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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February - 08, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Myanmar Muslim rebels say
hundreds dead in clashes
Xinhua - Myanmar Leader Stresses Need to Bring
Out Brilliant Intellectuals
Xinhua - Myanmar Not
Worries About Population Growth: Newspaper
The Star - AHE
Ceilings in deal with Myanmar
The Washington Post - Discovering Self on Burma's Chaotic Borders
FEER - Desperate for
Aid
SAAG - India - Myanmar Strategic
Partnership: Indian Imperatives
The Nation -Shan leader urges
non-violence
Myanmar Muslim rebels say hundreds dead in
clashes
DHAKA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - A
Muslim rebel group from Myanmar said on Thursday some 450 people were killed and
more than 1,500 wounded in ethnic violence in western Myanmar.
Myanmar government troops were called in to restore order following clashes
between Muslims, known in the region as Rohingyas, and Buddhists, known as
Rakhaines, the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO) said in a statement.
"At least 450 Rohingyas were killed and more than 1,500 were seriously
injured when the Rakhaines posing as monks attacked six villages near Akyab town
on February 4," said the release, faxed to Reuters in Dhaka on Thursday.
There was no independent confirmation of the rebel group's report.
A Myanmar government spokesman said on Tuesday a curfew had been imposed in
the western town of Sittwe because of disturbances between Muslims and Buddhists
after "a quarrel."
The spokesman said the situation had returned to normal.
The ARNO said the killing and arson in Muslim villages continued until
Tuesday when Myanmar army soldiers dispersed the attackers and restored control.
Thousands of families were homeless after their homes were set ablaze and
hundreds of Muslim people, including women and children were missing, the group
said.
The ARNO is seeking autonomy for Muslims in Arakan state, also known as
Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. The majority of people in Myanmar are
Buddhist.
Bangladeshi officials said on Thursday they could not confirm the report of
violence but if it were true, they feared an influx of Muslim refugees into
their country.
They said there had been no fresh movement of refugees into Bangladesh in
recent days.
Bangladesh has been home to nearly 21,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar
for a decade.
They are the remnants of more than 250,000 Rohingyas who fled into
Bangladesh in 1991-92 to escape alleged Myanmar military persecution, including
killings and rape.
Myanmar's military government denies persecuting its Muslim minority.
Most of the refugees have returned to Myanmar under the supervision of the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees but some 21,000 are still huddled in two
refuge camps near Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh.
The ANRO said the violence was the result of a government campaign to get
rid of Muslims in Myanmar, also know as Burma.
"The Burmese government is systematically trying to exterminate the Muslims
by large scale persecution and gross human rights violations," the news release
said.
Myanmar Leader Stresses Need to
Bring Out Brilliant Intellectuals
2001.02.08 12:54:48 YANGON, February 8 (Xinhuanet)
- Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt has stressed the need to bring
out brilliant intellectuals and intelligentsia in the country for
national development, according to The New Light of Myanmar
Thursday.
"Bringing out of brilliant intellectuals and intelligentsia, who will
lead the future nation, is the main requirement for national development,"
said Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council.
Speaking at the opening of a multi-media teaching center Wednesday,
he also noted that emergence of multi-media teaching centers has led to
gradual realization of the goal of narrowing the rural-urban education
gap.
He added in the centers the government has laid down a four- year education
promotion program beginning 2000 and is systematically implementing it
phase by phase to enable students to be outstanding and to get access to
international-level education.
In accordance with the education promotion program, 203 centers have been
opened in states and divisions, and the country plans to introduce them to every
township this year.
Statistics show that Myanmar has seen a more than 10 percent increase
in the number of schools in basic education during the past 10 years, and
the number of pupils has risen to more than 6.8 million with about 220,000
teachers.
Also there are 123 universities and degree colleges with a student
population topping 530,000 in the country.
Myanmar Not Worries About
Population Growth: Newspaper
2001.02.08 12:42:48 YANGON, February 8 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar is not worrying about the country's population growth up to 100
million in the future from 51 million now, a figure which can put Myanmar
on the list of big nations, said Thursday's official newspaper The New Light
of Myanmar.
The newspaper reasoned in an article that the area of Myanmar is very
large with vast expanses of vacant land, saying that there still remain large
areas where towns and cities can be established and where lands can be reclaimed
and turned into fields for production of food.
The newspaper stressed the importance of striking a balance between
agricultural and industrial workers.
It pointed out that the contribution of Myanmar's agricultural sector
towards the economic sector is 57.6 percent, greater than those of other
sectors, in which industrial sector takes 11.4 percent and service sector
31 percent.
The newspaper disclosed that arrangements are being made to mobilize
internal forces in 18 industrial zones, saying that the nation will be
making progress in all sectors in the next decade with the lift-off
momentum.
Myanmar has 18.22 million hectares of cultivable land, of which only 9.31
million hectares have been utilized with 8.91 million hectares remaining
reclaimed.
The Star - February 08,
2001.
AHE Ceilings in deal with Myanmar By Jack Wong in Kuching MALAYSIAN plaster ceiling expert AHE Ceilings Sdn Bhd is stepping up talks
with the Myanmar Housing Development Board for the transfer of its expertise in
housing development to the board.
According to AHE Ceilings managing director Andy Kho Kak Hee, negotiations
with the board's top officials started nearly a year ago.
"We are very keen to export our expertise, help to set up factories and
train the manpower there in making and installing plaster ceiling,'' Kho told
Star Business in Kuching yesterday.
According to Kho, Myanmar, with a population of 40 million, offers great
business opportunities for fibrous plaster ceilings, which AHE Ceilings
pioneered in Sabah and Sarawak.
AHE Ceilings subsidiary Umehiko (M) Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Kho
and UM Corp of Japan, distributes plaster ceiling products in Myanmar.
AHE Ceilings was the sole Malaysian winner in the 27th international trophy
for quality award hosted jointly by the Editorial Office publishers and Leaders
Club in Paris in 1999. The Leaders Club is an organisation of employers from 120
countries.
According to Kho, AHE Ceilings, which imports the main raw material gypsum
powder from Thailand, is also eyeing Vietnam as a potential market for its
products.
"Plaster ceiling, which is now a must for new residential houses in
Sarawak, is fire resistant and provides a cooling effect,'' he said.
Kho said AHE Ceilings had recently secured the contract to install plaster
ceiling for 87 more units of semi-detached and terraced houses in Tabuan Height,
Kuching.
He said the company had completed the installation of plaster ceiling for
some 1,500 residential houses and would deliver 44 more units by next month in
Tabuan Height.
Discovering Self on Burma's Chaotic
Borders
By Sara Wildberger Special to The Washington Post Thursday, February 8, 2001; Page PG25 For photographer Chan Chao, coming to America was easy. Getting back to see
his birthplace in Burma was hard.
A photo exhibit at the University of Maryland Art Gallery, "Burma:
Something Went Wrong," documents his struggle and the struggle of refugees on
his country's borders with Thailand and India.
Chao, 34, immigrated to the United States with his family at age 12 and
attended school in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, eventually becoming
a student at the University of Maryland. One of his professors, John Gosage,
introduced him to fine art photography.
Portraits and studio work were Chao's specialty. In an exhibition space
behind the Burma portraits is an installation of some of his earlier work, edgy
black-and-white nudes, images a world apart from those of the refugee
camps.
Although the damaged bodies and faces in the exhibit's small color
portraits attest to the fact that the camps can be hazardous, Chao said he never
felt endangered. He went to meet relatives, not take pictures, he said.
Ultimately, though, his motive was introspective: self-discovery. "I only
felt I wanted to go back when I was turning about 30," he said. "I started to
reexamine myself and ask, 'Who am I? What's my background?' "
So, in 1996, he bought a ticket, applied for a visa and was given a
resounding "No" from the embassy of Burma, also known as Myanmar. The reason, he
said, is that his father supports the democracy movement there. Chao used his
ticket to visit friends in Asia instead, figuring that he'd try Burma again when
he was closer.
He did, this time from Jakarta, and still couldn't obtain a visa. "I was
crushed," he said. A friend in Thailand offered to help, and at least Thailand
was closer to Burma. "That's when I decided to go to the border," he said.
"Since I was this close, I might as well try to get some experience of going
back to Burma."
Civil unrest has plagued Burma since its independence from Britain in the
1940s, and the border is riddled with refugee camps. As Chao's photos attest,
the camps are multiethnic and multigenerational. People in them wear sarongs,
fatigues, polo shirts; they hold guitars, guns, children. It's an existence
marked by grindingly prosaic concerns and a twilight uncertainty.
Chao revisited the Thai-Burma border in 1997 and went to the India-Burma
border in 1998. The Indian border was more remote, harder to reach and in the
middle of its own ethnic battles. Chao felt he had to go there, he said, because
it was the closest point,geographically, to the part of Burma his family came
from.
With Gosage's help, Chao's photos last year became a book -- "Burma:
Something Went Wrong," Nazraeli Press, $25. The exhibit has shown in Rochester,
N.Y., and Chao hopes that it will travel elsewhere. "I see it as a kind of voice
for the causes in Burma," he said.
The photographer credits the Burmese government with launching the
project:
"Had they given me a visa, I don't think I would have gotten involved so
politically. I would have been more of a tourist."
"Burma: Something Went Wrong" is on view through March 3 at the
University of Maryland Art Gallery in the Art-Sociology Building on the campus
at University Boulevard and Adelphi Road. A panel discussion on the art and
politics of the exhibit is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the gallery. Call
301-405-2763.
Far Eastern Economic Review- February
15, 2001.
Desperate for Aid An increasingly dire economic situation compels Rangoon to talk to the opposition By Bertil Lintner/CHIANG MAI DID TOUGH SANCTIONS imposed by the West prompt Burma's ruling junta
recently to reopen talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi? Or was it
the quiet diplomacy of Asean's "constructive engagement"? Both played a role,
but there was clearly a third, and perhaps more important, factor: The
deteriorating state of the economy.
Burma is in desperate need of foreign aid, which was cut off in 1988 when
the army killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in the streets of
Rangoon and set up a military government that rules by decree. Although the
government has not issued consolidated economic statistics for more than two
years, data collated by Western embassies in Rangoon show that inflation remains
high, fuel prices are rising and the value of the currency has fallen sharply.
In late January the kyat stood at 430 to $1, down from 375 six months ago.
Moreover, the government's system of using Foreign Exchange Certificates
for local transactions in dollars has virtually collapsed. Officially, one FEC
is the equivalent of $1, but on the blackmarket an FEC now fetches only 270
kyats. With the FEC losing its dollar parity, Burmese fear that the system will
be abolished altogether. That would leave the government with only two choices:
To exchange existing FECs for dollars or to demonetize FECs.
Exchanging FECs for dollars is not feasible because "the government doesn't
have any dollars with which to reimburse the FECs," says a Rangoon-based
analyst. "The problem is that the government has taken people's dollars,
exchanged them for FECs and then spent the dollars."
A Western embassy in Rangoon estimates that $400 million-worth of FECs are
in circulation. Burma's foreign-exchange reserves, however, stood at only $340
million in August, according to the International Monetary Fund. With the
increase in world oil prices making fresh demands on reserves, they have
probably fallen further.
But the other option, demonetizing FECs, would bankrupt many local
businesses, perhaps leading to social unrest as was the case in the late 1980s,
when several high-denomination kyat notes were made worthless overnight. The
government could offer a compromise short of demonetization--for instance, by
letting people cash their FECs for 100 kyats or so. But people would then rush
to change their kyats to dollars, causing the kyat to depreciate even
further.
The Burmese government has said that GDP growth for the year ending March
31, 2000, was 10.9% and inflation for the year ending March 31, 2001 will be
3.59%. But the IMF and Western embassies disagree. For GDP, the real figure is
probably between 2% and 5%, according to a report on Burma recently issued by a
Western embassy, and inflation will be more in the order of 20%.
RICE SHORTAGE
The report also criticizes the government for "massive economic
mismanagement--particularly overspending on the military sector" while
neglecting other areas. Public spending on health is estimated to be 0.2% of GDP
and on education 0.6% compared to an average 1.3% and 3.2% respectively in
low-income countries, according to IMF figures.
The only growth seems to be in the illicit trade in drugs, gemstones and
timber. The embassy report estimates that the black economy now "is twice the
size of the legal economy" and "accounts for the relative prosperity in the
capital which takes many first-time visitors by surprise." In the countryside,
however, the situation is desperate, the report says. For reasons that are
unclear, the price of rice is falling. There also isn't enough rice for domestic
consumption and export.
In reaction, the government has decided to reclaim virgin wetlands for the
cultivation of rice and other crops. "Rather than encouraging more intensive
cultivation of existing cropped areas by addressing the causes of poor
performance, the government has instead granted large tracts of land to 'local
entrepreneurs' and is offering preferential conditions for production on these
farms," notes Peter Warr of the Australian National University in Canberra, who
follows the Burmese economy. This policy, he says, is economically wasteful and
environmentally damaging.
Overall, the embassy report concludes: "Many speculate that the regime's
fear of losing control of rice--important symbolically as well as
economically--is prompting its apparent willingness to start talking to Aung San
Suu Kyi." Indeed, in private talks with foreign diplomats, the generals have
asked what it would take to persuade the outside world to resume development aid
to Burma.
South Asia Analysis Group
Papers Paper no.197 India - Myanmar Strategic Partnership: Indian Imperatives by Dr. Subhash Kapila India’s foreign policy approaches towards Myanmar from the 1960s to the
early 1990s represent a classic case in which India’s strategic interests were
given a go-by in pursuit of moralistic policies. India during this time
maintained that no effective relationship could be maintained with Myanmar
because of Army rule and lack of democratic institutions. India’s postures
towards her Eastern neighbour Myanmar contrasted sharply with those towards
Pakistan, her Western neighbour.
This approach towards Myanmar was not the least due to the presence in
India of a sizeable number of Burmese displaced political families and others
with connections at the higher echelons of power. Under such pressures,
after 1988 when the SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) took over
Myanmar, the All India Radio carried anti-Myanmar broadcasts, souring relations
between the two countries still further. The anti-Myanmar broadcasts went
along for a long time until the Foreign Ministry realised the damage that was
being inflicted on Indo-Myanmar relations. Foreign policies are structured to
further a nations national interests and strategic goals and not the personal
pre-delictions of a few political leaders. India’s national interests
demanded that Myanmar should remain a friendly state on the Eastern flank, that
it should not come in the Chinese strategic embrace, and that at a time when
Myanmar was battling for its national security and survival, it should not be
subjected to meaningless propaganda on democratic norms.
Instead of having a "constructive engagement" as other East Asian countries
did, India’s policy only resulted in China making a strategic headway from about
1988 to 1992. India’s policies were all the more regrettable in that Myanmar
even under Army rule and Chinese pressures did not allow anti-Indian activity
from its soil. North East insurgents in their gun-running used Myanmar
territory in the last leg after landing surreptiously on the coast of Chittagong
Hill Tracts. This also could have been curtailed earlier on in case a
political and strategic dialogue existed between the two countries.
Fortunately, when former PM Narasimha Rao initiated his ‘Look East’
policies, the long years of not nourishing the India-Myanmar links came into
focus. PM Narashimha Rao reversed India’s policies towards Myanmar and put
initiatives into place to rebuild a viable relationship.
With the above process in place, it needs to be highlighted that an
India-Myanmar strategic partnership is an imperative of India’s national
interests.
Myanmar’s Strategic Importance for India
Geo-strategically, Myanmar’s importance for India arises from these
factors:
* Myanmar is the second- largest of India’s neighbours and the largest on
our Eastern flank.
* Myanmar provides the Eastern littoral of the Bay of Bengal. An
unfriendly Myanmar hosting foreign naval presence would be a grave threat to
India’s security.
* Myanmar has a big border with China in the North, contiguous with the
Sino- Indian disputed border. Military analysts can gauge the various
strategic complications that arise from such a configuration in case Myanmar is
under unfriendly influence.
* Myanmar bridges South Asia and India with South-East Asia. It also
acts as a buffer between India’s North Eastern States and the Southern provinces
of China.
Geo-politically, with a friendly Myanmar, India could add more substance to
her ‘Look East’ policies of building up relationships with South East Asia, as
Myanmar shares common borders with Laos and Thailand. With no contentious
issues looming over India-Myanmar relations, a viable strategic partnership is
more easily achievable. This can counter-act the negative image being
propagated that India is unfriendly with her neighbours.
Geo-economically, Myanmar is rich in natural resources and has appreciable
production of crude oil, and natural gas. It has sizeable deposits of
copper, lead, tin, tungsten, steel and gold. Some of these especially
crude oil and natural gas could be an attraction for India, being next
door.
Myanmar Today - A Reality Check
SLORC gave way to a new designation SPDC (State Peace Development Council)
in 1998, in terms of Army rule in Myanmar. It perhaps reflects the
priorities which the Myanmar senior military officers had set for themselves in
terms of nation building, namely
* Priority I. Law and Order Restoration.
* Priority II State Development.
A reality check on Myanmar Army’s achievements in restoration of law and
order indicates:
* SLORC/SPDC have for the first time since the country’s independence
established effective state control in Myanmar’s peripheral regions.
* Most of the major insurgencies against the State, today, stand
neutralised or in the process of elimination.
* Narco-terrorism and drug smuggling are being tackled strongly in
cooperation with UN agencies, in contrast to what is obtained today in
Afghanistan under Taliban.
In terms of Myanmar’s reconstruction, development and economic progress,
the following data extracted from Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian
Studies, publication "Regional Outlook: South East Asia 1995-1996" highlights
the results that have flowed-in consequent to economic liberalisation and
foreign investment liberalisation policies, initiated by SLORC / SPDC
* Negative growth of earlier years was reversed and a growth rate of 6%
achieved from 1993 onwards.
* Exports grew by about 14% in 1993-1994.
* Appreciable growth rates achieved in important sectors.(Mining 21%; power
14%; manufacturing and processing 10.3% and financial 18.8% )
* Foreign oil companies have been given off-shore concessions.
* Tourism has registered a big increase spurring modernisation of airports
and construction boom in hotel industry.
* ASEAN countries, Japan and South Korea are investing heavily in
Myanmar.
The above has been achieved despite various embargoes in place. In
other words, it indicates Myanmar’s resilience and that it is not a ‘failing
state’ like Pakistan.
Politically, ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea are interacting with
Myanmar and so also India. It no longer stands isolated and withdrawn. Its
economic potential is an inducement for those directly bordering on the
country.
Perhaps the military regime, more confident of itself, may move towards
genuine talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.
India-Myanmar Strategic Partnership: The Avenues of
Approach
The China Factor
India’s indifference to Myanmar in the decades indicated, created a vacuum
enabling China to step in and exploit the situation for strategic reasons.
Myanmar in 1988-89 required sizeable military supplies to secure the country’s
peripheries, which due to being isolated from the West, could have only come
from India or China. Since India was on her "democratic auto-pilot", China
appeared as the benefactor. But the moot question for determination is as
to who embraced who? Beyond doubt, it was China which attempted strategically
embracing Myanmar. Gen. Maung Aye, during his recent visit to India
emphatically declared that Myanmar will not allow its territory to be used for
any hostile activities directed against India. In light of this
re-assurance, India has many avenues to approach the desired goal of an enduring
strategic partnership.
Political Co-operation
Major areas of political co-operation to further each others national
interests which can be considered are:
* ASEAN and its associated forums provide both countries a fora to
politically advance each others interests by close co-ordination of initiatives
and proposals.
* India can be a facilitator of ending Western mis-perceptions of Myanmar
and assist in the latter’s re-incorporation in the global political
mainstream.
* Myanmar can further India’s interests in the effective materialisation of
the new regional groupings like the Mekong-Ganga Co-operation and
BIMSTECH.
* India and Myanmar can attempt coordination of actions in the United
Nations. Myanmar could support India’s candidature for permanent
membership of UN Security Council.
Economic Co-operation
India’s national security interests demand the emergence of an economically
strong and modernised Myanmar. Myanmar is rich in natural resources but
industrially still under-developed. It needs intermediate levels of
technologies to build up its industrial base. India is in a position to
provide it in a big way. India should assist both by governmental aid and
Indian private investment in the following fields:
* Agro-tech and forestry based industries.
* Metallurgical industries.
* Oil and gas exploration.
* Automobile and two wheeler industry.
* Communications development i.e. airports, railway lines and roads,
especially those which can interface or assist in the opening up of India’s
North-Eastern states e.g. Manipur, Nagaland etc.
* IT education and infrastructure.
* Hotel industry and tourism.
Economic co-operation with Myanmar and interfacing with Myanmar can speed
up economic development of India’s North-Eastern states as Myanmar provides the
shortest links to South East Asian markets by air, land and sea.
Defence Co-operation
Myanmar’s Armed Forces spear-headed the country’s freedom movement, have
secured the country’s periphery and put the nation on the road to economic
development. Even when civilian politicians are handed power by the Myanmar
Army, they would still be a power behind the throne. This needs to be understood
and factored in India’s strategic calculations and defence co-operation so
architectured. India can build defence co-operation with Myanmar by:
* Nurturing direct military to military contacts at the highest
level.
* Extends arms sales and arms aid to meet Myanmar’s armaments needs.
* Assist Myanmar in establishment of their indigenous defence production
infrastructure.
* Special emphasis on naval co-operation to incorporate development of
ports on the Bay of Bengal littoral, training facilities in India and assistance
in ship-building.
* Co-ordination in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism.
* Professional and technical training facilities in
India.
India’s defence co-operation with Myanmar should be so structured that it
generates perceptions in Myanmar that India can emerge as a long-term and
assured source of her defence needs without any political coercion or other
limitation.
The avenues of co-operation suggested above would provide an over-arching
frame-work for what can eventually take shape - a long-term strategic
partnership, which could mutually serve each country’s national interests and
security needs.
Conclusion:
Long years of non-alignment did not in any way serve India’s national
security interests and needs. Collective security groupings are not the
order of day though the future does portend that the regional economic groupings
would ultimately don security colours too, if nothing else in terms of conflict
resolution or conflict management. Strategic partnerships do provide
intermediate solutions, especially when they are bi-lateral in nature and
incorporate economic co-operation and assistance in a major way.
In India’s quest for strategic partnerships, Myanmar acquires top priority
being a vital geo-strategic entity on her Eastern flank and sharing a long
border with China. Myanmar’s providing the major Eastern littoral to the
Bay of Bengal imparts added strategic significance to India’s naval
strategies. Myanmar has not permitted China to turn it into a strategic
de-stablising entity for India, like Pakistan. India should therefore make
a determined effort to forge a strategic partnership with Myanmar.
The Nation - February 08,
2001.
Shan leader urges non-violence BY DON PATHAN LOI TAILENG - The leader of the Shan State Army (SSA) has warned his
followers about taking drastic measures against the mass relocation of ethnic Wa
into territory the Shan see as their own, saying hostile actions against the
minority group would play into the hands of the Burmese military government.
At a recently concluded meeting between Shan village headsman and elders
from resistance groups, the SSA leader, Col Yawd Serk, said the dispute between
ethnic Shan and Wa over the use of land could be settled peacefully.
SSA plans to discuss the matter with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), he
said.
During the three-day gathering, a number of Shan villagers expressed
concern that ethnic Wa - thousands of whom have been relocated from the north
along the border with China to land near the northern Thai border - are taking
over land they claim as their own.
The relocation scheme is being carried out by the UWSA, a 20,000-strong
outfit allied with the Burmese military government. The group has been accused
by the United States of being the world's largest armed drug-trafficking group.
Yawd Serk refused to condemn the UWSA for the resettlement, saying "the Wa
are people of this land as well."
Army chief Gen Surayudh Chulanont yesterday said the Thai army is
monitoring the situation closely, but added that there not much could be done
because Burma is a sovereign state.
The Thai government sees the relocation of ethnic Wa along the country's
northern border as a security threat, saying the UWSA is trying to expand its
drug empire.
Yawd Serk, meanwhile, accused Rangoon of trying to instigate a fight
between his group and the Wa army with the mass relocation of Wa villagers.
Over the past decades, the Wa and the Shan armies have been arch-enemies,
clashing over territory as the two engaged in the drug trade.
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