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BURMA RELATED NEWS - NOV - 12, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
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AFP - Air force marshal says Sino-Indian border well
guarded
AFP - 'Pirates beware' is message at Asian experts'
meeting in KL
Channel NewsAsia - Driver and 4 illegals arrested at
Woodlands Checkpoint
South Nexus - Myanmar's Army chief to visit
India
BBC - Bicycle bomb explodes in Laos
Sunday, November 12 5:52 PM SGT
Air force marshal says Sino-Indian border well guarded GUWAHTI, India, Nov 12 (AFP) -
India's disputed north-eastern border with China is well guarded, the chief of
the Indian Air Forces eastern command said Sunday, rejecting reports of Chinese
incursion.
Air Marshal K.N. Nair told a news conference here that even the airspace
was constantly monitored.
"We dont expect any kind of threat in the near future with both sides
(India and China) striving hard along the borders to maintain peace and
tranquility", Nair said.
The air force marshal, however, said troops were on full alert to meet any
challenge on Indias eastern frontier flanked by China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and
Bhutan.
India and China fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962.
"During peace time we keep on training to prepare eventually for war time
no matter what is the situation. We are fully geared up to meet any challenge
although we dont expect anything of that sort with the eastern frontiers
absolutely benign," Nair said.
As part of the defence preparedness, the Indian Air Force trains about 100
fighter pilots a year from one of the advanced flying institutes based at the
Salonabari Air Force station in the north-eastern state of Assam.
Both the Indian army and the air force have beefed up their presence along
the 1,030-kilometre-long (643-mile-) Sino-Indian border along the state of
Arunachal Pradesh state after chief minister Mukut Mithi last month said Chinese
troops were violating the frontier.
Sunday, November 12 9:06 AM SGT
'Pirates beware' is message at Asian experts' meeting in KL KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (AFP) -
"Pirates beware" is the message that Asian marine enforcement agencies will
issue at a meeting here next week to tackle mounting piracy attacks in the
region, officials say.
Some 40 experts from 13 countries will gather here from Monday to discuss
ways to reinforce regional cooperation and map out "plans of action" to combat
piracy and armed robbery against ships, they say.
The three-day meeting is organised by the National Security Division in the
Prime Minister's Department, with support from Japan's Nippon Foundation.
Officials from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam
will attend.
Abdul Rahim Hussin, director of the Maritime Security Policy unit, said the
operational-level meeting would be a follow-up to the first ever regional
anti-piracy conference held in Tokyo in April.
"It is part of a regional effort to contain and suppress piracy which has
become a menace, especially in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea,"
he told AFP.
"The alarming rise in piracy attacks in the region has led to mounting
security problems for coastal states and the shipping industry. We have to
approach this issue in a more coherent manner. Nobody can do it alone."
According to Malaysian marine police, there were 52 cases of actual or
attempted attacks in the Malacca Strait in the first 10 months this year, up
from only five cases for the whole of last year.
The national security division, in a statement, said Malaysia would beef up
patrols in the Strait and cooperate with its neighbours and international
agencies to combat the piracy threat.
Abdul Rahim said rising piracy attacks could be attributed to the 1997-1998
regional economic turmoil.
"Many are in it because of easy cash," he said.
"But this meeting will send a message to potential perpetrators that law
enforcement agencies in the region are serious and are working together, so they
better beware."
Participants will meet informally Monday aboard a Japanese coast guard
patrol vessel, the "PLH Shikishima," before entering serious talks Tuesday to be
opened by Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung.
Topics will centre on strengthening regional cooperation, the feasibility
of setting up a regional focal point or intelligence network, and legal issues
on maritime navigation.
On Wednesday, Malaysian marine police will hold a sea drill demonstration
on board the Japanese vessel.
The Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre earlier this month said
piracy attacks or attempted attacks worldwide are set to hit a 10-year high this
year, with Indonesia accounting for a major share.
The centre listed 294 actual or attempted attacks worldwide in the first
nine months this year, compared with 300 for the whole of last year.
It said seven areas shared more than two-thirds of the total -- Indonesia
(90), Bangladesh (32), the Strait of Malacca (32), India (23), Malaysia (15),
the Red Sea (8) and Ecuador (8).
Piracy in the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, is
at "an all-time high" with many ships plagued by hit-and-run attacks in search
of cash from ships' safes, it added.
Channel NewsAsia
Sunday, November 12 12:05 AM SGT Driver and 4 illegals arrested at Woodlands Checkpoint Five people were arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint after stepped up
enforcement by officers against immigrations offenders.
Officers conducting a check on a Malaysian-registered car leaving Singapore at about 11pm found four immigration offenders including two women in the car's boot. The women are overstayers from Thailand while the others are illegal
immigrants from Myanmar.
The 27-year old Malaysian driver was also arrested and his car
seized.
Officers say the offenders claimed to have paid between S$300 to S$350 for
arrangements to leave Singapore illegally.
South Nexus - Nov 12,
2000.
Myanmar's Army chief to visit India YANGON, Nov 12: Myanmar's Army chief and the No 2 in the military regime
will visit India soon, the official 'Myanma Ahlin' daily reported on Saturday in
a sign of warming relations between the two wary neighbours.
General Maung Aye, the Deputy Chairman of the State Peace and Development
Council, will make "an official friendly visit" at the invitation of Indian Vice
President Krishan Kant, the newspaper said.
The brief report did not say when Maung Aye, who also is Deputy Commander
of the Defence Forces, will go to India, but important visits are usually
announced three or four days in advance.
India and Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, are seeking to ease
tensions of recent years with a series of bilateral visits.
Their relations deteriorated following the bloody suppression of a
pro-democracy uprising in 1988 by the Myanmar military. Isolated from much of
the world community, Myanmar moved closer to its other giant neighbour, China,
which has hostile relations with India.
Maung Aye made a week-long visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Vice
President Hu Jintao in June this year and attended the 50th anniversary
celebrations in Beijing to mark the establishment of Myanmar-Sino diplomatic
relations.
The trip to India will be Maung Aye's second this year. He made a one-day
visit to Shillong on January 7 days after General V P Malik, India's erstwhile
chief of the army staff, came to Myanmar. Malik visited Myanmar again in
July.
BBC - Thursday, 9 November, 2000,
15:40 GMT
Bicycle bomb explodes in Laos A bomb on a parked bicycle has exploded at the international airport in the
Laotian capital, Vientiane, injuring at least three people.
The blast happened at around 10am (0300 GMT) shortly before the Vietnamese
foreign minister, Nguyen Dy Nien, was scheduled to arrive for a meeting of
South-East Asian foreign ministers later this week.
Analysts say dissidents attempting to undermine the Communist government
could have been responsible for the blast - the latest in a series of attacks in
Laos.
Correspondents say the explosion will be a serious embarrassment for the
Laotian Government, which has repeatedly stressed that visiting diplomats will
not be in any danger.
India's foreign minister Jaswant Singh is in the country and Chinese
President Jiang Zemin is due to arrive on Saturday.
An Associated Press report said several women sitting on a bench at the
terminal's entrance were injured and needed hospital treatment.
Other reports said three people - an airport cleaner, a waiter and taxi
driver - were hurt.
Unexplained bombings
The crude bomb contained shards of metal and was placed in a plastic bag on
the back of a bicycle - the same method used in a May bombing outside a
Vientiane hotel, diplomatic sources said.
Since late March, there have been a number of unexplained bomb attacks in
Vientiane - normally one of Asia's most placid capital cities - leaving at least
40 people injured.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the blasts and there is no clear
information indicating who is planting the devices or why.
The bombs have gone off at a tourist restaurant, a market and a bus depot.
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