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Bkk Post-Burmese premier due



March 8, 1999
THAI-BURMESE TIES

Burmese premier due

Burmese Prime Minister Than Shwe arrives in Thailand today on the first
visit by a Burmese leader since Rangoon crushed a pro-democracy uprising in
Burma in 1988.

Gen Than Shwe, who is also defence minister and chairman of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council, heads a 43-strong delegation.

According to a senior Foreign Ministry official, the Burmese delegation will
take a special plane from Rangoon to Chiang Rai this morning.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai will meet the Burmese leader there and take him
round a crop substitution programme on Doi Tung before holding talks with
him at a hotel in downtown Chiang Rai.

Gen Than Shwe will later fly to Bangkok, where he will be granted an
audience with His Majesty the King this afternoon.

Tomorrow, Gen Than Shwe will visit Saraburi to inspect a chicken processing
plant of Bangkok Produce Co, a subsidiary of Charoen Phokphand, before
heading back to Rangoon.

Gen Than Shwe's party includes Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the
SPDC; Win Aung, foreign minister; Col Tin Hlaing, home affairs minister;
Maj-Gen Saw Lwin, hotel and tourism minister; and Col Thein Nyunt, minister
of progress for border areas, national races and development affairs.