Burma Related News - Aug 6, 2000.

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HEADLINE

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AFP - Arms, drugs, piracy and flood of illegal workers rock Thai town

AFP - Asian democrats see hard work ahead despite inroads
AP - Politicians Say Asian Democracy Is Creeping Forward

Sunday Times - Enid Blyton goes to Burma?

Xinhua - Myanmar-Thai Joint Trade Commission Meets in Yangon

Bkk Post -Crackdown fails to stem Burmese influx

The Nation - Remnants of Ayutthaya discovered in Burma

The Nation - No let up in migrant flood from Burma

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INTERNATIONAL PROTEST AGAINST JAPANESE GOVERNMENT ON AUG 8.

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Sunday, August 6 4:03 PM SGT
Arms, drugs, piracy and flood of illegal workers rock Thai town

RANONG, Thailand, Aug 6 (AFP) - Once a quiet fishing village on the southern tip of Thailand's border with Myanmar, Ranong has become a haven for gun runners, drug smugglers and pirates, military sources say.

The Thai army's push to close off the rugged northern reaches of the Myanmar border to drug smugglers has forced all manner of illegal trade to be funnelled instead through Ranong.

"Because the Third Army has cut off the flow of drugs in the north they are now flooding into the country via Ranong," said Lieutenant General Narong Denudom, commander of the Fourth Army which patrols the southern border.

Visitors to Ranong, with its leafy streets and neat harbour filled with fishing boats, would never guess that it has become the new hotspot along Thailand's 2,401 kilometer (1,490 mile) border with Myanmar.

But Thai army sources here say it has been assailed by a range of serious criminal activity, and become a transit point for the amphetamines which are now Thailand's biggest drug problem by far.

Traffickers thwarted by the Third Army in the north have reportedly begun sending drugs by boat and plane into Thailand via Ranong, a much more efficient route than the bumpy overland trail.

"We have not been able to confirm that the drugs are coming in by plane yet but we do know that drugs are being smuggled by fishing boats to Ranong," an army source told AFP.

Drugs are also being moved through the resort town of Phuket, which lies about 300 kilometres away, and distributed from there through Thailand's south, he said.

The ongoing conflicts between Myanmar's military junta and various ethnic rebel groups have also made their mark.

"There is no rebel activity here but the groups are involved in moving armaments," the source said.

Among the groups known to be engaged in the arms trade are the ethnic Arakans and the Karen National Union, he said.

Ranong is also believed to have become a base for piracy in the region, and home to "coordinators" who tip pirates on the most lucrative targets, raking in a third of the profits in return.

The pirates lurk in Myanmar waters, hiding behind the multitude of islands in the Andaman Sea, and dart out on speedboats when they see a fishing vessel approach.

"Then they drag the boat behind the island and send a letter to the owner, asking for compensation," the army source said. The ransom for the safe return of boat and crew ranges between 300,000 and five million baht.

However, the problem has eased in recent months because Thai fishers are no longer legally permitted to work in Myanmar waters -- although illegal fishing does go on.

Yangon cancelled Thai fishing licenses in October after the government supplied an escape helicopter to five anti-junta gunmen in exchange for the release of 38 hostages held captive at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok.

But apart from the high-profile issues of gun running and piracy, the biggest headache for authorities here are the 2,000 illegal workers who arrive every month from Myanmar.

Up to 100,000 of them are living and working in Ranong and surrounding villages, up from 35,000 10 years ago, the army source said. Many more travel to other Thai provinces to work in factors and on fishing boats.

"This is a long-term problem which we are very concerned about," he said.

"Thai businessmen like to hire Burmese workers because their wages are much lower than Thais will work for," he said. Some factories pay just 60 baht (1.50 US) a day, well below the Thai minimum wage of 169 baht.

Organised crime groups demand between 3,000 and 5,000 baht for passage to Ranong, and then extort 200 baht every month from the illegal workers as protection money.

The practice allows 20 billion baht to flow out of the country untaxed every year, and poses grave risks to the young men shipped in and out hidden inside air-conditioned fish containers, the source said.

Sunday, August 6 3:42 PM SGT

Asian democrats see hard work ahead despite inroads

SINGAPORE, Aug 6 (AFP) - Asia faces an uphill battle for ensuring full democracy despite significant inroads such as holding free elections in Taiwan and Indonesia, the region's democrats said Sunday.

They said they expect the advance of information technology, and the wide use of the Internet, to boost their campaign for more open political systems.

Martin Lee, chairman Hong Kong's opposition Democratic Party, said some Asian leaders wrongly argued that Western-style democracy was not suited to the region because of the vast cultural diversity.

"I think it is important for the world to know that we Asians are not a different people. And if democracy is a good thing for the people of any continent, then it is good for the people of this continent," he told a news conference.

Lee, a member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council, attended a forum on "political openness and democratic accountability" held here Saturday.

Lim Guan Eng, vice chairman of the Democratic Action Party in Malaysia, said democracy was boosted within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping since the first democratic elections in Indonesia last year.

The elections followed the fall of president Suharto.

But Lim also noted the presence of laggards within ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Thailand has made tremendous progress, but I think generally, ASEAN countries ... should take a proactive stand towards democracy," he said.

"I think it's going to be a painful process. From our own experiences, democracy is never given. It must be fought for and I think the people of ASEAN countries will still have a lot of fighting do to," he said.

Hong Kong's Lee said Asia has seen some progress in the move toward democracy.

"But you also see setbacks," he said, citing the ouster of prime minister Nawar Sharif in Pakistan by the armed forces chief.

Wilson Tien, director for international affairs of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said he was hopeful the Internet would bolster pro-democracy movements because it made it harder for governments to regulate information.

The DPP, headed by President Chen Shui-bian, upset the dominant Kuomintang party in Taiwan's presidential elections earlier this year.

Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, the grand old man of the Singapore opposition, added: "There is no question that governments, whatever they resort to, will not be able to prevent the advance of demcoracy."

Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, said the future of democracy in East Asia would depend on democrats banding together to exert some influence.

He cited the formation of a Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific which includes South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, former Philippine president Corazon Aquino and Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, among others.

Democrats from the region should unite to "tell the governments that you cannot bully one demcorat in a country without also affecting democrats in other countries," he said.

Sunday, August 6 5:48 PM SGT
Politicians Say Asian Democracy Is Creeping Forward

SINGAPORE (AP)--Democracy in Asia is expanding but still faces obstacles, Asian politicians meeting in Singapore said Sunday.
"You see progress, but you also see setbacks," said Martin Lee, a member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council and chairman of the Democratic Party.

Pakistan's recent coup was "a very bad case of going backward," Lee said.

"Hong Kong, too, is going backward," Lee said, citing last year's Chinese government intervention in a Hong Kong court decision, at the invitation of the Hong Kong government.

Others were more optimistic.

Internet growth will give democracy a boost in Asia in the next few years, said Wilson Tien, international affairs director for Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party.

"Because of the spread of Internet usage, it will probably be harder for governments to control the media in the future," Tien said.

The politicians - most from opposition parties - spoke after holding a public forum on democracy in Asia on Saturday sponsored by the Open Singapore Center, a private group that promotes political openness in this tightly controlled city-state

Meanwhile, politicians lamented the lack of support from other Asian countries for democracy in Myanmar, which is still ruled by a military junta.

"I have the impression that governments like Malaysia's prefer Myanmar to remain a dictatorship, because they can compare the situation in their country with Myanmar," said Lim Guan Eng, vice chairman of Malaysia's Democratic Action Party. "They say: 'Look, things are not that bad here."'

Democratization in some Asian countries "is going to be a very painful process," said Lim. "Democracy is never given. It must be fought for."

The Sunday Times - Book

Enid Blyton goes to Burma?

THE GLASS PALACE
by Amitav Ghosh
HarperCollins £16.99 pp552
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HUGO BARNACLE

Amitav Ghosh is probably best known for The Calcutta Chromosome, his strange and brilliant metaphysical thriller, so the tagline on the cover of his hefty new offering comes as rather a surprise. It says: "The magnificent, poignant, fascinating novel of three generations that starts in Mandalay . . . " Which clearly indicates that the publishers think this is a middlebrow family saga.

They're right. The Glass Palace is just that. It is commercial rather than literary fiction, a marked comedown for a writer of Ghosh's proven talent. And we all know that "magnificent, poignant, fascinating" translates as "long, soapy, tedious". There isn't one badly composed sentence in the book, except the very last, which seems to have slipped a grammatical cog somewhere; on the other hand, there isn't one particularly good sentence, either.

The prose trundles along on deeply uninspiring lines. "King Thebaw was of medium height, with a plump face, a thin moustache and finely shaped eyes." Police descriptions can be livelier. "After this, in what seemed like an impossibly short time, Dolly and Uma became good friends." Pure Enid Blyton. "Dinu endured his month-long spell in hospital with exemplary stoicism, earning accolades from the staff." And this seems to have strayed in from a parish newsletter.

Thebaw, in case you were wondering, is king of Burma in 1885. When his customs officials get into a dispute with a British logging company, Britain sends Indian army troops to seize Mandalay, his capital, and depose him. Rajkumar, an Indian orphan boy working at a food stall, witnesses the sacking of the king's palace, not by the soldiers but by the Burmese population, who bow and scrape apologetically to the royal family while making off with their trinkets. This is when Rajkumar first sets eyes on the beautiful Dolly, another orphan, serving as handmaiden to the queen.

Dolly is one of the few staff who accompany the king and queen into exile at Ratnagiri on the west coast of India. Rajkumar, meanwhile, grows up and makes his fortune in the teak business; there is quite an interesting account of the logging process, fulfilling the genre requirement for laboriously researched incidental detail. Then Rajkumar also makes his way to Ratnagiri where, courtesy of Uma, the wife of the Indian district administrator, he gains an introduction to Dolly.

They marry and raise two sons, Neel and Dinu, back in Rangoon. Uma, finding herself tragically widowed, travels the world and becomes a leading light in the Indian independence movement. As the second world war looms, Indians are expected to defend an empire they are increasingly fed up with. The now-adult Dinu, a mild-mannered photographer, thinks this is fair enough. He tells Uma, "Hitler and Mussolini are among the most destructive leaders in all of human history."

Uma refutes his argument. "Racialism rules through aggression and conquest. Is the Empire not guilty of all this?" Her nephew Rajun, a newly commissioned Indian army officer, thinks she is batty and sides with Dinu, but once war breaks out he sees the error of his ways and defects to join the pro-Japanese Indian National Army (INA). Ghosh lays on the crisis-of-conscience stuff with a trowel, but fails to make it convincing.

The authorial voice assures us that, to "the Indian public", the INA were not turncoats but heroic resistance fighters. This is, indeed, the received Indian opinion, but it doesn't bear much examination, since a Japanese victory would hardly have advanced the cause of independence. Ghosh goes on to remark that "imperialism and fascism were twin evils, one being a derivative of the other". In truth, they are both offshoots of nationalism, the very vice Ghosh is indulging in.

Towards the end, the novel includes a passage about a rubber plantation in 1950s Malaya. The emergency going on at the time is not mentioned, presumably because it involved a successful British campaign against an attempted communist takeover; and Ghosh, who lives in New York, doesn't want to alienate American readers by suggesting these particular anti-British rebels were good guys. The effect is somewhat comical, unlike much else in this worthy, plodding epic.

Myanmar-Thai Joint Trade Commission Meets in Yangon

YANGON (Aug. 5) XINHUA - A joint trade commission (JTC) between Myanmar and Thailand held its session here Friday to review the economic development and bilateral trade between the two countries under a memorandum of understanding signed in February 1990, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.

Attending the second session of the JTC were Myanmar commercial delegation, led by Commerce Minister Brigadier-General Pyi Sone, and its Thai counterpart, headed by visiting Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi.

The two delegations included officials of chambers of commerce and industry and banking entrepreneurs of the two countries.

The discussions focused on implementation of border trade and related banking arrangements agreed upon by the designated banks of the two sides, purchase of natural gas, tourism development and further industry promotion.

Supachai, who arrived here on Thursday for the JTC session, agreed with his Myanmar counterpart Pyi Sone that there exists potentials and prospects for further expansion and cooperation in the fields of overseas and overland trade.

The first session of the Myanmar-Thai JTC took place in Bangkok in September 1998.

According to Myanmar official statistics, bilateral trade between Myanmar and Thailand, including the border trade, stood at 393.83 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 1999-2000 which ended in March with Myanmar's import from Thailand amounting to 330.45 million and its export to Thailand valued at 63.38 million.

Their bilateral trade in the year accounted for 10.32 percent of Myanmar's total foreign trade with Thailand standing as Myanmar 's third largest trading partner after Singapore and China.

Besides, Thailand has so far invested a total of over 1.252 billion dollars in 46 projects in the country in the sectors of oil and gas, hotels and tourism, livestock and fishery, industrial estate and transport, also standing the third largest foreign investor in Myanmar after Singapore and Britain.

Bangkok Post - Aug 6, 2000.

Crackdown fails to stem Burmese influx
Rayong

Illegal Burmese workers are still coming to the province in droves despite a series of crackdowns in line with the government's labour repatriation policy, a senior army officer said yesterday.

Lt-Col Jatuporn Kalampasut, of the 25th Infantry Regiment, said there were up to 100,000 illegal Burmese workers in this border province, an increase of 70% over the past 10 years.

Lt-Col Jatuporn expected the problems to continue despite a new business investment by Malaysia at Victoria Point in two months.

Inflation pushed Burmese out of the country in search of jobs, he said, adding that Rangoon in May approved a 50% salary increase for government officials.

Thai authorities were accused of being involved in smuggling and were blamed for an annual economic loss of 20 billion baht.

Lt-Col Jatuporn said illegal Burmese workers sent home about 20 billion baht each year, without paying tax.

A source in the Fourth Army said that among those arrested and sent back were alleged Rangoon spies who worked for either the Military Intelligence Service or economic-related intelligence units.

The Nation - Aug 6, 2000.
Remnants of Ayutthaya discovered in Burma
BY PENNAPA HONGTHONG

MOST Thais consider the final fall of Ayutthaya one of the country's most humiliating defeats.

Many would rather not even think about it, while others continue to hate the Burmese for the invasion that wiped out what was once one of the most prosperous and beautiful cities in Asia.

Ask Thammasat University historian Kwandee Attawavutichai about it, however, and you'll definitely hear a different version of the story.

For the past year, Kwandee has been searching for descendants of the 30,000 Thais (or, as they were then known, Siamese) who were taken back to Burma as prisoners of war 233 years ago. The second to last king of Ayutthaya was thought to be among them. King Uthumporn was ordained as a monk but was taken back to Burma nonetheless.

The first group she met reside in Mandalay. They dress like Burmese and none of them speak Thai.

Asked what struck her the most about these people, Kwandee mentioned their facial composition, which is distinct from that of other Burmese; the fact that they still tell their offspring that their ancestors came from Ayutthaya and that they're proud of it; and the way the women tie up their hair, which she described as quite unique.

Some traditional rituals, such as making sand stupa, are still practised. These rituals are conducted during Visakha Puja Days and not Songkran, as in Thailand today.

Residents also recall the name of a village named Reuhaing, which may be a corrupt pronunciation of Rahaeng, a village in Tak province.

Many residents are still goldsmiths, a profession widely known and practised in the Ayutthaya period.

Kwandee said she's certain of their origin from their gold patterns and motifs, which are definitely not Burmese.

What's more, some of them even call themselves Yodhaya people, meaning Ayutthayan in Burmese.

Kwandee also discovered what might be the ruin of a brick stupa marking the death of a member of the Ayutthaya royal family. The stupa and its inscription are too ornate and beautiful to be a lay person's, she said.

Others suggest it might be a stupa to commemorate the bicentennial of those who were taken from Ayutthaya. Some villagers volunteered to draw a sketch of how the stupa once looked, and to Kwandee it resembled a royal coffin, with its reversed vertical cone shape.

Kwandee later said it was not King Uthumporn's tomb because he died while he was a practising monk and the Burmese practice is to cremate monks rather than bury them as they do lay people. Who this seemingly royal tomb was dedicated too remains a mystery.

An elderly woman in an area called Yodayaweng told Kwandee that her ancestor was a classical dancer for the court of Ayutthaya and played the role of Hanuman, or monkey king, in the Ramayana epic. In that community, a small shrine with four Siamese classical puppet masks were found.

There's also another community called Mindasu, which can be translated as the abode of princes and princesses.

Kwandee suspects this is a place where descendants of the Ayutthaya royals live.

Other Burmese call them ajintor, which means "my noble friends". Some said their great-grandparents were princes of Ayutthaya but didn't know which ones. They still practise dance and keep some lyrics which are quite Siamese.

"The Yodhaya blood still runs vigorously in all my veins and arteries," said a doctor by the name of Thinh Hmong.

The Nation - Aug 7, 2000.
No let up in migrant flood from Burma
BY VORAPUN SRIVORANART

RANONG - A similar scene to the Dover port tragedy in England last month may be closer than many people may realise.

Every month a number of illegal immigrants from Burma are hidden in air-conditioned fish containers heading for the ports in Bangkok and Mahachai in Samut Sakhon, an official source said.

"And the reason thousands of them risked their lives was not just to escape economic hardship as is thought: they are hooked on civilisation," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

The smuggling of illegal immigrants from Burma into Thailand through this coastal Southern province has increased at an alarming rate and is being conducted through a network of local and Burmese mafia, which is entrenched in every corner of the country, according to the same source.

This is a lucrative business and has attracted the attention of various criminal groups as they can rake in as much as Bt50 million to Bt60 million per month.

The income from these activities comes from the commission fees paid by illegal Burmese immigrants to various organised human-trafficking rackets. It is believed that there are five to 10 Burmese working for the mafia stationed in each province, all of them closely connected to each other.

However, cracking down on these criminals is hard since most of them hold valid passports, albeit many of the true owners are dead.

The accumulated income earned by the illegal migrants working in sweatshops, rubber plantations the fishing industry and private households is estimated to run into millions of baht each monthamounts to about Bt40 billion per month.

About half of this untaxed income is then sent to Burma each month via the mafia gangs, the end result of which is loss of revenue for the state and much-needed liquidity being siphoned out of the country.

According to the source, there are three major groups involved in the traffick in illegal immigrants: local Thai businessmen, corrupt officials and the Burmese gangs. A smaller group is made up of both nationalities.

Past efforts from Bangkok to repatriate illegal workers have been described by critics as "ineffectual" and no more than a "rotation of labour".

As long as both demand and supply are not tackled in earnest the problems created by illegal migrants will continue to grow, particularly the problem of half a million children expected to be born to illegal migrants over the next 10 years, the source said.

He expressed optimism that ongoing negotiations between local officers in the Joint Border Commission would eventually result in the Burmese authorities taking their people back.

This may be aided by an oil-palm plantation project invested in by Singapore and Malaysia which covers millions of acres near Victoria Point, over the Burmese border from Ranong, and will require a massive labour force, the source said.