Saturday June 24 9:02 AM ET
Deadly Fruit Bat Virus Found

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A deadly virus that killed about 100 people and ruined pig farms across Malaysia last year has been discovered in a fruit bat found in most parts of Southeast Asia, news reports said Saturday.

A team of scientists from Malaysia's top research institution, the University of Malaya, has isolated a strain of the Nipah virus from the Island Flying Fox, a fruit bat that roosts in palm trees in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, said The Sun newspaper.

Lam Sai Kit, a microbiology professor, said his research team has so far discovered the virus in two of 1,000 urine specimens collected from the flying foxes.

Lam could not be reached for comment.

The virus, which swept through a large part of Malaysia early last year, first surfaced in a pig-farming district in Negri Sembilan state, 50 miles south of Kuala Lumpur. It killed 84 people in that area alone and infected hundreds. The virus also sickened and killed thousands of hogs.

Lam warned that since the flying foxes are migratory, it is likely that the virus will spread to other countries. It is also possible that other species of bats or wildlife harbor the virus, he said.

Nevertheless, Lam added that his team had not found any cases of the virus being transmitted directly from fruit bats to human beings.

``There seems to be an inadequate amount and strength of the virus present in the flying foxes to enable them to infect humans directly,'' he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times daily.

``Perhaps the virus needs to multiply in the pig before it becomes infectious to humans,'' he said, noting that the virus died quickly without a host.

In cases where transmission to humans does occur, however, the damage is severe. The Nipah virus is lethal to about 40 percent of human patients, causing severe encephalitis.

The virus is transmitted from fruit bats to pigs, horses and goats when such livestock come into contact with urine from the flying foxes, or consume fruits from which the bats recently ate, Lam said.

Humans, in turn, are infected through direct physical contact with semen and urine from the infected animals.

To prevent its spread last year, the government ordered the destruction of about 1 million pigs in Malaysia, the region's biggest pork producer.

The viral epidemic was declared over in October but in recent weeks, health authorities have once again begun culling more than 1,700 pigs in the central Perak state to prevent a recurrence.

Any hog farm found with even one infected pig must destroy its entire stock.

Because the virus was now found in fruit bats, Lam said it was important not to grow fruit trees near farms that kept pigs, horses and goats.

The Straits Times - June 24, 2000.
Myanmar: No polls without stability

State-run newspaper says a transfer of power to an elected government under a new Constitution is possible, but first there must be stability

YANGON -- Power will be handed over to an elected government in Myanmar under a new Constitution, but there can be no election unless there is stability, an article in a state-run newspaper has said.

""The military government is ruling the country due to circumstances but will not hold on to power forever,'' the two-part article carried in the Myanmar-language Myanma Ahlin daily on Wednesday and Thursday said.

""It is believed that power will be transferred to the government elected by the people under the Constitution. However, there will be no election unless there is stability in the country. It will take time.''

While promising a Constitution and an election, the article did not indicate a timetable for either.

It did not also specify what would constitute stability. The ruling junta often says that one of its greatest accomplishments since coming to power in 1988 has been the establishment of domestic peace through ceasefires with many of the ethnic insurgents who have been seeking autonomy since Myanmar became independent in 1948.

""The military will also be in the new government according to the Constitution,'' the article said.

""The military will not tolerate disintegration of the union or ethnic disunity and will prevent the country from becoming subservient to the leftist or the rightist groups.''

Myanmar had a fractious parliamentary democracy until the military stepped in to seize power in 1962.

The article said a Constitution was ""the bloodline of a country and any loophole could jeopardise the country''.

The 1974 Constitution of the former military-backed socialist government was abrogated when the current government took power in 1988.

The current regime staged a general election in 1990, but declined to hand over power after the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory.

In 1993, the military established a national convention to draw up guidelines for a new Constitution, but it has been in recess since 1996.

The article in Myanma Ahlin also suggested that the NLD should cooperate with the government rather than allegedly destabilise the country in collusion with what it said were external and internal disruptive groups.

Meanwhile, Thailand has called on the United States not to add to the isolation of the international pariah state.

The United States ""should not isolate the Myanmar government'' but should instead deal with its political situation and drug problem separately, said Mr Jurin Laksanawisit, minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office, yesterday. --AP

South China Morning Post
Saturday, June 24, 2000
BURMA

'Junta attacks on mosques' stirring up sectarian strife
GRETCHEN PETERS in Mae Sot, Thailand

Burmese Buddhist and Muslim leaders in exile have accused the country's military leaders of staging attacks on Islamic mosques, while voicing fears the violence could spark sectarian unrest between the two communities.
"We are working with the Buddhist leaders to avoid any unrest and to assure peace," U Kyaw Hla, chairman of the Muslim Liberation Organisation of Burma, said yesterday from his office in Chiang Mai, Thailand. "We are appealing to the people of Burma to stay calm."

The head of the All Burma Young Monks Association said there was evidence the attacks were carried out by soldiers from the ruling State Peace and Development Council in a bid to divert attention from planned anti-government protests.

"To us monks this comes as a sort of propaganda against us," said Ashin Khaymassarra at his hideout in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

The attacks began in mid-May, about a week before the anniversary of the 1990 elections, which were won by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party was then barred from taking power. Thousands of monks had planned to march on Rangoon on May 27 to protest against the ruling junta's decade-long refusal to recognise the poll results.

Late the night before, three military trucks carrying men in civilian dress rumbled up to the Bangali Mosque in downtown Rangoon, according to reports from eyewitnesses cited by the Muslim Information Centre of Burma. About 40 men descended from the trucks, hurled stones through the windows, kicked down the door and smashed the walls with clubs. Then they vandalised the mosque's interior, destroying a Koran, the Islamic holy book, and stealing funds.

Witnesses said the trucks that carried the attackers parked outside a nearby Buddhist monastery, in what appeared to be an effort to make it look like monks had launched the assault.

Four days earlier, about two dozen men, also in civilian dress, attacked another mosque in Rangoon, throwing stones through windows and knocking down the walls with metal pipes. Two Muslim men later died in detention after they went to a local police station to report the attack.

Other acts of violence reported by the centre included beatings, torture, the rape of Muslim women and the destruction of Muslim places of worship, community centres or dwellings to make way for Buddhist pagodas.

The reports did not emerge for several weeks because of restrictions that made it difficult for Burmese Muslims to travel around the country or to make contact with the outside world.

Muslims, who make up about 10 to 15 per cent of Burma's estimated 45 million people, are one of the most persecuted minority groups in a country notorious for rights abuses. Many Muslim families moved to Burma from India in the 19th century - when British colonialists ruled both nations - but they are not recognised as Burmese citizens.

Without national identification cards, Muslims are barred access to education, employment and health care, and suffer routinely at the hands of soldiers. As "foreigners", they cannot be represented by the country's judicial system.

Religious leaders say the ruling junta has repeatedly tried to stir simmering tensions between the two communities, and briefly succeeded in 1997 when anti-Muslim riots erupted in Rangoon and the northern city of Mandalay, resulting in dozens of deaths.

"This was not the first time," said Mr Khaymassarra, referring to last month's attacks. "Whenever there is a political crisis, the Government tries to create problems between Muslims and Buddhists."

Analysts say such a policy could backfire on Rangoon's military leaders, warning that the attacks could spark the same type of mob violence plaguing Indonesia, where hundreds have died in clashes between Christian and Muslim communities.

South China Morning Post
Saturday, June 24, 2000
THAILAND

Golden Triangle drugs output rising
REUTERS in the Golden Triangle
Updated at 12.50pm:

Drugs production and trafficking from Myanmar is increasing rapidly, posing a serious threat to Thailand and other countries in the region, the Thai army said.
Speaking on a tour of Thailand's Golden Triangle region, on the borders of Myanmar and Laos, Thai military officials said the mass relocation of ethnic minorities within Myanmar over the last year had fuelled a massive increase in drugs production.

A report by the Thai security agency says that as of May this year, about 50 methamphetamine factories were newly established inside Myanmar close to Thai border and 10 others had been set up in Laos also close to the Thai border.

Each of the factories could produce at least 100,000 tablets of the drug per day, it said.

''This means that by next year they can produce more than two billion tablets of Yaba [methamphetamine] which is three times bigger than last year,'' a Thai regional army spokesman told reporters at his hillside camp in Thailand's Chiang Dao district.

''We estimate 1999 output at 600 million tablets,'' he said.

The Thai army organised a tour of three separate areas in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son and Tak provinces this week to highlight what they say is the growing threat from Myanmar drugs production and trafficking.

In March, the United Wa State Army, with help from Yangon, began relocating 50,000 people south from the mainland border to towns in Myanmar's eastern Shan state.

At the time, Myanmar's military government announced that the mass relocation plan was to help stamp out opium production by moving people away from areas where they used to grow poppies.

The UWSA consists of former communist rebels who fought against Yangon's military government until 1989 but then agreed a ceasefire with Myanmar's ruling generals.

Yangon says it is fighting hard against the drugs trade and burnt millions of dollars worth of narcotics in a ceremonial drugs burning on Friday.

But Thai narcotics and security agencies say the relocation was for quite a different purpose. They say the aim was to shift drugs production closer to theBut Thai narcotics and security agencies say the relocation was for quite a different purpose. They say the aim was to shift drugs production closer to the Thai border to make use of the country's better infrastructure for trafficking.

They say the development represents a major threat to the security of the whole region.

''Myanmar maintains its policy of supporting the various ethnic minorities living in the areas attached to Thailand which result in a huge influx of drugs, especially methamphetamine to Thailand,'' the army said in its report.

Army officers say Myanmar ethnic minority groups, mainly Wa, Ko Kang and Muhser hill tribes, have already resettled about 100,000 people in Mong Yawn and nearby towns in Shan State opposite Thailand's Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Tak provinces.

Many of these groups are actively involved in narcotics trafficking, they Many of these groups are actively involved in narcotics trafficking, they say.

''Myanmar ethnic groups, especially Wa, are rapidly increasing drugs production and supply to Thailand in order to get quick money to build jungle towns to support their mass relocation plan,'' a Thai army spokesman told a news conference on Friday.

The Straits Times - June 24, 2000.
Yangon makes bonfire of drugs
Top producer of drugs says it will wage the battle alone

YANGON -- Myanmar, one of the world's top producers of illicit heroin and opium, set fire to thousands of kilograms of narcotics yesterday, saying it will continue to battle drugs despite a lack of international assistance.

The country is one of six nations named by the United States as uncooperative in the war on drugs.

Washington says Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of illicit opium and heroin, exceeded only by Afghanistan.

It also says that Myanmar's efforts to stop the flow ""are not commensurate with the extent of the drug problem within its borders''.

The narcotics bonfire, said by officials to welcome the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, included 1,869 kg of opium, 321.7 kg of heroin, 429.5 kg of marijuana and more than 30 million stimulant pills.

Police Maj-General Soe Win said that despite the lack of international aid, Myanmar would continue with its 15-year narcotics elimination plan which began in 1999.

The burning came as White House anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey was visiting neighbouring Thailand to seek greater cooperation in the fight against narcotics production and trafficking.

Vast quantities of heroin and other drugs produced in Myanmar make their way through Thailand to addicts in the United States, Western Europe and Australia.

But Maj-Gen Soe Win claimed cultivation of opium, the raw material for heroin, was down by 31 per cent in 1999 over the previous year, although the widespread abuse of stimulants like amphetamines was a serious threat.

Officials estimated the New York street price of the drugs destroyed at about US$1.3 billion (S$2.25 billion). --AP

Bangkok Post - June 24, 2000.

LABOUR / ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Police net 1,500 in alien drive

About 1,500 illegal migrants, mostly Burmese, have been arrested over the past two days in Bangkok.

The arrests were announced as the Employment Department said it was taking steps to deal with labour shortages and with the reprieve on foreign workers ending in August.

City police said they had rounded up illegal migrants, including Lao, Cambodians and four Russian women.

Pol Lt-Gen Wannarat Kotcharak, city police chief, said the 1,500 had been charged with illegal entry and would be deported immediately.

Raids would be carried out weekly, he said. Pol Gen Sant Sarutanont, deputy national police chief, met senior officers from immigration and other units to update data on illegal labourers, who are thought to number 1.5 million.

The department is carrying out a survey to assess needs so it can arrange for Thais to fill the vacancies.

Somchai Wattana, the department director, called on employers affected by the police action to co-operate in the survey by providing details of the staff they need.

Bangkok Post - June 24, 2000.
DRUGS
US urged to include speed on target list
Clinton aide stresses role of rehabilitation

Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

The United States should include methamphetamines in its international drug-suppression effort, a special adviser to President Clinton was told in Bangkok yesterday.

Jurin Laksanavisit, PM's Office minister supervising the Narcotics Control Board, told Barry McCaffrey, director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, that the stimulant was wreaking havoc on Thai youth.

Thailand wanted Washington to maintain its role in suppressing drug trafficking in the region, Mr Jurin told Gen McCaffrey at Government House.

Gen McCaffrey, who was also urged to support the funding of preventive measures to reduce drug abuse, was responsive to the issues raised, said Mr Jurin.

The US official said smuggling in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea is a major area of interest for Thai and US narcotics agencies. The priorities were to nail the kingpins along with traffickers and underpin the capability of Thai institutions. Gen McCaffrey also met Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai as part of his eight-day swing, which has taken him to China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

"We have learnt more about challenges facing this strategically-located nation," he said. Thailand remained a significant trans-shipment point for drugs, "the presence of which continues to feed the nation's domestic drug addiction problem". Pointing out that methamphetamines were an emerging threat to the world, he said the United Wa State Army was the chief source of the drugs in Thailand. "Virtually all of the synthetic drugs trafficked in Thailand are produced by the Wa in Burma and enter the kingdom at various points along the Thai-Burmese border," said the US official. He called on Thailand, as a signatory to a 1993 regional counter-narcotics agreement, to encourage Burma to participate in bilateral efforts to combat Wa drug production. Though methamphetamines were less harmful than heroin, he said, governments must fight that perception because it had low production costs but high profit margins.

To combat drug problems, there was a need for effective rehabilitation programmes.

"If there's no effective drug treatment, law enforcement can never achieve the purpose," he said.

Bangkok Post-June 24, 2000.
NARCOTICS
Major drug chemical haul
Could produce 72m amphetamine pills
Tak

A consignment of chemicals, enough to produce 72 million methamphetamine pills, has been seized in Mae Sot district.

The 180kg of magnesium stearate, shipped from Bangkok, were seized on Thursday on suspicion the haul was destined for illicit drug production in Burma, said customs chief Boontium Chokewiwat.

The owner, identified only as a Burmese national named Kamal, has not been arrested since magnesium stearate is not illegal in Thailand.

Mr Boontium said Mr Kamal had 30 days to prove the chemical was not intended for use in producing amphetamines. The haul will come under permanent government possession if he fails to produce the evidence.

The seizure came on the eve of a visit to Thailand of White House drug tsar Barry McCaffrey. His goal is to increase co-operation in fighting illicit drugs.

Mr Boontium said the haul was enough to make 72 million methamphetamine pills.

The Nation - June 24, 2000.
Makers on the move

HEROIN and ecstasy production by Burma's ethnic Wa army has shifted southward to an area adjacent Tak and Ranong provinces, as well as to an area beside the Thai-Burmese border's northeastern section, a high-ranking army officer said yesterday.

Besides methamphetamines, ecstasy pills also appear to be growing in popularity, said Third Army Region commander Lt Gen Watanachai Chaimuanwong said.

Despite a heavy crackdown by narcotics officials heroin production had increased from the previous year, he said.

In the past six months, about 5 million methamphetamine pills were seized by enforcement authorities. However, they accounted for only 10 per cent of the entire market, Watanachai said.

The government has given the Army the task of suppressing illegal drug activity in border areas and declared the drug trade a threat to national security.

The army commander's statements came amid a massive migration of ethnic Wa from an area along the Sino-Burmese border to a Wa-controlled area opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district.

Patrols and enforcement have been stepped up along the northern border, Watanachai said. Government officials have also launched a campaign at the village level to discourage local residents from joining the drug trade.

The Nation - June 24, 2000.

Call for international drug law

THE United States' anti-narcotics chief Barry McCaffrey yesterday urged every nation in Southeast Asia to join hands to come up with effective "international legislation" to counter the proliferating drug trade.

"Without the creation of new legislation it is impossible to tackle the problem," McCaffrey told a press conference at the US-funded International Law Enforcement Academy on the first day of his three-day visit to Thailand. He is on the last leg of an historic eight-day Asian tour, on which he has also visited China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Drawing from experience, McCaffrey, who was appointed head of the US drug control office by the US Senate in 1996, said the most crucial element in the fight against international drug syndicates was efficient legislation. Effective national laws alone, he said, were not enough to rid a country of the dreadful "cancer" which had no regard for political demarcation or national sovereignty.

"It is impossible to conceive a success unilaterally. Therefore we need a regional approach," he said.

The benefit from such an approach, he said, was that one country could share information and evidence about the narcotics trade with other countries, and give authorities concerned the necessary tools to track down people involved in the ever more sophisticated and complex illicit trade.

Thailand is facing the threat of a massive influx of methamphetamine from neighbouring Burma, especially from the ethnic Wa-controlled area. A number of Thai officials have quietly admitted the country is fighting a losing battle in the amphetamine war. As many as 600 million tablets are expected to be smuggled into Thailand this year, a Thai agency has predicted.

But as far as Burma was concerned, McCaffrey said the US preferred a "regional approach" through the United Nations Drug Control Programme, or a regional platform where Rangoon could address the drug problems in accordance with the 1968 Vienna Convention.

Washington and a number of Western governments have criticised Burma's military government for not doing enough to curb drug trafficking or punish drug lords who have surrendered in return for an amnesty.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with McCaffrey yesterday, Prime Minister's Office Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, who oversees the government's anti-drug policies, urged the US not to increase Burma's isolation, so the country, one of the world's largest producers of opium, could receive the aid it needed.

Jurin said Washington should make a distinction between politics and drugs, because the latter was an international issue that required the cooperation of the international community as a whole.

He said Burma's isolation had taken its toll on neighbouring countries, especially Thailand, a prime target for the millions of methamphetamine pills produced near its border by drug lords and armed groups that had reached cease-fire agreements with the Burmese junta.

McCaffrey said the US was aware of the enormous suffering, especially by minority ethnic villagers in Burma, but would not contribute any more financial aid to the regime until the political situation there improved.

"Burma suffers more than anybody in the region because it is a source of massive drug production," he said. "But concerns for democracy, human rights and the rule of law will continue to constrain [US] assistance."

Burma experts have said Rangoon stands to benefit from drug money, some of which finances infrastructure projects in the country's north.

Burma has also been accused by international organisations of numerous human rights violations and using forced labour.

Rangoon, however, has dismissed the allegation and announced a drug eradication programme which it claims will wipe out production in 15 years. Rangoon has consistently pleaded for more assistance to help complete the plan.

In last year's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the United States repeated its assessment that Burma and Afghanistan were uncooperative in the fight against drugs. McCaffrey also praised Thailand for its "remarkable" anti-drugs effort. He said Thailand's ability to stamp out heroin production in just two decades was a tremendous accomplishment that was worth studying.

BY VORAPUN SIRVORANART

The Nation

Burma Related News-June 24, 2000.

Police net 1,500 in alien drive