The BurmaNet News: April 10, 1998

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------   
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"   
----------------------------------------------------------
 
The BurmaNet News: April 10, 1998
Issue # 980

Noted In Passing:  "The denial of identification cards to children who are
born in Thailand but do not have the good fortune to be ethnic Thais is a
boon to unscrupulous employers in the sweatshops and sex trade."  -- a
Concerned Teacher in Phitsanulok (see BKK POST: CORRECT THE STATUS OF
MINORITY GROUPS)

HEADLINES:
===========

THE NATION: UNHCR TO GET GREATER ROLE IN REFUGEE ISSUES
BKK POST: SECURITY STEPPED UP AMID FEARS OF ATTACKS
BKK POST: ALIEN EXODUS AT SONGKRAN EXPECTED
THE NATION: ILLEGAL WORKERS WILL GE REPRIEVE
FEER: THE DREAM MERCHANTS 
BKK POST: CORRECT THE STATUS OF MINORITY GROUPS
THE NATION: ARMY HAS DONE ITS BEST TO STOP BORDER RAIDS
BKK POST: JUNTA AMENDS LAWS ON PROSTITUTION
THE NATION: BURMA TRUMPETS ITS IT DEBUT

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

THE NATION: UNHCR TO GET GREATER ROLE IN REFUGEE ISSUES
10 April 1998

Thailand announced yesterday it will allow the United Nations' refugee
agency access to Karen refugee camps in June which it plans to relocate
some 50 kilometres inside the Thai border.

Supreme Commander General Mongkol Ampornpisit said the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will have a greater role in handling the
Karen refugees through collaboration with Thailand.

"The UNHCR will work jointly with Thailand in relocating the refugees to
safer areas further inside Thailand's borders ... .  The camps' new
locations will be decided by the Interior Ministry," he added.

Plans are underway to combine and relocate the camps aimed at facilitating
closer supervision and providing more security and safety for the refugees.

"The move will allow the military and UNHCR to take better care of the
refugees and provide for their security," he said.

Speaking after a National Security Council meeting chaired by Prime
Minister Chuan Leekpai, Mongkol said the UNHCR would be allowed to help in
the planned moving of border camps, but declined to clearly outline the
longer-term role the UN body would be allowed to play in caring for the
refugees.

The NSC meeting followed consultations between the UN, the Foreign Ministry
and the Thai Army.

UNHCR officials in Bangkok said they had not yet been officially informed
of the Thai decision and were unable to clarify the kind of access they
would likely be granted.

NSC secretary-general Boonsak Kamheangridirong said yesterday the meeting
also discussed regulating border responsibilities to deal with any future
border problems.

"The army region will be the main pillar," he said.

He said the delegation of responsibilities will provide the framework to
enable more effective operations along the border and deal with hostile
intrusions by outside forces.

Meanwhile Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra who returned from a
two-day official visit to Burma on Wednesday quoted Lt Gen Khin Nyunt,
first secretary-general of State Peace and Development Council as saying
Burma will accept the voluntarily return of refugees and workers.

Sukhumhand had informed the Burmese junta during his visit about Thailand's
plan to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) a
greater role in supervising Karen refugee camps.

The Foreign Ministry said yesterday Thai authorities will arrest and
execute any members of the Buddhist Karen guerrilla group who cross over
from bases in Burma into Thailand.

The ministry made the comment in a statement issued after Sukhumbhand
returned from a brief visit to Burma.

"The Burmese government does not control the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army," the statement said. "Any contacts between the government and the
DKBA are through intermediaries."

The DKBA was formed in 1994 after a split with the predominately-Christian
Karen National Union (KNU) and is thought to have ties with Rangoon.

Burmese authorities have consistently denied any connection with the DKBA
saying they had not provided assistance to the group in its attacks on
Karen refugee camps, inhabited primarily by rival Karen National Union
(KNU) loyalists.

The DKBA split from the KNU in 1994 following an ideological dispute,
following which, observers say, the splinter group gained backing from the
Burmese junta.

Chuan last month agreed in principle to allowing the UNHCR to assist in
caring for some 90,000 Karen refugees living ,in a string of camps along
the border with Burma.

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

BANGKOK POST: SECURITY STEPPED UP AMID FEARS OF RENEGADE ATTACKS ON CAMPS
10 April  1998

Execute Intruders, Says Burma Junta

Military authorities in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son have stepped
up security following reports that pro-Rangoon Karen forces plan to attack
refugee camps during the Songkran festival.

The disclosure from Col Sanchai Jaruwan, commander of the 7th Infantry
Regiment, came after the Burmese leadership in Rangoon denied control over
the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and suggested that Thai authorities
"arrest and execute" any DKBA members who staged incursions into Thailand.

According to a Foreign Ministry statement, the suggestion was made during
Deputy Foreign Minister Sukhumbhand Paribatra's visit to Rangoon on
Wednesday and Thursday.

Col Sanchai said his regiment had been put on full alert, with security
raised at all camps in Mae Sariang, "particularly those vulnerable to
attacks."

"We will not let the DKBA stage any acts of sabotage on our soil," he
stressed.

The DKBA left four Karens dead and several others injured in cross-border
attacks last month on camps at Huay Kalok and Mae Hla in Tak province
further south.

A National Security Council meeting yesterday agreed that the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should be given access to camps
along the border with Burma in June, Supreme Commander Mongkol Ampornpisit
said.

"The UNHCR will work jointly with Thailand in relocating the refugees to
safer areas further inside Thailand's borders," he said, without clearly
outlining the long-term role of the UN agency.

The relocation will "allow the military and the UNHCR to take better care
of the refugees and provide for their security," he added.

The Interior Ministry will decide on the new camp locations, and NSC chief
Gen Boonsak Kamhaengrithirong will coordinate with concerned agencies
reorganisation of the camps, Gen Mongkol added.

UNHCR officials in Bangkok said they had not yet been officially informed
of the NSC decision.

To protect Karen refugees from attack and prevent them from being lured to
cut trees in the Salween forests, Mae Hong Son authorities have already
begun moving them to safer areas, officials said.

But the evacuation plan has advanced slowly as a result of lack of
cooperation among concerned agencies and resistance from the displaced Karens.

So far 900 out of 12,000 Karens have voluntarily returned to Burma while
the rest have hidden in the Salween forests, sources said.

Thanit Nanthawong, chief of the illegal immigrant suppression centre, who
oversees the evacuation of refugees, said Mae Hong Son authorities plan to
evacuate 158 refugees from Ban Nam Rin camp in Muang district to a
temporary shelter in Mae Surin by the end of the month.

For better management and security reasons, provincial authorities plan to
reduce the number of refugee camps from the current 13 to four.

He admitted that Karens hired to cut trees in the forest resisted the
evacuation plan for fear of loss of income.

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

BANGKOK POST: ALIEN EXODUS AT SONGKRAN EXPECTED
10 April 1998

The government hopes to drive at least 300,000 alien workers out of the
country before June with most leaving on a one-way ticket during the
upcoming Songkran festival.

So far, 120 000 have left peacefully, Trairong Suwannakhiri, the labour
minister, said after emerging from a National Security Council meeting
yesterday.

The repatriation was intended to leave room for employment vacancies for
Thais made jobless by the economic crisis.

Mr Trairong said many employers have cooperated in sending home alien
workers who include those who did not register for temporary work permits.
More than one million are believed to be without permits.

The ministry has advised employers in nine industries to tell alien workers
not to return after taking Songkran holiday leave next week.

This will open up vacancies for up to 300,000 jobs to be taken over by Thai
workers.

Mr Trairong said security measures must be mapped out to keep the alien
workers from re-entering the country.

He said the NSC will take drastic measures against those who bring in
illegal alien labourers. Smugglers of illegal workers will face a 10-year
jail term, employers who hire them a three-year term and people who give
them shelter five years.

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

THE NATION:  ILLEGAL WORKERS WILL GET REPRIEVE
9 April 1998

Politics 

Labour Minister Trairong Suwankhiri said yesterday the government would not
use force to repatriate more than 300,000 illegal workers by the end of the
month as planned earlier. 

''We expect that about 300,000 illegal workers will be repatriated without
force by the end of April,'' he said. 

The ministry also directed nine industrial sectors hiring foreign workers
to dismiss the ones who ask for a long leave during Songkran and replace
them with Thai workers. 

''We have to do this because we face our own unemployment problems. More
than 300,000 unemployed Thais have applied for jobs with the ministry,''
Trairong said. 

Out of the one million illegal workers, more than 200,000 had registered
with the ministry, under the previous government, and the rest were illegal. 

''The licence to hire legal workers will expire in June and we will not
renew their licences,  except for those working in fishing industry,''
Trairong said. 

Smugglers of foreign workers face up to 10 years in jail, employers face
three and those who harbour illegals face up to five years imprisonment. 

The police yesterday rounded up 129 beggars from Cambodia and four gang
leaders in several Bangkok areas, Office of Police Immigration Commissioner
Chidchai Wanasatit said. 

The beggars had been arrested at Bang Kae market, Victory monument,
Pratunam and leading department stores throughout Bangkok, Chidchai said. 

He added gang leaders had smuggled disabled Cambodians, mostly children,
and forced them to beg in Bangkok. The beggars had been forced to make at
least Bt300 a day or they were not allowed to return to their living
quarters. 

''The gang also lead to other criminal activities like pick-pocketing and
selling drugs,'' Chidchai said. 

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


FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW: THE DREAM MERCHANTS
16 April 1998
By Bertil Lintner, Chiang Mai

While Other Asian Businesses Falter, The Golden Triangle's Narcotics Trade
Flourishes

About once a week, Vichai, a 25-year-old painter, boards a bus at Mae Sai,
a dusty border town in the northernmost tip of Thailand.  He sits quietly
and tries not to attract undue attention throughout the four-hour journey
south to Chiang Mai.  The reason for his discretion is simple: His trainers
are stuffed with 2,000 tiny pink or brown pills.

The pills are methamphetamines, or ya ba ("madness medicine"), which Vichai
will sell in Chiang Mai at double what he bought them for on the
Thai-Burmese border.  Vichai uses drugs himself, and needs money to support
his addiction.  "I'm trying to kick the habit, but it's difficult.  And
there's no other way I can make lots of money," he says.

Vichai (not his real name) is also the first link in a long drug running
chain that spans the region and even the globe.  Ironically, as other Asian
businesses reel from the economic crisis, the narcotics trade is booming in
the so-called Golden Triangle, a drug-producing area that spans parts of
Thailand, Burma and Laos.  Exact revenues aren't known, but American drug
enforcement officials estimate that Golden Triangle business pours at least
$600 million annually into Burma's cash-strapped economy -- and much, much
more into Thailand's.

The reasons are several.  Ten bountiful years of opium crops in the Golden
Triangle have sent heroin related drugs flooding onto the streets of
Bangkok, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York and other big cities.  

Trafficking in new drugs like ya ba is also flourishing, and in Thailand it
is now bigger than the heroin trade.  Meanwhile, over-production of heroin
in Burma has lowered retail prices, and with unemployment soaring in Asia,
there are more takers for drugs -- and for jobs as couriers.  There are
also bigger profits all round as the Thai baht weakens.  That's because
heroin is bought in baht but sold in hard currency abroad.  Ya ba, though,
is traded solely in baht.

"Remarkably, the price of heroin has remained stable in baht-terms while
the Thai currency has lost nearly half of its value against the dollar,"
notes a local law enforcement official in Chiang Mai.  So there's more
money to be made once the heroin is successfully smuggled out of Thailand.
(Wholesale buyers in Bangkok sometimes also pay in hard currency.) A year
ago, a 700-gram brick of heroin priced at 170,000 baht used to cost $6,800;
today, because of the weaker baht, it costs only $4,250 (see graphic).

Indeed, few other commodities increase in price as dramatically on being
transported.  The hill farmer earns a pittance for his poppy crop, which is
later made into heroin.  The wholesaler buys the heroin bricks at
refineries inside Burma.

But once across the border in northern Thailand, the bricks become
progressively more expensive the further they move from the production source.

Bangkok's street prices are the highest in Thailand, but pale in comparison
with those overseas. "There's actually no commodity whose price is so
directly determined by free-market factors," says Richard Dickins at the
United Nations a heroin International Drug Control Programme in Bangkok.

There are no hard data on the proportion of drugs flowing into the big
cities, but criminologists estimate that Australia has 45,000 heroin
addicts and 600,000 occasional users.  Nearly all the heroin in Australia,
Hong Kong and Taiwan comes from Southeast Asia, say anti-drug officials.  A
September 1997 report from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration states
that New York City has about 350,000 addicts, who "consume several tons of
heroin each year." About 40% that demand is estimated to be met heroin from
Latin America, while hero from southeast and southwest Asia takes care of
the rest.

Most drugs sent from Bangkok to Ho Kong are smuggled in fishing trawlers
from the Gulf of Siam, and off loaded some where near their destination.
Drug-running into Taiwan is more complex, and uses variety of methods.  The
heroin is hidden inside containers plying from Bangkok to Kaohsiung and
Taipei, or, increasingly, in fishing boats from Fujian to Yehliu per near
Taipei.

According to the local police, most heroin in Taiwan now comes from Burma
via the Chinese mainland.  Individual couriers also carry drugs on
commercial flights, but their illicit stash is tiny compared with the cargo
sent by containers and fishing trawlers.  Anecdotal evidence also suggests
that China is now the preferred route for Golden Triangle heroin heading
for the U.S.

For anti-drug enforcers, the long and difficult fight has become even more
arduous.  "There's almost an oversupply of drugs here," says an
anti-narcotics agent in Chiang Mai.  "And drugs are becoming cheaper than
they used to be". Since 1989 Burma has produced 2,000-2,600 tons of raw
opium annually, and despite some eradication efforts near major towns,
anti-drug officials in Chiang Mai believe this year's yield is going to be
equally abundant.

An additional headache are the new drug concocted in Burma's remote
laboratories: first ya ba, and more recently ecstasy, a designer drug.
Dealers like ya ba. It has certain advantages over heroin: For a start,
while heroin production requires large quantities of raw opium, ya ba is
derived from ephedrine, which can be either produced synthetically or
extracted from the ephedra plant that grows wild in Yunnan, in southern
China, and on the Sino-Burmese border.  Moreover, ya ba is produced and
sold locally, and thus generates quick returns on a relatively small
investment. By contrast, heroin's main markets lie overseas, and that
entails setting up an elaborate smuggling network.

Ya ba is also cheaper for users.  As a result, it has become the drug of
choice in Chiang Mai's flashy discotheques, as well as in the streets of
Mae Sai.  In Bangkok, it retails at only 100 baht a pill.  Young people
--usually jobless -- seem to be both users and dealers.  A doctor working
in Mae Sai believes an estimated 3 million ya ba tablets are smuggled into
Thailand from Burma every month by couriers like Vichai, and that the bulk
2 of this stock is sold near the border.

"We tested high-school kids in Mae Sai and found out that 20 % of them had
traces of methamphetamine in their urine," the doctor says.  Like its more
notorious big cousin, ya ba's price-tag inflates as it moves southwards to
Bangkok (see graphic).

It still isn't as expensive as ecstasy, which retails at 500 baht a pill,
although even that price is half of last year's, indicating that local
production has picked up.  "In the past, it all came from Europe.  Now it's
made locally," says an anti-drug official in Chiang Mai.  Known as ya ee
(ee for ecstasy), the designer drug is readily available in trendy parts of
Chiang Mai and Bangkok.  Curiosity and peer pressure turn young people
towards drugs, and more recently have provided an escape from the
desperation created by the economic crisis.  "When I take drugs, I forget
bout the world and all my problems," says Vichai.

In the meantime, the dream merchants are ringing up huge profits.  Burma's
border owns offer a smorgasbord of drugs, all sold openly.  And in
Thailand, lower wholesale heroin prices-in baht-have attracted buyers from
across the region.  (By contrast, heroin produced in Laos is primarily used
at home.)

Once the drugs are smuggled into countries like Taiwan, the U.S. or
Australia, where addiction is climbing, producers' profit margins are
astronomical, especially as street sales are in hard currency.  According
to the Asian Organized Crime Unit of the New South Wales police in
Australia, a 700-gram unit of heroin in Sydney costs a wholesaler around
A$80,000 ($53,050).  But the street price of the drug -- by now mixed with
other chemicals and packed in small bags -- reaps even bigger profits.
Each bag contains 0.02 grams of heroin and is sold for A$30; that means a
kilogram of heroin retails at more than A$1 million.

Even so, both wholesale and street prices of heroin have declined in
Australia, due to overproduction in the Golden Triangle.  A year ago, the
700-gram brick would have cost A$85,000, says Lisa Maher, a criminologist
at the University of New South Wales.  Heroin is also more readily
available and its purity has increased.  "It's so cheap and there's so much
of it that some dealers don't even bother diluting it," says an Australian
police official.  In the U.S. profits are equally spectacular.  According
to the country's DEA, a 700-gram brick of Southeast Asian heroin has a
wholesale price of $80,000.  But by the time it reaches the streets of New
York in the form of 50-milligram bags of heroin adulterated 50:50 with
lactose, the brick will rake in $280,000.

So lucrative are the profits of the drugs trade that stopping it will take
more than the warning posters stuck in prominent spots in Thailand.  Heroin
smuggling carries the death penalty in Thailand, but few executions are
actually carried out; sentences are usually commuted to 20-30 years in
prison.  The government's determination to eradicate the problem is
suspect. Burma periodically announces the seizure of several thousand
kilograms of opium, but the impressive sounding figures represent less than
1% of the country's total heroin production.  The UN's attempts to
introduce substitute crops in Burma have also been largely ineffective.

And as the economic meltdown continues in other Asian industries, the
number of people willing to take their chances in the illegal drugs trade
is unlikely to diminish anytime soon.  For the addicts, the inefficacy of
anti-drug enforcement is a bonus -- or a misfortune, depending on how you
look at it.  The doctor in Mae Sai is unequivocal in his point of view.
Says he: "It's a social disaster, it's so difficult to stop."

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

BANGKOK POST: CORRECT THE STATUS OF MINORITY GROUPS
10 April 1998
By A Concerned Teacher, Phitsanulok

Letter to the Editor

In a remote mountain district of Tak province a Burmese woman and her two
children, long-term residents of Thailand, board a songthiew bound for Mae
Sot. Their subversive intention is to visit relatives and buy provisions.

A young Thai policeman approaches the songthiew and asks the woman for her
Thai identity card. Thai law restricts the movement of people who have no
ID cards, although some have been born in and spent all of their lives in
Thailand.

But never mind, out of compassion and upon receipt of 20 baht, the young
policeman allows them to go on their way.

The foreigner witnessing the transaction wonders whether, given the
flexibility of their enforcement, these laws serve any purpose other than
to encourage petty corruption.

The denial of identification cards to children who are born in Thailand but
do not have the good fortune to be ethnic Thais is a boon to unscrupulous
employers in the sweatshops and sex trade. These marginalised children have
no choice but to seek illegal employment or falsify papers if they are to
support themselves and help their families.

The declared policy of Thai governments going back at least 10 years has
been to regularise the legal status of ethnic minorities. Still, hundreds
of thousands remain undocumented.

If Thailand is sincere about wanting to eliminate child labour and child
prostitution, steps should be taken to accelerate the implementation of
these policies.

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

THE NATION: ARMY HAS DONE ITS BEST TO STOP BORDER RAIDS
10 April 1998
By Maj Gen Pongthop Thetprateep, Secretary of the Royal Thai Army

(BurmaNet Editor's Note:  see The BurmaNet News, April 6, 1998, Issue
Number 976.)

Letter to the Editor

In reference to the article "Awkward questions on the Thai-Burmese border"
(The Nation, April 5), the Royal Thai Army would like to clarify certain
points raised by the writer which could cause misunderstanding among
members of the public.

In the article, writer Thana Poopat suggested the Thai military knew what
was going on along the Thai-Burmese border but had failed to prevent cross
border incursions by Democratic Karen Buddhist Army troops. One of the
questions raised in the article was whether the Thai Army has the will or
determination to stop the cross-border raids on Karen refugee camps on Thai
territory.

The army insists it has consistently performed its duty to the best of its
ability to protect Thailand's sovereignty and has taken steps to prevent
future incursions. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, in his capacity as defence
minister, the supreme commander as well as the army commander-in-chief, has
on several occasions made statements on defence policy, particularly the
border incursions.

The army appreciates press commentaries on the border situation, including
The Nation's article. In handling border incidents, which are sensitive
matters that could have great implications on ties between Thailand and
neighbouring countries, the army's actions may, at times, appear to be
reacting too slowly to the problem in today's world characterised by the
free flow of information.

The army insists that all army officers and troops are fully committed to
protecting the country's sovereignty under the motto: "The nation, the
religion, the monarchy and the people, above all else."

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

BANGKOK POST: JUNTA AMENDS LAWS ON PROSTITUTION
10 April 1998

Reuters

Rangoon -- Burma's military government has tightened the country's laws to
curb the growing prostitution trade, state media reported on Tuesday.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) amended the
Suppression of Prostitution Act 1949, and raised the jail term for those
convicted of the offence to a maximum of five years, the media said.

Previously, the prison term was "not less than one year and not more, than
three years."  Under the amended law that term would rise to "not less than
one year and not more than five years."

Amendments to the law also redefined the term brothel to include any house,
building, room or any kind of vehicle, aircraft or boat habitually, used
for the intention or purpose of prostitution.             

The media said this was to covert those who ran prostitution rackets in the
guise of massage parlours oil beauty parlours.

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

THE NATION: BURMA TRUMPETS ITS IT DEBUT
10 April  1998

Rangoon -- Burma has launched a high-tech information campaign aimed at
dispelling "negative and false" news reports which show the military junta
in a bad light, reports said on Thursday.

For the first time, CD-ROMs devised by local computer whiz kids are being
produced and exported from here, signalling the country's entry into the
information technology age and countering bad publicity.

The disc, entitled "Myanmar, Another Incarnation," is produced by the state
Cooperative Stores Syndicate Number One and contains facts and information
about the country, the state-owned Mirror daily said. Myanmar is also known
as Burma.

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