Governor Sukhan Maharat and administration officials in 
Ban Huay Sai of Bo Keo Province on Friday. 
 
A feasibility study will be carried out when Laos is ready to gauge the 
Laotian demand m EGAT. 
 
The power supplly can be sent across the Mekong River by 
conventional power poles or submarine cables. 
 
Meanwhile Laos is stepping up a study on the possibility of building a 
dam across the Nam Ngao and Nam Tha rivers to produce electricity. 
 
"We need to consult the Thais as we do not have experience in this 
field," said Bo Keo Governor Sukhan Maharat. 
 
He also expressed confidence that the initial road linking Laos to China 
will benefit not only trade but will also enhance the flow of development 
in Laos and neighboring countries. 
 
It is possible that in the future there will be a bridge linking Thailand to 
Laos at this checkpoint, he added. 
 
He said Laos has approved a mining concession in Vieng Phoukha for a 
Thai company on condition it will build roads, infrastructure and provide 
job opportunities for Laotian cltlzens. 
 
Representatives of the two sides who attended the meeting included 
government officials responsible for different working fields covering 
economic, agriculture, industrial investment, culture, education, tourism, 
immigration regulations and police services.
 
The private sector in Chiang Rai included representatives from mining 
companies and tour companies, while EGAT also sent representatives to 
the meeting. 
 
"Besides being here to congratulate the new governor of Bo Keo, we 
came to talk about possible economic and social development 
cooperation projects," said Chiang Rai Governor Kamron. 
 
The governor said Thailand has the policy of not interfering in the 
internal affairs of neighbouring countries, while also forbidding any 
group from staying in the country to engage in subversive activities 
against its neighbors. 
 
After three hours of talk, the two governors signed and exchanged their 
MOUs which will take effect within 30 days. 
 
The meeting agreed that the official opening hours of the border will be 
from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, but can be extended to cater for 
emergencies such as sending sick Lao citizens to Thailand for treatment.
 
According to Thao Kenechan O. Petsane, of the tourism division of Bo 
Keo Province, Thais and Laotians travelling across the border will need 
to carry a border pass. 
 
Bangkok Post, 3 Oct 94
INDOCHINESE REFUGEES' REPATRIATION PRESSED
 
THAILAND will push for the United Nations High Commission for 
Refugees (UNHCR) to speed up repatriation of Indochinese refugees 
remaining in Thailand during an international meeting on refugee 
problems which begins in Geneva today, National Security Council 
secretary-general Charan Kullavanijaya said. 
 
Gen Charan, who will attend the refugee meeting, said a large number of 
refugees still remain in Thailand. 
 
They include over 10,000 Laotian refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 
refugees and displaced Burmese. 
 
The refugees must all be repatriated since the situation in Indochina as a 
whole has returned to normal, he said. 
 
Gen Charan said he will ask the UNHCR to quickly arrange for them to 
return to their homelands. 
 
During his recent meeting with the new Australian ambassador to 
Thailand, Gen Charan said they discussed problems concerning 
refugees, mostly Laotian and Vietnamese, in Australia. 
 
The ambassador suggested that these refugees could submit requests to 
become Australian citizens, he added. 
 
On a much-publicised meeting between the Burmese junta leaders and 
opposition leader Aung Sann Suu Kyi, Gen Charan said he had no details 
but said the meeting was a good sign. 
 
He said according to an unconfirmed report they would meet again later 
this year. 
 
The NSC said other countries should not put too much pressure on 
Burma regarding human rights and democracy because it needs time to 
solve internal problems first. 
 
Bangkok Post, 3 Oct 94
EXPEDITION DISCOVERS SOURCE OF MEKONG
 
A FRANCO-BRITISH expedition said yesterday it had discovered the 
true source of the mighty Mekong River at a height of 4,975 metres in 
Tibet. 
 
The source, at latitude 33 degrees north and longitude 93 degrees east in 
northern Tibet, was further west than the traditionally designated 
location, said expedition leader Michel Peissel, a French anthropologist 
specialising in Tibet. 
 
In a faxed message from Xining Qinghai province, Peissel said his team, 
assisted by the Qianghai mountaineering association, had reached the 
source on September 17. 
 
The exact location of the Mekong's source has repeatedly eluded both 
Western and Asian explorers, for reasons that Peissel put down as much 
to politics as geography. 
 
Peissel was due to return to Beijing tomorrow, with the two other 
members of his team Frenchman Jacques Falek and Briton Sebastian 
Guinness. 
 
The expedition was Peissel's 23rd to Tibet. In 1992, he discovered a new 
race of thoroughbred horse that had been bred in almost complete 
isolation by Tibetan nomads for 14 centuries. 
 
The Mekong runs through China, Laos, Burma, Thailand Cambodia and 
Vietnam before emptying into the South China Sea. 
 
Bangkok Post, 3 Oct 94
BURMA INVITES ORE EXPLORATIONS
Rangoon, Burma, AP
 
THE Ministry of Mines on Saturday invited foreign companies to explore 
for and produce gold and copper in Burma where such activities have 
been controlied under a state monopoly. 
 
The ministry issued the invitation in an advertisement in the official New 
Light of Myanmar Daily. It called for sealed bids for the prospecting and 
exploration of minerals in 16 blocks, each about 540 square miles (1,400 
square kilometres), in the centre of the country. All bids are to be 
submitted in Burma, now officially named Myanmar, before November 30. 
 
Bangkok Post, 3 Oct 94
PHOTOGRAPH
 
The Menam Hotel, led by director of sales and public relations manager 
Rachaneevan Ratanavirakul and room division manager Virat Praprudee, 
recently welcomed Yogesh Mathur, newly-appointed manager of Air 
India Airlines for Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. 
 
Photo shows Ms Rachaneevan presenting a bouquet to Mr Mathur while 
Mr Virat and guests look on. 
 
Bangkok Post, 2 Oct 94
CHINA ACCUSED OF DISCREDITING ACTIVISTS
Bejing, Reuters
 
CHINA is arresting political activists for common crimes in order to 
destroy their credibil-ity, two human rights groups charged in a 
statement released today. 
 
"The Chinese government is increasingly using false or frivolous criminal 
charges to arrest or convict political activists in a clear attempt to 
discredit them both at home and abroad," the US-based Human Rights 
Watch/Asia and Human Rights in China said in the statement faxed to 
Beijing.
 
The groups said that of 12 known cases of human rights advocates and 
political dissidents formally charged or sentenced this year, all have been 
accused of crimes ranging from embezzlement to fraud to hooliganism 
and not of political offenses. 
 
They singled out the case of Tong Yi, 26-year-old assistant to prominent 
dissident Wei  Jingsheng, who was charged with forging an official seal 
on documents prepared to apply to study in the United States. 
 
"Such a minor forgery would not normally merit prosecution, but in Tong 
Yi's case, such prosecution was clearly political," the groups said. 
 
China's criminal law calls for a prison sentence of up to three years for 
forging, altering or stealing an official seal. In especially serious cases, 
the penalty can be as high as 10 years. 
 
Wei himself has been in detention since April 1 with no official word on 
what offense he will be charged with. 
 
The statement from the human rights groups said they had learned of 
another 104 people arrested in connection with the June 4, 1989 army 
crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests with many 
still imprisoned.
 
The Nation, 3 Oct 94
BURMA AND I'NESIA STEP UP MOVES AGAINST INDIA PLAGUE
Associated Press
 
RANGOON - Burma is guarding its entry points, attacking its rat 
population and educating the public about the plague to keep the 
epidemic sweeping India from crossing their common border. 
 
The official New Light of Myanmar daily reported yesterday that the 
National Health Committee was discussing ways to block the spread of 
the plague across the more than 1,280 kilometres of border Burma shares 
with India. 
 
At least 58 people have been killed in India since plague broke out there 
several weeks ago. Unofficial estimates put the death toll at 300. 
 
Plague is carried by rats and fleas, and can be spread by a cough from an 
infected person. It is easily cured with antibiotics if caught early, but kills 
quickly if untreated. 
 
At Saturday's meeting, Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, chairman of the Burmese 
government's health committee and secretary of the ruling State Law and 
Order Restoration Council, stressed the need for public awareness of the 
disease and further strategies to keep the plague epidemic from sweeping 
Burma. 
 
Official newspapers have been carrying educative articles about the 
plague and state radio and and television broadcast warnings and 
discussions about the epidemic.
 
The Health Ministry has posted heath officials at airports, jetties and 
border crossing points to watch for people with the symptoms of the 
plague. 
 
The ministry also has launched a sanitation drive with municipal 
authorities to curb the rat population and alert the public to report any 
symptoms. 
 
A health official, who requested anon nymity, said isolated outbreaks of 
the plague-usually the bubonic form- are common in Burma, noting 
that they often arise in the dry central part of the country from November 
through March. 
 
The official said there were 528 cases of plague reported in 1992 in one 
part of the country, with three deaths. There were 87 cases of plague in 
two parts of the country in 1993 with no fatalities, the official noted.
 
The Nation, 3 Oct 94
BURMA TO BUY CHINESE SHIPS 
Bangkok (AFP)-Burmese military authorities on Sept 29 signed an 
agreement with a leadsng Chinese shipping firm in Rangoon to purchase 
new ships, state-run Radio Ran goon reported
 
The agreement to purchase new ocean-going ships for the state-owned 
Myanmar Five Star Shipping Line was signed with China Ship Building. 
Trading Company, the radio sald in a broadcast monitored here.
 
The signing ceremony was presided over by Burmese Transport 
Minister, Thein Win and senior Chinese diplo mats to Rangoon, 
according to the radio.
 
The interest-free loan for the project has been provided by Beijing, it 
added The official radio also re ported, without elaborating that visiting 
Chinese experts and Burmese officials signed ta Joint survey 
memorandum for a hydropower station in central Burma China, one of the 
major in vestors in Burma, was the first country to recognise the 
Rangoon's military regime, which took power after a bloody coup in 
September 1988, in which thousands of pro-democracy protesters died.
 
The Nation, 3 Oct 94
BURMA, CHINA AGREE ON JOINT HYDROPOWER DAM 
 
BURMA and China have signed an agreement to build a hydroelectric 
power station in central Burma, state-run Radio Rangoon reported. 
 
In a broadcast monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, the 
report said the two countries' energy authorities signed an agreement in 
Rangoon on Thursday to build a medium-sized power plant in Mandalay 
district. 
 
The Paunglaung power project involves building a 131-metre high dam 
and installing four 70 MW turbines, the radio said.-Reuter 
 
The Nation, 3 Oct 94
BURMA SOLITICT GOLD DIGGERS
 
RANGOON-The Burmese government has invited foreign companies to 
prospect for gold and copper in an effort to exploit the country's rich 
natural resources, an official newspaper said on Saturday. 
 
Gold and copper mining, formerly the exclusive domain of a state 
enterprise, have been opened to "interested foreign companies" who will 
be allowed to "operate mineral prospecting and exploration in 
geologically prosperous areas" of central and upper Burma, the New 
Light of Myanmar daily said- -AFP