BurmaNet News: February 19, 2001

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______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
         February 19, 2001   Issue # 1738
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

INSIDE BURMA _______
*AP: Myanmar Copter Crash Kills Leaders
*AP: Myanmar currency hits record free market low 
*DVB: Defence chief orders combat readiness along Thai border 
*Bangkok Post: Uneasy Calm, Both Sides Reinforce Troops
*New York Times:  Burmese Junta, Nobelist End War of Words
*Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Myanmar blames outgoing Thai government for 
border spat

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL _______
*Bangkok Post: Gen Chavalit Stuns Army with Remark
*Agence France Presse: Thai government backs away from Thaksin's planned 
trip to Myanmar 
*The Nation: Officials Hope for a Tougher Burma Stance 
*The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo): Nurse to help leprosy patients in Myanmar 

ECONOMY/BUSINESS _______
*The Rising Nepal: Nepali, Burmese foreign ministers discuss expanding 
trade, aviation cooperation 


__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________



AP: Myanmar Copter Crash Kills Leaders 


February 19, 2001; Monday 5:42 AM, Eastern Time 

AYE AYE WIN 

YANGON, Myanmar 

A Myanmar army helicopter crashed Monday, killing the No. 4 general in 
the ruling military council and two Cabinet ministers, government 
officials said. 

They said the MI-17 Russian-made helicopter, carrying about a dozen 
officials, went down due to engine trouble in southeastern Myanmar. 

Among those killed was Lt. Gen. Tin Oo, known by the title of Secretary 
2 in the ruling junta known as the State Peace and Development Council, 
the officials said on condition of anonymity. 

The others killed were Col. Thein Nyunt, the minister of progress of 
border areas and national races and development affairs, and Brig. Gen. 
Lun Maung, the minister in the prime minister's office, said the 
officials. 

One official told The Associated Press that the aircraft crashed in 
Salween river near Pa-an where Tin Oo and his party had reportedly gone 
to inspect a new bridge. The area is about 100 miles southeast of 
Yangon, the capital. 

Some officials may have swum to safety but the fate of the others was 
not immediately known, the officials said. 

In Yangon, well-wishers and friends thronged the home of Tin Oo to 
comfort his wife. 

Tin Oo, 67, was the chief of staff of the army and the fourth-ranking 
general in the regime that came to power in a bloodless coup in 1988. 

There was no other information from the government about the crash. 

Myanmar's government usually refuses to answer questions by reporters 
who call it on the telephone, and a military spokesman in Yangon did not 
immediately respond to a fax sent to his office Monday with written 
questions about the reported crash. 

Tin Oo had survived at least one assassination attempt in April 1997 
when a parcel bomb airmailed from Japan exploded in his house, killing 
his 32-year-old daughter, Cho Lei Oo, a university lecturer. Tin Oo was 
in the house but escaped unhurt. 

The government blamed anti-government dissidents, but rebel groups 
denied responsibility and said the bombing was the result of a power 
struggle in the ruling junta. 

On Christmas Day in 1996, two bombs tore through a Yangon pagoda that 
Tin Oo had visited hours earlier. Five people were killed but it was not 
clear if Tin Oo was the target. 

Born on May 13, 1933, Tin Oo was commissioned as army officer after 
graduating from the military Officers Training School in 1955. 

After serving in various capacities Tin Oo became the army 
chief-of-staff in 1985 with the rank of a colonel. He was promoted to 
brigadier general in September 1988 and to major general in March 1990. 

In September 1988, Tin Oo was appointed Secretary 2. 

A veteran of campaigns against ethnic and communist insurgents, Lt. Gen. 
Tin Oo had often threatened in public to ''annihilate opponents of the 
regime. But he rarely spoke publicly of politics and was a popular 
commander with the troops. 

The last official appearance of Tin Oo was on Feb. 13 when he 
commissioned the Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalywa highway near the Myanmar-India 
border together with the visiting Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. 


Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962, and the current junta 
came to power in 1988 after a crackdown on a pro-democracy movement. The 
regime keeps a tight grip on the media in Myanmar, and the public 
usually knows very little about the government and its activities. 

The junta has faced intense Western criticism for stifling the 
opposition, which is led by Aung San Suu Kyi. She won the 1991 Nobel 
Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to this Southeast Asian 
country also known as Burma. 



___________________________________________________



AP: Myanmar currency hits record free market low 

YANGON, Myanmar 

Myanmar's currency, the kyat, hit a record free market low Saturday, 
falling to 503 to one U.S. dollar, dealers said. 

The official rate remains at about six kyats to the dollar, but many 
business and consumer transactions are based on the rate quoted on the 
black market, which is tacitly tolerated by the government as necessary 
to carry on business. 

The free market rate has slid quickly since the beginning of the month, 
when it was 450 to the dollar. 

The reasons for the kyat's recent slide were not clear, although the 
trend reflected the military government's failure to boost a sluggish 
economy. Clashes along the border with Thailand were also blamed for the 
latest dip. 

The kyat has eased down steadily from 320 to the dollar at the beginning 
of 2000, especially after government servants were given a fivefold pay 
raise in March. 

The drop in the currency's values has made imported goods dearer. A can 
of condensed milk which cost 190 kyats one week ago was now selling for 
250 kyats, a container of milk powder which was 2,050 kyats now costs 
2,200 kyats and a bottle of Thai-made fish-sauce, or nam pla, which used 
to cost 230 kyats was now 400 kyats. 

Even the value of Foreign Exchange Certificates, or FECs, a special 
currency denominated in dollars, has fallen. The certificates, which 
traded at 349 kyats to the dollar in December, were selling for 407 
kyats on Friday. 

The slide has added to the woes of the military state's moribund 
economy, which financial institutions say suffers serious structural 
problems, leading to high inflation and a dearth of foreign investment. 

In January, the state-controlled Myanma Ahlin daily said the public 
should not worry about the value of the currency because the nation was 
self-reliant and had abundant natural resources. 

Usually the state press blames rumor mongers and market manipulators for 
currency instability. 


___________________________________________________




DVB: Defence chief orders combat readiness along Thai border 

Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 15 Feb 01 

The commander in chief of the defence services has ordered all SPDC 
[State Peace and Development Council] army, navy, and air force troops 
along the Burma-Thai border to be on full combat ready status. 
Long-range heavy artillery pieces have been sent to the camps along the 
border. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Myint Maung Maung 
filed this report on the SPDC's preparation for military operations. 

[Myint Maung Maung] The military alert has been in place since 24 
January when a Thai jet fighter intruded Burmese air space and flew over 
Bokpyin Township and Kawthaung. After recent clashes at Tachilek and Mae 
Sai [in Thailand] the SPDC has supplied long-range heavy artillery 
pieces to camps spread along the border with Thailand. More troops are 
being sent to the border areas as reinforcements. Rangoon has also sent 
new military hardware by boat to Zadetgyi island naval base on 13 
February. Battalions positioned along the border have been ordered to 
report to the respective Tactical Operations Command every hour while 
the War Office in Rangoon is directly controlling all military 
operations along the border. The Thai side is also cautiously evaluating 
the situation and Thai warships and naval vessels are patrolling the sea 
offshore from Ranong. The Thai Border Patrol Police are also reported to 
be in combat readiness. 



___________________________________________________




Bangkok Post: Uneasy Calm, Both Sides Reinforce Troops

 Monday, February 19, 2001



Protest note against Saturday's shooting
Wassana Nanuam and Supamart Kasem 

Thai and Burmese forces continued to confront each other from reinforced 
positions along the border as an uneasy calm prevailed in the area 
yesterday. 
A military source in the Pha Muang task force said both sides were 
awaiting orders from their governments.

"Burma has sent forces to the border, possibly in the belief our new 
government will open talks and ask for the withdrawal of troops of both 
sides from the area," said the source.


Burma has deployed about 1,000 more troops near the anti-Rangoon Shan 
State Army base opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Fah Luang district. 
Another 1,000 Burmese troops and about 500 soldiers of its ally the 
United Wa State Army, or Red Wa, are settled in opposite Fang and Mae Ai 
districts of Chiang Mai. 

The reinforcements are being viewed as preparations for an attack on the 
SSA rebels.

The Burmese have set up a military command centre in the Regina 
Entertainment Casino in Tachilek town, after ordering all Thai employees 
to return home on Saturday, sources said.
Thailand has countered by sending troops and armoured vehicles to 
safeguard areas prone to cross-border raids, particularly in Mae Fah 
Luang. 
The Pha Muang task force has ordered the closure of two border passes in 
Chiang Rai and another pass near Laos to block the supply of essential 
supplies to Burma.

Than Kamnaengdaeng illegal border pass, Chiang Saen checkpoint in Chiang 
Rai and the Golden Triangle border pass near Laos have been closed. 
Burmese troops were reported to have earlier ordered food supplies 
delivered via the Golden Triangle crossing. Sources said the SSA base 
opposite Mae Fah Luang, which houses about 1,000 of the ethnic rebels, 
is the main target for Burmese forces.

Col Yod Suek, chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State, said 
all Shan soldiers were willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary, 
but was confident Rangoon could not overcome them.
"We have fought against the Burmese military junta for over 40 years and 
we will not give up our fight now. It's our prime duty to fight for 
greater autonomy," said Col Yod Suek.

Interviewed at his Doi Kaw Wan base, the 43-year-old Shan leader said Wa 
forces have joined Rangoon in an attempt to crush the Shan State Army.  
A large number of weapons seized from Burmese troops during recent 
clashes are on display at the base-RPG launchers, mortars, assault 
rifles and ammunition. Col Yod Suek said China had supplied these 
weapons to Burma. 
He denied Burmese junta claims that Thailand has asked the SSA to help 
stop illicit drug production and smuggling along the border.

It was the SSA's own policy to end drug production, which posed a threat 
to Shan people and the world community, he said.

Shan efforts to fight drugs along the border opposite Mae Fah Luang 
district had disrupted trafficking in the area and the operations of the 
Burmese military and its Wa ally, he said.

Shan sources said many young men volunteered to join the SSA and fight 
for independence from Burma. Shan men begin three years of military 
training at age 16. After completing training they are recruited by the 
SSA and receive a monthly salary of 300 baht. Those with the rank of 
lieutenant receive 600 baht a month.

Thai authorities in Tak's Mae Sot district are preparing a protest to 
Burma following Saturday's shooting of a villager by Burmese troops. Mae 
Sot district chief Samart Loyfa said he would send the aide memoir to 
Burmese authorities in Myawaddy.

___________________________________________________




New York Times:  Burmese Junta, Nobelist End War of Words


Talks may set stage for political reforms

Seth Mydans,    Sunday, February 18, 2001 
  


Bangkok -- The first sign that something unusual was going on was the 
disappearance in Burma of editorial cartoons pillorying the country's 
pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as a "democracy princess," a 
"political stunt actress" and a "Satan of destruction." 

Then the diatribes against her that have been a staple of the state- 
controlled press became more muted and indirect. Soon after that, 
newspapers stopped printing periodic announcements of forced "voluntary 
resignations" of members of Suu Kyi's political party. 

"The papers are even less interesting now than they were, if you can 
imagine that," said a Western resident of Burma. 

Over the past month, the reason has emerged -- for the first time since 
1994, the military junta that runs the country has begun holding talks 
with Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Both sides have suspended 
their war of words in a tentative period of what diplomats call 
"confidence building." 

Most experts agree, though, that there is still a clear bottom line. The 
military that has ruled Burma since 1962, and the current junta -- in 
power since 1988 -- have no intention of giving away or sharing any 
substantive power. 

"At this point, the most we can expect is some loosening up around the 
edges," said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Burma who is an emeritus 
professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. 

It is possible that the talks are a ploy to make the government appear 
more flexible in the hope that international sanctions will be eased and 
foreign aid will begin to trickle in again. 

The United States and Europe have been squeezing Burma for years with 
political pressure and sanctions. The United States has banned new 
business deals there by U.S. companies and refuses visas to Burma 
government officials. The European Union has scaled back contacts with 
an Asian regional grouping that includes Burma. 

The difficulties with the West were set off when the military suppressed 
a peaceful democratic movement that swelled in 1988. Thousands of people 
were killed in military massacres. 

Two years later, in a monumental miscalculation, the military held a 
parliamentary election in which Suu Kyi's party, the National League for 
Democracy, won 88 percent of the seats. The junta quickly annulled the 
results and instituted an even more thorough political clampdown. 

Now the government seems to have changed tack sharply. In its first 
substantive gesture, last month it released 85 imprisoned members of the 
National League for Democracy. It is still believed to be holding as 
many as 1, 700 political prisoners, including 35 people who were elected 
to parliament in 1990. 

If the talks are more than public relations, several factors may be at 
play, 
and economic pain appears to be chief among them. Burma's economy is a 
mismanaged shambles and getting worse, with inflation rising, the 
currency rapidly losing value, some of the last few foreign investors 
pulling out, and economic growth slowing to a crawl. 

Monopolies run by the military and its cronies have skewed and sapped 
the economy. The World Bank recently described Burma as "trapped in 
abject poverty. " 

A parallel source of pressure has come from the Association of Southeast 
Asian Nations, the regional economic grouping that admitted Burma as a 
member in 1997 and has mostly pursued a policy of economic and political 
engagement. 

The Asian financial crisis that same year dashed hopes in Burma for a 
surge in regional trade and investment. And the continuing political 
intransigence of the government has soured some of its neighbors on 
forging closer ties. 
 

___________________________________________________




Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Myanmar blames outgoing Thai government for 
border spat


February 18, 2001, Yangon 

Myanmar's state-run press carried commentaries on Sunday that accused 
the outgoing government of Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai of starting 
the border clash that claimed the lives of six civilians last weekend, 
for political reasons. 

The article appeared on the same day that the new cabinet of Thai 
telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra was to be sworn in to power 
by Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Hua Hin, southern Thailansd. 

Thaksin has made visiting Myanmar (Burma) one of his foreign policy 
priorities, and has appointed General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who is 
known to have close ties with the Myanmar's military junta, his new 
defence minister. 

The new Thai government comes to power at a time when Myanmar-Thai 
relations are at a new low in the wake of a cross-border artillery clash 
on February 11 that left six Thai and Myanmar civilians dead, and killed 
five Myanmar soldiers. 

Thailand's military has blamed the incident on an incursion of 200 
Myanmar soldiers on to hill E-7 near Mae Sai border town, 700 kilometres 
north of Bangkok. 

Myanmar, in commentaries published Sunday in the government's New Light 
of Myanmar newspaper, has blamed the clash on an "erratic scheme with 
ulterior motives." 

"I can vivedly see that the old (Thai) government which was defeated in 
the recent election created this problem to be solved by the new 
government," said Myanmar columnist Kappiya Kan Kaung. 

Myanmar's junta often uses newspaper commentaries written by fictitious 
journalists to voice the regime's opinions on sensitive issues. 

The Sunday commentary claimed that the disputed hill on the Thai- 
Myanmar border was in fact in Myanmar territory and the Thai military 
had only reclaimed it a month ago. 

Oddly, Thailand's incoming defence minister Chavalit, has publicly 
agreed with the Myanmar claim that the cause of the clash was disputed 
territory, much to the irritation of certain Thai generals who have 
accused Myanmar of an incursion. 

When Chavalit was defence minister more than a decade ago he made 
several goodwill trips to Myanmar during which he secured several 
logging concessions for Thai businessmen and facilitated other deals. 

In an apparent reference to Chavalit, the New Light of Myanmar 
commentary published Sunday noted, "The truth is that there are also 
(Thai) gentlemen who can weigh things most reasonably and who would like 
to maintain friendly relations with far sightedness and dignity." 

It added, "Their opinion is thus different from that of some of the 
militant senior officers who have gradually become the pawns of smart 
(Thai) politicians." 

Myanmar's military junta, a pariah among western democracies for its 
human right record, has had consistently poor relations with the 
outgoing Thai administration under Chuan, who during his three years as 
premier never visited Yangon (Rangoon). 

Outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan likewise earned Yangon's 
wrath on several occasions by urging the Association of Southeast Asian 
Nations (ASEAN) to paly a more pro-active role in solving Myanmar's 
political problems. 


___________________ REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL___________________
				

Bangkok Post: Gen Chavalit Stuns Army with Remark

 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2001



Doubts raised about defence suitability
Sermsuk Kasitipradit, Subin Khuenkaew and Wassana Nanuam

Senior army officers have questioned New Aspiration leader Chavalit 
Yongchaiyudh's suitability for the defence portfolio after he blamed the 
lack of a clear border line for the incursion of Burmese troops into 
Thailand. 
Gen Chavalit, a former army commander-in-chief, said last week he was 
confident the clash in Chiang Rai's Mah Fah Luang district would not 
have occurred if the border had been clearly demarcated in the area. 
"Burmese forces intentionally encroached on our sovereignty by seizing 
our forward outpost in Mae Fah Luang, which is nearly a kilometre inside 
our territory," a Third Army colonel said.
"It has nothing to do with the border line, since it was quite clearly 
marked that the outpost is in Thai territory."Other senior officers were 
also amazed by the remark, he said.

The Burmese military had shown its contempt and disrespect for Thai 
sovereignty by using force to take the base for use as a springboard to 
attack the Shan State Army.

An estimated 200 Burmese troops had seized Ban Pang Noon paramilitary 
outpost on the night of Feb 8, capturing 19 paramilitary rangers. 
The Burmese were forcefully evicted, leaving behind several dead, in the 
early hours of Feb 10 after the rangers escaped.

Burma has denied that any such incursion occurred.

A cavalry officer who was in charge of security at Mae Sai border town 
said Gen Chavalit's remark was inappropriate from a man who would soon 
become the country's next defence minister.

It was totally contrary to statements made earlier by several leading 
armed forces officers, including Supreme Commander Gen Sampao Chusri, 
army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont and Third Army commander Lt-Gen 
Wattanachai Chaimuenwong, who had all condemned the incursion and said 
it was intentional. 
Several Third Army officers said they were concerned the new defence 
minister might take a compromising approach toward the Burmese military 
junta, which could run against national interest.

"To deal with them [Burmese] we have to negotiate from a position of 
strength and unity, not weakness," one officer said.

None of the officers who commented thought the time appropriate for Gen 
Chavalit to make a trip to Rangoon.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said his first official foreign 
trip will be to Burma for talks on drug trafficking and border security 
issues. 
Gen Chavalit has also criticised the outgoing administration for its 
failure to complete the demarcation of the border between the two 
countries.


___________________________________________________




Agence France Presse: Thai government backs away from Thaksin's planned 
trip to Myanmar 

BANGKOK, Feb 19 


Thailand's new government has backed away from plans for Prime Minister 
Thaksin Shinawatra to visit Myanmar shortly to discuss fighting on the 
border earlier this month. 

Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Foreign Minister Surakiart 
Sathirathai, among the 35-member cabinet sworn in Sunday, said there was 
no urgent need for the premier to meet with Myanmar's military regime. 

Chavalit said his ministry would consult with the foreign affairs 
department and other security organisations over the issue. 

"We will not go soon because first we need to talk about whether we 
should go or not," he told reporters as he went into the cabinet's 
inaugural meeting. 

Thaksin said last week that he would visit Myanmar shortly after his 
cabinet was sworn in, to begin addressing serious problems including the 
border tensions, the drugs crisis and illegal immigration. 

But his comments were criticised as an over-hasty reaction to the 
fighting which had thrown negotiations between official border 
committees into disarray. 

Chavalit said the government needed to establish the facts behind the 
trouble at the Mae Sai checkpoint where the two national armies traded 
fire in a conflict touched off by warring ethnic rebels. 

The area has been in a state of tense stand-off since last Tuesday when 
the crossing was closed amid fears new fighting could break out at any 
time. 

The Thai army has said it may draft its top brass to negotiate with 
Myanmar over the border tensions, after initial talks failed to resolve 
the problem. 

The United States has issued an advisory warning its citizens to 
exercise caution in the border region with Myanmar. 

Myanmar denies being responsible for the artillery attack on Mae Sai, 
and accuses the rebel Shan State Army (SSA) of shelling the town, as 
well as its twin settlement on the Myanmar side, Tachilek. 

The official media in Yangon has lashed out at the Thai army's role in 
the affair, accusing it of being in league with drug traffickers along 
the rugged border region. 

It also said it suspected the Thai army was in the throes of reviving 
the World War II-era "Greater Thailand Policy" aimed at annexing parts 
of Laos, China and Myanmar. 


___________________________________________________




The Nation: Officials Hope for a Tougher Burma Stance 

Monday, February 19, 2001



DON PATHAN 
The Nation 

MAE SAI - As the country's new leadership settles into power, a growing 
number of Thai Army and government officials are concerned that any cosy 
arrangements between leading members of the Thaksin government and the 
Burmese generals will come at the expense of national security.  
Since the clashes between Thai and Burmese troops just over a week ago, 
the Thai Army, working in tandem with the Foreign Ministry, has won 
praise from the public for its prompt action, including the closing of 
the Mae Sai-Tachilek border crossing amid a heavy build-up of Burmese 
troops along the northern border. Many said the officials were able to 
act swiftly because there were no politicians around as the country was 
going through a change of government. 

As mortar shells were exchanged across the border, the Third Army 
commander, Maj-General Wattanachai Chaimuangwong, dropped an even bigger 
bombshell, accusing Burmese army officers of receiving kickbacks from 
drug dealers responsible for flooding Thailand and the world with 
millions of methamphetamine tablets and tonnes of heroin. 

A Pandora's Box has been opened indeed, and it will be a very long time 
before the bitterness subsides, especially at the local level between 
the Third Army and Burma's Triangle Command. 
For the time being, Thai officials say, Thaksin cannot afford to let his 
guard down and go soft on Rangoon over drugs and security, two issues 
that go hand in hand in the trouble-plagued neighbouring country.  
The Burmese government has for the past decade allowed the United Wa 
State Army (UWSA) to expand its stronghold in Panghsang on the Chinese 
border to areas adjacent to Thailand's Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai without 
opposition.  
Rangoon signed a cease-fire with the Wa in 1989, thus neutralising a 
20,000-strong army that had enough weapons to last it another decade. 
The Burmese generals did not want these weapons to fall into the hands 
of other rebel groups, namely the Karen, Shan, Mon, Karenni and Burmese 
students who had fled from their campuses to the jungle to take up arms 
against the military regime. 

For the Wa, the cease-fire was an opportunity for them to expand their 
heroin trade from the Chinese border to the Thai northern border. Along 
the way they clashed with the arch-rival Shan army, taking a big load 
off Rangoon's shoulders in its war against drug lord Khun Sa.  
But with Khun Sa out of the picture since his surrender in January 1996, 
the cease-fire had lost some of its appeal for Rangoon. Not long after 
the surrender, Rangoon asked the UWSA to pull back its troops and return 
them to their headquarters in Panghsang, issuing two ultimatums without 
specifying the consequences should the Wa not comply. 

The UWSA ignored the demands and instead reached out to Thai merchants, 
making deals for massive infrastructure and construction projects at 
their new stronghold Mong Yawn, adjacent to Chiang Mai's Mae Ai 
district. A temporary checkpoint was opened to facilitate the flow of 
goods, and Thai soldiers and drug officers looked on uneasily as a new 
Wa city was built.  Rangoon's ultimatums were dropped, and the UWSA 
became the buffer against the Thais that the Burmese generals were 
looking for. 

For a while business went well, until authorities found the bodies of 
nine Thai villagers beaten to death along the Thai-Burmese border in 
Chiang Mai's Fang district about a year ago. All fingers pointed to the 
Wa and their new city. Many believed the killings were the result of a 
drug deal gone bad. Authorities were forced to close the border, thus 
marking the first real attempt by Thailand to impose an economic 
sanction on the group.  
Around the same time, security officials came out in full force, 
imposing curfews on border towns in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and then 
prime minister Chuan Leekpai paid a visit to the area. 

Thai drug officials said the UWSA was responsible for flooding the 
country with millions of methamphetamine tablets, locally known as yaa 
baa, while the United States government called them the world's largest 
armed drug-trafficking group. A number of the UWSA's members have been 
indicted in the US for drug trafficking. 

Over the past year the UWSA has taken a major step towards expanding its 
control along the Thai border, relocating thousands of ethnic Wa and 
Chinese Kokang villagers from areas along the Chinese border to new 
cities adjacent to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces. 

Rangoon defended the move, saying it was in line with the UWSA's 
opium-eradication programme. The Thai Army and narcotics officials did 
not buy it and saw their new neighbours as a security threat.  
During last week's clashes along the northern border in Mae Sai and Mae 
Fah Luang districts, Thai officers on the front line insisted that Wa 
soldiers had been called in by the Burmese to take up positions against 
the Thai military as well as the Shan State Army (SSA), which Rangoon 
accuses of being supported by the Thai Army. 

Though the Thai government and Army have denied supporting the SSA, the 
Shan rebels nevertheless gained considerable stature in the eyes of the 
Thai public by standing up to the Burmese. Many in the area are ethnic 
Shan themselves. 

Meanwhile, SSA commander Colonel Yawd Serk has made it clear that he has 
no bone to pick with the UWSA. The two sides, he said, fought bitterly 
while Khun Sa was around and gained nothing by it. 

"The Wa are too smart to become a Burmese pawn," Yawd Serk recently told 
reporters visiting Doi Kaw Wan. 





___________________________________________________


The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo): Nurse to help leprosy patients in Myanmar 

February 19, 2001, Monday 

Atsushi Morishita Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer ; Yomiuri 


"I hope I can eliminate prejudice against Hansen's disease (leprosy) in 
Myanmar through my nursing-care activities," said 47-year-old nurse 
Mutsuyo Ichihara. "I want to show Myanmar medical workers that nursing 
care should be about providing support to Hansen's patients and helping 
them to live the way they want to." 

Ichihara belongs to a six-member team of doctors and medical technicians 
being dispatched by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to the 
city of Mandalay in central Myanmar for a month. The team will leave 
Japan on Feb. 26. 

According to a 1998 survey, Myanmar has the sixth-highest rate of 
Hansen's disease in the world, with 10,005 sufferers. 

During her stay, Ichihara will be expected to provide nursing care to 
Hansen's patients. To help her in her efforts to communicate with those 
patients, she recently began studying Burmese. 

Ichihara spent nearly 20 years taking care of patients with chronic 
diseases at a national sanatorium called Tokushima Hospital. Four years 
ago, she was transferred to another national sanatorium--this one 
specifically for patients with Hansen's disease, Oshima Seishoen, which 
is located on an island off Kagawa Prefecture in the Seto Inland Sea. 

Ichihara is chief nurse of a ward for patients physically disabled by 
the disease. 

When she learned she was to be transferred to Oshima Seishoen, Ichihara 
said she worried about whether she could do the job because of the long 
history of prejudice against people with leprosy. 

"I wondered how I would deal with patients burdened by miserable pasts. 
I also wondered whether my experiences would be of any use there," she 
recalled. 

However, she said she soon overcame her fears. "If you greet patients, 
talk to them and think about them, you soon build up an understanding," 
she said. 

Hansen's is a curable disease and is not highly infectious. However, 
problems have arisen concerning the provision of suitable nursing care 
for those disabled by the disease and overcoming deep-rooted prejudice 
against its victims. 

___________________________________________________







_______________ ECONOMY AND BUSINESS _______________
 

The Rising Nepal: Nepali, Burmese foreign ministers discuss expanding 
trade, aviation cooperation 

via Nepalnews.com web site, Kathmandu, in English 18 Feb 01 

The Nepali and Burmese foreign ministers have held bilateral talks in 
Rangoon to discuss growing ties between the two countries, a resumption 
of direct flights and the promotion of trade and tourism. The following 
is the text of a report by Nepalese newspaper The Rising Nepal via 
Nepalnews.com web site on 18 February 

Kathmandu, 17 February: Minister for Foreign Affairs Chakra Prasad 
Bastola held bilateral talks with the foreign minister of Myanmar Burma 
, Win Aung, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Myanmar 
in Yangon Rangoon on Friday 16 February . 

Welcoming Foreign Minister Bastola, Mr Aung expressed satisfaction on 
the ever-growing relations of friendship, understanding and cordiality 
subsisting between the two countries and stressed the need to explore 
areas of common interests to further strengthen and deepen these 
relations in the days ahead, according to the Foreign Ministry. 

Both foreign ministers agreed to explore all possible areas of 
cooperation between the two countries with open mind and work together 
for attainment of common goals for mutual benefit. 

Minister Bastola agreed that the rhythm of talks since the courtesy call 
on the chairman of SPDC State Peace and Development Council in the 
morning was up to Nepal's expectation and added that enhanced bilateral 
relations would provide strength to both the least developed countries 
in managing their economies. 

Pointing out that Buddhism and the people of Nepalese descent were two 
important factors bringing the people of the two countries together, the 
minister stressed the need for developing a mechanism for broader 
cultural exchange between the two countries. 

Responding to this call, the foreign minister of Myanmar said that a 
draft of memorandum of understanding on cultural exchange was being 
developed by Myanmar with a view to reaching an appropriate agreement 
with Nepal. 

The Nepalese side stated that in view of the existing air service 
agreement, direct flight need to be resumed between Nepal and Myanmar. 

The Myanmar side agreed to this and suggested that Nepal could think of 
utilizing Mandalay International Airport as an option for air connection 
between the two countries or beyond. 

Informing that private airlines were coming up both on the domestic and 
international flights in Myanmar, it was hinted that arrangement for 
private airlines operations could be made if the national flag carriers 
were not equipped to fly to the agreed routes. 

A need to explore and identify tradable items between the two countries 
was strongly felt. Both countries agreed on the possibilities of trading 
in primary products on the basis of each other's needs. 

Both countries agreed that there was a possibility of promoting tourism 
between the two countries, particularly pilgrimage traffic from Myanmar 
to Nepal and visitors from Nepal to Myanmar. 

Restart of air services is expected to lead to the promotion of 
international tourism between the two countries. 

Promotion of high value products, such as gems and jewellery, by 
facilitating the private sector companies of both countries was also 
seen as another possibility between the two countries. 

The possibility of using land and sea routes for increasing trade was 
also discussed. The Myanmar side informed that some important 
infrastructures were coming up, which can facilitate the use of these 
alternative routes in the future. 

It was agreed that the embassies of both countries located in the 
respected capitals would be asked to facilitate the process of 
interactions between the governments and the people of the two 
countries. 

Foreign Minister Bastola also extended an invitation to his counterpart 
to pay an official visit to Nepal on a date convenient to both sides, 
according to the ministry. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola paid a courtesy call 
on Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of the 
Union of Myanmar Senior Gen Than Shwe at the People's Assembly in Yangon 
on Friday morning. 

On the occasion, the two dignitaries exchanged views on common issues of 
bilateral, regional and international interests, according to the 
Foreign Ministry. 

Discussion was also held on exploring the ways and means to further 
strengthen the age-old ties of friendship, cordiality and mutual 
cooperation between Nepal and the Union of Myanmar. 

Foreign Minister Bastola was accompanied by the officials of the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the charge d'affaires of the Royal 
Nepalese embassy in Yangon. 








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