[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Mizzima: Burmese government cracks



--------------A0B18BAA00A18034070912BB
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

              Burmese government cracks down rice smuggling

Dhaka, June 20, 2001
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

            Since May this year, the authorities in Arakan State of
Burma have increased their crack down on the rice smuggling across to
Bangladesh and as a result there is a halt in rice smuggling which was
otherwise a booming business for traders in this western part of the
country.

The Na Sa Ka (Burmese border security forces) have given a stern warning
to the traders in Burma side not to smuggle rice to Bangladesh and an
order has been reportedly given to the security forces to shoot anyone
found with the rice smuggling in the Bay of Bengal.

Due to the crack down on rice smuggling, no smuggling boat carrying rice
from Burma reaches to Bangladesh side, reports from Teknaf border town
in Bangladesh suggest.

Not less than ten smuggling boats, which carry about 1,500 rice bags
each, used to reach Teknaf town everyday. These boats carried rice from
Irrawaddy and Arakan State of Burma.

However, the traders continue to smuggle other commodities such as
onion, mangoes, spices, beetle nuts, wood, cane, etc. to Bangladesh
after bribing the police and intelligence personnel in Burma side. "The
bribe money is between 50,000 to one lakh kyat for a boat", said an
Arakanese trader.

The government in Burma tightly controls rice export. The government
statistics show that it plans to increase rice export up to 300,000
metric tons in this year. It shipped a total of 110,000 tons of 25
percent broken rice grade last year, mainly to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, in Arakan State, price of rice has been increased double
since May from 2,000 kyat to 4,000 kyat for a bag of 25 percent broken
rice grade.



--------------A0B18BAA00A18034070912BB
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>

<center><b><u><font color="#3333FF"><font size=+2>Burmese government cracks
down rice smuggling</font></font></u></b></center>

<p><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+1>Dhaka, June 20, 2001</font></font>
<br><font color="#FF0000"><font size=+1>Mizzima News Group <a href="http://www.mizzima.com";>(www.mizzima.com)</a></font></font>
<p><font size=+1>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Since May this year, the authorities in Arakan State of Burma have increased
their crack down on the rice smuggling across to Bangladesh and as a result
there is a halt in rice smuggling which was otherwise a booming business
for traders in this western part of the country.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The Na Sa Ka (Burmese border security forces) have given
a stern warning to the traders in Burma side not to smuggle rice to Bangladesh
and an order has been reportedly given to the security forces to shoot
anyone found with the rice smuggling in the Bay of Bengal.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Due to the crack down on rice smuggling, no smuggling
boat carrying rice from Burma reaches to Bangladesh side, reports from
Teknaf border town in Bangladesh suggest.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Not less than ten smuggling boats, which carry about 1,500
rice bags each, used to reach Teknaf town everyday. These boats carried
rice from Irrawaddy and Arakan State of Burma.</font>
<p><font size=+1>However, the traders continue to smuggle other commodities
such as onion, mangoes, spices, beetle nuts, wood, cane, etc. to Bangladesh
after bribing the police and intelligence personnel in Burma side. "The
bribe money is between 50,000 to one lakh kyat for a boat", said an Arakanese
trader.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The government in Burma tightly controls rice export.
The government statistics show that it plans to increase rice export up
to 300,000 metric tons in this year. It shipped a total of 110,000 tons
of 25 percent broken rice grade last year, mainly to Bangladesh.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Meanwhile, in Arakan State, price of rice has been increased
double since May from 2,000 kyat to 4,000 kyat for a bag of 25 percent
broken rice grade.</font>
<p>&nbsp;</html>

--------------A0B18BAA00A18034070912BB--