The BurmaNet News: March 24, 1998

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The BurmaNet News: March 24, 1998    
Issue #965

HEADLINES:    
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THE NATION: SURIN SAYS ASEAN OUGHT TO DISCUSS INTRUSIONS
BKK POST: ARMY TOLD TO PROTECE BORDER AT ALL COSTS
BKK POST: CALL TO EVALUATE BURMA
BKK POST: THAI WILL PRESS RANGOON TO LOSEN THIGHT NEW REGULATIONS
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THE NATION: SURIN SAYS ASEAN OUGHT TO DISCUSS INTRUSIONS

March 24, 1998

THAILAND will seek an explanation from Rangoon on a series of border
intrusions by armed groups from Burma and will suggest the issue be put on
the agenda of the forthcoming Asean ministerial meeting in Manila, Foreign
Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

His response came as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), believed to
be backed by Burmese troops, attacked and burned a refugee camp inside
Thailand early yesterday, destroying 50 homes and wounding 14 people, four
of them seriously.

Describing the latest invasion into Thai territory from the Burmese side as
unacceptable and a violation of Thai sovereignty, the minister said Thailand
was unhappy with the recurrence of invasion of Thai territory.

Surin said these kinds of border problems should be dealt with by
undertaking serious and careful bilateral talks.

At the same time he said he believed the issue of the intrusion should be
raised and discussed when Asean foreign ministers attended their annual
meeting in the Philippines this July.

The minister also suggested that the Asean membership of Burma and Laos,
approaching their first anniversary this July, should be reviewed.

He said this would Cow the grouping to be able to learn whether the new
members had any problems as members of the grouping and find out how the
other members could help them.


The instrusions on to Thai soil by armed groups from Burma will be a top
priority groups when Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra makes an
official visit to Burma on April 7-8.

Surin added that Sukhumbhand would seek a dialogue with Rangoon in an
attempt to ease the problems away from other bilateral issues.

The minister said he also believed that the Thai army, based so close to its
Burmese counterpart, could talk with them m order to curtail border intrusions.

However, Army commander-in-chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro said over the weekend
that Rangoon denied its involvement m the DKBA attacks on Thai soil and had
given the army the green light to do whatever it could to stop them.

The latest raid took place just one day after a group of foreign diplomats
based m Thailand inspected Thai shelters for Burmese displaced persons in
Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces.

The attack began about 1 am, when attackers fired two artillery shells into
Maw Ker, a camp sheltering more than 8,700 refugees from Burma, said an aid
worker who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The invaders then entered Maw Ker and burned about 50 homes in the camp,
which lies some four kilometres from the Burmese border. Most of the
refugees belong to the Karen ethnic group.

All the wounded were taken to a hospital in nearby Mae Sot, 370 km
north-west of Bangkok- Two men and two boys were seriously wounded.

The DBKA is a splinter group of Karen that has allied itself with the
military government in Rangoon.

Thai army units were firing shells m the direction of Burma in retaliation
after dawn.

Most of the more than 100,000 refugees from Burma living in Thailand are
sympathetic to the Karen National Union, which has been fighting for
autonomy from Rangoon since 1948.

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BKK POST: ARMY TOLD TO PROTECE BORDER AT ALL COSTS

March 24, 1998

Order follows latest raid-on refugee camp

Bangkok Post/AFP/Tak

The Thai army has been ordered to use all military means possible to counter
pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army attacks following another
cross-border raid on a refugee camp.

Mawkier refugee camp in Tak's Phop Phra district was attacked early
yesterday. One refugee was killed, nine others were wounded and four Thai
soldiers also wounded.

"The army chief [Army Commander Gen Chettha Thanajaro] is enraged with the
latest cross-border assault and has ordered the Third Army to use all kinds
of military means in countering the aggression," said an army source.

The source expected fierce fighting to follow the sending of special units
from the army's rapid deployment forces into the border area.

In yesterday's attack some 40 DBKA troops crossed into Thailand and raided
the camp. Four Thai soldiers were taken hostage during the raid but some 10
intruders were thought to have been trapped behind Thai soldier lines
following the attack.

Karen refugees said 40-50 DKBA soldiers opened fire with M79 grenade
launchers and rifles at about 1 a.m. Another group inside the camp then set
fire to shelters while most refugees were sleeping.

U Saw Ma, a Buddhist monk, said the DKBA threatened to attack the camp about
a week ago if the refugees refused to return to Burma.

While he was praying in a hut used as a religious centre, three mortar
rounds landed in the camp, forcing the monks to flee for their lives. The
intruders, who are thought to have been in the camp for some time before the
attack, threw molotov cocktails at the huts, setting them on fire. 

Mortar and rifle fire injured nine refugees, three seriously, including four
women and three children. The wounded were later taken to Phop Phra hospital.

After the 10-20-minute attack soldiers deployed outside the camp fired more
than 30 mortar rounds at the raiders who fled towards the border from the
south of the camp. A unit was dispatched to block the attackers near Ban Valley.

Phop Phra district chief, Chatchai Soisangwao, and a team of defence
volunteers with fire engines, tried to put out th6 fire two hours later. By
then 50 huts had burned down leaving more than 200 refugees homeless.

Mr Chatchai said the damaged sections were in Zone 6 and 7 for Muslim
refugees. .

Mawkier camp houses 8,881 Karen refugees who fled from Burma after
Karen National Union camps were seized by Burmese troops a few years ago.

Fourth Infantry Regiment Task Force commander Col Chatphat Yaemngarmriab
said a company of infantrymen had been deployed at several border crossing
points after the DKBA threatened to attack more camps. The Thai soldiers
fired mortar rounds at the attackers after they opened fire on the camp.

Col Chatphat thought 10-20 DKBA soldiers had infiltrated the camp before the
attack. The raiders are thought to have sneaked across the border between
Ban Mae Okhu and Ban Ya Pho, about three kilometres south of the camp.

In another incident, one DKBA soldier was killed and two others captured by
Thai Border Patrol Police near Huay Kalok camp in Mae Sot district early
yesterday.

The officers spotted them at about 2 am and ordered them to stop for
questioning. When they tried to run off the BPP opened fire.

In the past the DKBA has carried out scores of attacks on Karen refugees
taking shelter in Thailand, believing that the displaced population harbours
and supports rebels of the rival KNU.

In an attack earlier this month, four refugees were killed and thirty
injured when a camp was hit with volleys of mortar rounds. Another was
almost completely razed when about 200 unidentified troops stormed it and
set fire to 1,000 dwellings.

One woman was injured in a separate attack a week ago in the Mae La camp,
which came amid reports that more than 100 Burma-backed troops had
infiltrated Thai territory and were poised for a fresh attack on the camps.

Thailand admitted on Friday that a lapse in security led to the cross border
attack which left four dead.

"We accept we were inactive," National Security Council chief General
Boonsak Kamhaengridirong said.

The comments came as ambassadors from Britain, Australia and the United
States toured camps on the border zone in a show of international concern
over the attacks.

Several countries, including the United States and Britain, which spoke out
as president of the European Union, have criticised Burma's military
authorities for waging what they call a campaign of terror against refugees
in Thailand.

Some NGOs have also criticised the Thai military for inadequately protecting
the border camps, prompting the authorities to announce the removal of
refugees from one of the affected camps to safer areas.

A top Burmese general at the weekend told Thai army chief Gen Chettha that
Rangoon troops were not involved in the recent spate of attacks. Lt-Gen Khin
Nyunt, first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
formerly the State Law and Order Restoration Council, also said the Thai
army could take any action deemed necessary to counter the raids and they
had no control over the Karen renegades.

However, relief workers and refugee sources dismissed the insistence from
Rangoon that its troops were not involved in the raids, and took fresh aim
at the Thai security arrangements for the refugee camps.

"It seems that the Thai authorities are not able to protect the camps
properly," a refugee official said. 

"They were warned of the possibility of an attack on Mawkier but were not
able to prevent it, only firing back once the raiders had left Thai territory." 

*****************************************************

BKK POST: CALL TO EVALUATE BURMA

March 24, 1998

Bhanravee Tansubhapol

Thailand will ask Asean to evaluate Burma's membership after DKBA attacks on
refugee camps on Thai soil, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

Thailand believes the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should evaluate
the progress made by new members Burma and Laos in July, the first
anniversary of their joining the grouping.

"We hope that after a year's membership of Asean, Burma will have made some
progress in resolving its internal problems," he said.

"If the conflict alone the Thai-Burmese border continues, it will, lower the
credibility and value of Asean," the minister said.

The Foreign Ministry is working with the Thai military and the Burmese
government to seek an end to the violation of Thai soil.

Border problems and trade issues will be discussed during the April 7-8
visit to Rangoon by Deputy FM Sukhumbhand Paribatra and Deputy Commerce
Minister Potipong Lamsam, he said.

*****************************************************

BKK POST: THAI WILL PRESS RANGOON TO LOSEN THIGHT NEW REGULATIONS

March 24, 1998

Cross-border trade plunges

Woranuj Mancerungsee

Thailand's deputy commerce and foreign ministers will attempt to persuade
the Burmese government to ease its tough new bilateral trade regulations
during a planned visit to Rangoon early next month.

Border trade between the two countries has plummeted since last December
when the ruling State Peace and Development Council stipulated that all
goods must be traded through US dollars-denominated letters of credit.

Burma badly needs, hard foreign currency to prop up its ailing economy which
is experiencing severe inflation.

The new system replaces the traditional baht-kyat payment and has resulted
in border trade in the Thai northern province of Tak alone to fall from 500
million baht a month to 50 million baht.

Other regulations include import controls to reduce Burma's ballooning
current account deficit and to maintain its foreign currency levels, as well
as curbing inflation.

Paniti Tungphati, chairman of the Thai Trade Chamber in Tak province, said
the new regulations were not practical for border trade as no commercial
banks operated along the border to provide letters of credit.

He also said those involved in border trade are not normally registered and
therefore could not ask for letters of credit from commercial banks.

Mr Paniti said the impact of the regulations was being felt on both sides of
the border but it was worse for Burma as consumers there were forced to pay
more for smuggled goods from Thailand.

The new import controls were also aimed at curbing the import of luxury
items from Thailand, said Niyom Wairaipeknij, chairman, of Border Trade
Committee of Thai Chamber of Commerce.

Burmese companies are allowed to import only 60% of what they export and
goods must be essential to production, such as raw materials.

Border trade between Thailand and Burma reached 8.9 billion baht last year,
with Thailand exporting goods worth 8.3 billion baht and importing 667
million baht.

Overall trade was worth 15 billion baht, with Thailand's importing 2.5
billion baht and exporting 12.5 billion baht.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Ministry will ask the Burmese government to abolish
its monopoly on gem exports, deputy minister Photipong Lamsam said.

He said the Burmese government should limit local firms exporting gems to
$25,000 if it feared companies would export too much.
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