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BURMA RELATED NEWS - May 17,
2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - U.N. Says Leprosy Cases Cut
Reuters - S.Korea Hyundai to sell $170 mln gas
oil to Myanmar
Reuters - Think-tank tells Bush to improve China
and Europe policy
Dow Jones - UK Premier Oil CEO Sees Output
Boosting Shares
BBC - India and Burma target rebels
BBC - Powell gloomy on Burmese
talks
The Star - Myanmar man
source of outbreak
JT - Japan hit for Myanmar grant
Reuters - Tourists Face Myanmar Dilemma: Boycott
or Rough It
The Nation - US 'fully
committed' to anti-drug fight on border
Bkk Post - US backs army's position
Bkk Post - Wattanachai says Burma is concealing
'speed' labs
Bkk Post - Army to
drill troops in night combat
Xinhuanet - Myanmar, ROK to Promote Bilateral
Trade Cooperation
Xinhuanet - ASEAN-Japan Meeting on SME Opens in
Myanmar
SCMP - Bank guests 'close to junta, drug
lords'
The Straits Times - Powell slams Japan over new
aid package to Myanmar
NSTP - Ampang break-in gang crippled
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday May 16, 8:42 PMU.N. Says Leprosy Cases Cut
By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) - A 10-year global
campaign to control leprosy has been a major success, but the disease remains a
threat in six countries, the United Nations said Wednesday.
The World Health Organization said global leprosy cases had been cut by 90
percent since the launch of an international campaign in 1991, with the disease
eliminated in 98 countries.
``We can take pride in this victory in reducing to very low levels one of
the most dreadful diseases to have ever afflicted mankind,'' said WHO
Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Seventy percent of the estimated 600,000 sufferers worldwide are in India,
WHO said. The disease is also still endemic in Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique,
Myanmar - or Burma - and Nepal.
``The main priority now is to improve access to therapy for communities
that we haven't been able to reach before, because of poor coverage of leprosy
services, lack of infrastructure, isolation or war,'' said Dr. Maria Neira,
director of WHO's Department of Communicable Disease Control, Prevention and
Eradication.
Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded diseases in the world, first
mentioned in writing in 600 B.C. It can incubate in the human body for up to 20
years and is transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth during contact
with untreated, infected sufferers. The disease affects skin and nerve endings,
and can cause permanent damage to a patient's limbs and eyes.
Because sufferers have traditionally been ostracized from their
communities, information campaigns to encourage them to seek treatment are
crucial, WHO said.
Leprosy treatment needs to be integrated into general health services so
the disease can still be easily controlled when the global campaign ends, WHO
said.
Drug treatment for leprosy is highly effective. A three-drug combination of
dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine can cure the disease.
Thursday May 17, 10:55 AM
S.Korea Hyundai to sell $170 mln gas oil
to Myanmar
SEOUL, May 17 (Reuters) - South
Korea's Hyundai Corp <11760.KS> has signed a contract to provide about
$170 million worth of Singaporean gas oil to Myanmar Petrochemical Enterprise, a
company official said on Thursday.
"We will provide 4.50 million barrels of Singaporean gas oil to Myanmar,"
the company official told Reuters.
The gas oil is scheduled to be provided by March 2002 to be used as fuels
for automotive diesel engines, power generation and plant operation, he said.
Hyundai used to provide domestic gas oil to Myanmar but the firm has decided to
replace it with Singaporean origin to reduce shipping time and costs.
Last year Hyundai provided three million barrels or $130 million worth of
domestic gas oil to Myanmar.
Shares of Hyundai rose 25 to 1,780 won by 0243 GMT.
Thursday May 17, 7:51 AM
Think-tank tells Bush to improve China
and Europe policy
By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.
President George W. Bush needs to pay more heed to the world and develop
coherent policies on China, Russia and Europe to avoid being branded an
"unsympathetic unilateralist", a leading think-tank said on Wednesday.
In its annual Strategic Survey, the International Institute for Strategic
Studies endorsed the new Republican president's pursuit of anti-missile defences
and chided the European Union for reduced defence spending and diplomatic
amateurism.
The institute gave a gloomy outlook for the Middle East and Southeast Asia,
forecasting worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence and a military-backed legal
takeover by Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri that would do little
to stabilise the world's most populous Muslim state.
It also proposed a new United Nations policy on Iraq, coupling the removal
of sanctions on civilian goods and flights with a tougher ban on military and
dual-use imports and new measures to isolate the Iraqi leadership.
The institute said Bush's hard-nosed geopolitical realism needed to be
tempered by a broader diplomatic approach to avoid alienating allies and
aggravating other powers.
"There is still no well-defined attitude for the principles that should
govern U.S. policy towards Russia and China," institute director John Chipman
told a news conference.
He said the new administration was allergic to multilateral agreements and
formal arms-control treaties that had stabilised the Cold War nuclear arms race
and provided a forum for fighting global warming, disease and world poverty.
END OF ARMS CONTROL?
"While the objection to some longstanding treaties has a strong
intellectual coherence, the manner of their burial is hugely sensitive in
contemporary international relations," Chipman said.
The institute said the Bush administration was determined to go ahead with
deploying some form of national missile defence, regardless of whether it was
technically reliable and of the misgivings from allies and other nuclear powers.
Sensing this, key European allies Britain and Germany were grudgingly
moving towards acquiescence, and Russia might be more disposed to amend the 1972
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to permit some forms of research and limited
deployment.
"While it is a virtual certainty that the U.S. will deploy a strategic
defence capability, that capability's eventual shape and ultimate effectiveness
remain very much open to question," the study said.
Chipman argued missile defences made strategic sense because there was
nothing inherently moral or sensible about relying indefinitely on mutual
nuclear vulnerability to keep the peace.
Washington and Moscow could achieve a new strategic balance with much lower
levels of nuclear weapons through "a series of negotiated understandings" on a
combination of offensive and defensive systems, he said.
But some mechanism must be found to retain a degree of formality in the
arms control process.
EUROPE CHIDED The study said the European Union must put its money where its mouth is and
spend more on defence if it wants to create a planned, 60,000-strong Rapid
Reaction Force by 2003.
Statements by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson that 11 EU countries
were increasing their defence budgets were not borne out by the facts. In
constant dollars, EU defence spending was falling by nearly five percent a year,
the IISS said.
Chipman said the EU should also abandon what he called a culture of
"protest diplomacy" and resist the temptation to challenge the United States all
the time, for example by sending a top-level mission to North Korea after
Washington decided to freeze arms control talks with Pyongyang.
In other points the institute said:
-- there is no prospect of a Middle East peace agreement soon and a great
risk of more intense violence.
"(Palestinian President Yasser) Arafat is intent on escalating violence to
the point at which he believes that international intervention becomes
inevitable. (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is committed to a policy of
attrition that will fail to stem the sources of violence and render more remote
a political solution."
The United States will have to return to active mediation in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict if it is to win Arab and European support for its
efforts to contain Iraq.
-- An international consensus is emerging on a new policy towards Iraq
coupling "smarter sanctions, more selective use of force and meaningful arms
control". That would make remaining U.N. sanctions and financial controls more
sustainable with Arab and European public opinion.
-- The United States lacks a coherent policy for Asia and needs to find
ways of coaxing China towards cooperation rather than bolstering hawks in
Beijing. "While the new administration has decried the ambiguity of Chinese
foreign policy, its own China policy remains unformed."
-- Western states are increasingly reluctant to take on peacekeeping
operations outside their spheres of interest.
That makes significant military mobilisations by the United Nations
unlikely in the near future, and leaves existing operations dependent on the
commitment of national actors, often unequal to the conflicts they are meant to
redress.
-- Indonesia's economic crisis and ethnic and religious turmoil under
enfeebled President Abdurrahman Wahid has created a leadership vacuum in the
Association of South East Asian Nations, plunging the regional body into a state
of institutional torpor and political paralysis.
This is aggravated by the inclusion of non-democratic nations such as
Myanmar and by adherence to the cardinal rule of non-interference in states'
internal affairs. Thursday May 17, 1:17 AM
INTERVIEW:UK Premier Oil CEO Sees Output
Boosting Shares
By Sally Jones Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--UK Premier
Oil PLC's (PMOIY) share price could almost double before the year is out because
of increased hydrocarbon production, Chief Executive Charles Jamieson told Dow
Jones Newswires in an interview Wednesday.
Premier's share price should get a boost later this year when its
hydrocarbon production reaches 50,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent,
representing an increase of around 72% from its current output of 29,000 b/d, he
said.
The rise in output will take place when the company's existing gas
operations in Indonesia's West Natuna Sea come fully onstream later this year
and oil production in the North Sea begins.
Jamieson said Premier was undervalued given its asset base. He said the
company's share price was worth up to 40 pence compared with around 22.2 pence
late Wednesday. Premier Oil's fixed assets totaled GBP692.5 million at the end
of 2000. By the end of this year, its hydrocarbon reserve base would stand at
600 million barrels of oil equivalent, he said.
The CEO also underscored the company's commitment to its business
activities in Myanmar and Pakistan, despite criticism by human rights and
environmental groups, respectively.
"We conduct business to the highest international standards," he said.
He also pointed to Premier's new social audit document, introduced
Wednesday, which describes its plans to work closely with employees and
different partners on issues such as human rights and social policy.
According to preliminary results, Premier turned in a net profit of GBP6.1
million in 2000 after a loss of GBP27.7 million in 1999.
Jamieson said financial institutions are beginning to show greater interest
in Premier's activities: "We have had good couple of years - we have turned a
corner and our capital expenditure is now turning into income."
The CEO said he is confident that Premier can continue to function as a
small independent company. "We are one of the few remaining independent
exploration, development and production companies; that's a hell of a calling
card."
Since the 1998-99 oil price crash, consolidation in the oil industry has
created giant oil companies, leaving fewer smaller players.
From July 15, Jamieson said Premier, together with its West Natuna
partners, Conoco Inc. (COCA) and Gulf Indonesia Resources Ltd. (GRL), will be
selling some 325 million cubic feet of gas a day to Singapore. Premier holds a
28% stake in West Natuna. The consortium currently sells "a relatively small
volume" of gas to Singapore. The group has also signed a memorandum of
understanding to sell 250 million cubic feet a day of gas from West Natuna to
Malaysian oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd.(P.PET), or Petronas.
Petronas owns a 25% stake in Premier. Amerada Hess Ltd. (ACH) also holds 25% in
Premier.
In the Central North Sea, Jamieson said production of oil at the Chestnut
Field at the UKCS block 22/2a is expected to begin next year after extended well
testing.
Premier Oil To Remain In Myanmar, Confident On Pakistan
Despite a request from the U.K. government last year for Premier to
withdraw from Myanmar, Jamieson said the company remains committed to its
business operations there. The U.K. government made the request following
allegations of human rights abuses by Myanmar's ruling junta.
Premier's Yetagun gas fields in Myanmar produce 200 million cubic feet a
day, Jamieson said. Its main partner in the project is Petronas.
Turning to Pakistan, Jamieson said he isn't concerned about talk that
Premier's image maysuffer if its proposed asset swap in Pakistan with Royal
Dutch/Shell Group (RD) goes ahead. The project is controversial because it
involves drilling in the Kirthar national park and is opposed by environmental
groups.
The deal, which is subject to the Pakistani government's approval, would
see Premier taking 100% control of the companies' joint-venture, Premier Shell
Pakistan BV.
The Kirthar National Park gas exploration project in the province of Sind
is currently subject to a court case in Pakistan, where local pressure groups
are attempting to throw out Premier Shell Pakistan's environmental impact
assessment.
Jamieson said he would take the lead from the Pakistan government on the
project but stressed that drilling work hasn't yet started in the park. He also
said that the impact of gas production on the environment is "negligible."
He said Premier is committed to its Pakistan business activities and will
continue to explore opportunities there. This would include exploration and
production onshore, which the Pakistan government is offering under
production-sharing contracts, he added.
Jamieson said Premier has held talks with Iranian energy officials on
investment opportunities there. But the CEO said Premier was too small to
participate in Iran's giant gas development at South Pars.
BBC - Thursday, 17 May, 2001, 10:40
GMT 11:40 UK
India and Burma target rebels By Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta
Burma and India have begun a joint military offensive on the bases of three
rebel groups in India's north-east.
The fighting is taking place on a section along the moutainous border that
separates India's Nagaland state from Burma's Sagaing region.
More than 30 rebels and soldiers have been killed since the offensive began
last week, first with a Burmese military push and then with Indian troops
joining in to block the rebels' escape routes.
This is believed to be the largest joint military campaign against the
rebel groups on the India-Burma border - an area where dozens of seperatist
groups fighting against Delhi or Rangoon have been active for nearly 40 years.
Assault
Indian military officials told the BBC that two light infantry battalions
of the Burmese army encircled a rebel base area in northern Sagaing division
last week.
They said at least 30 rebels and troops were killed in the fighting that
has intensified over the past three days as the Burmese pushed into the remote
hilly region, capturing a string of smaller bases.
A spokesman of a faction of the rebel group, National Socialist Council of
Nagaland, told the BBC that a second base has been encircled by the Burmese
troops.
But he said successive attempts to overrun the base have been beaten back.
He said that rebels of the United Liberation Front of Assam and the Peoples
Liberation Army of Manipur have also joined the battle as their bases in the
same area have come under attack.
Trapped civilians
A human rights group in north-east India says that at least 300 women and
children belonging to families of the rebel fighters have been trapped in the
fighting.
The human rights group Assam Watch has appealed for the fighting to be
halted temporarily, to allow women and children to leave the battle-zone.
Indian military officials say they are in regular touch with the Burmese,
who they say will continue the offensive at least until the oubreak of the
monsoon season.
BBC - Wednesday, 16 May, 2001, 09:01
GMT 10:01 UK
Powell gloomy on Burmese talks The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that a
dialogue between the Burmese military government and the opposition leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi, offered some rays of hope, but they were few and dim.
But Mr Powell told a Senate committee that the fact that they were talking
at all represented a limited improvement in the political situation in Burma.
He also criticised a grant by Japan of nearly $30m to Burma to finance a
hydroelectric plant.
Mr Powell said the Americans had suggested to Japan that this was not a
proper investment to be making at this time, with this regime.
Last month, the Burmese military authorities said their talks with Aung San
Suu Kyi were progressing well.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
The Star - May 17, 2001.
Myanmar man source of
outbreak
By Loong Meng Yee and Edward Rajendra
KLANG:A 36-year-old Myanmar national is suspected to be the source of the
cholera outbreak in Selangor early this month.
It is learnt that the Myanmar immigrant who worked as a food handler at a
nasi lemak stall at the 5th Mile, Jalan Meru, had assisted in preparing food
which was served to some 3,000 people in the area.
He has been quarantined at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang.
Ninety-seven others were warded at the hospital and the Kuala Langat and Sungai
Buloh hospitals after they tested positive for the vibrio cholerae bacteria.
Apart from the Myanmar national, two Indonesians were also confirmed as
carriers and one factory worker has died as a result of the outbreak confined
mainly in Meru. There are also 146 suspected cases throughout the state so far.
The authorities have closed down 136 food outlets while 732 food handlers
have been given antibiotics as a preventive measure.
State Local Government, Environment, Housing and Squatters Committee
chairman Datuk Mokhtar Dahalan said people who came down with cholera in
Petaling Jaya and Kuala Selangor had eaten the nasi lemak at the Meru stall.
"We have the whole situation under control with the foodstalls in Meru
closed temporarily while the cholera patients have been quarantined. All the 97
patients will only be allowed to go home once the doctors certify that they are
free of the disease," he said.
Mokhtar also ordered local councils to demolish illegal foodstalls and
inspect the hygiene level at all food outlets to ensure that the cholera
outbreak did not recur.
He added that Alam Flora had been ordered to conduct more frequent garbage
collection at all residential housing areas as an additional measure to check
the outbreak.
A state senior health medical officer said the involvement of the foreign
workers raised concern about the spread of transmittable diseases from less
developed countries.
"We do not know what kind of diseases they have before entering Malaysia.
In our country, some of the foreign workers inevitably end up in the food
industry and chances of food contamination are high.
"There are, at least, records to trace the legal foreign workers. The
illegal ones pose a bigger threat because we do not know their health history or
their migration pattern," he said.
The health officer clarified the cholera outbreak in Meru was defined as a
limited one, instead of a full-blown outbreak affecting the entire state.
He added that the clarification was important because the state Health
Department had received telephone calls, some from as far as Taiwan, enquiring
the severity of the outbreak.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Suleiman Mohamed urged the public not to be
alarmed over the outbreak as the number of confirmed cases had dropped
significantly over the last two days.
Dr Suleiman, who earlier visited cholera patients at the Tengku Ampuan
Rahimah Hospital, said the situation was under control and preventive measures
taken by the state Health Department were successful in containing the
outbreak.
The Japan Times: May 17,
2001
Japan hit for Myanmar grant Powell says dealing with current regime is inappropriate WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized Japan on
Tuesday for offering the largest aid package to Myanmar in a decade, saying it
is inappropriate to deal with the country's military rulers.
"The Japanese are making an investment in a hydroelectric plant" in Myanmar and this is "not a proper investment to be made at this time with this regime," Powell told a panel of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Powell said the State Department has already conveyed to the Japanese
government Washington's opposition to the aid.
In April, then Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told Myanmar Deputy Foreign
Minister Khin Maung Win in Tokyo that Japan is ready to offer a grant for his
country's hydroelectric project.
Tokyo has begun studying resuming the provision of the Myanmar grant, which
it halted in 1988 after the country's junta took power, following the start in
October of dialogue between the Myanmar government and democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi after a hiatus of seven years.
The resumption of dialogue provided "a few rays of hope" but they are "few
and dim," Powell said, adding that he will take up the issue of human rights in
Myanmar when he visits Hanoi in July to attend a meeting of the ASEAN Regional
Forum.
"We do need to do a better job in mobilizing a comprehensive approach to
this problem with our friends in the region," he said.
Rengo questions aid
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) will ask the government to
postpone the full resumption of official development assistance to Myanmar,
Rengo officials said Wednesday.
Calling the resumption of aid at this time "premature," one of the Rengo
officials stressed that, apart from humanitarian assistance, Japan "should not
give aid that will consequentially benefit the junta."
A major reason for the group's opposition to the resumption of funding,
which Japan is currently considering, is that "no concrete progress has been
made in resolving the forced labor issue in Myanmar," the official said.
Rengo officials said they are in the process of putting their request in
writing to Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka or Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka
Kawashima.
Koizumi-Bush talks
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese and U.S. government officials are trying to
arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President
George W. Bush sometime in early July in the United States, diplomatic sources
said Tuesday.
The sources said Bush is due to make a one-week trip to Europe in mid-June,
while Koizumi will be tied up with the ongoing Diet session until June 29, so
any meeting is unlikely to happen before then.
Koizumi and Bush agreed to meet as soon as possible during their phone
conversation on April 28.
Wednesday May 16 11:27 AM ET
Tourists Face Myanmar Dilemma: Boycott or Rough It By Angela Takats YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) -
Shimmering golden above the city of Yangon is the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most
popular tourist attraction in Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Monks in red robes chant in front of Buddha statues, worshippers light
incense and tourists stand awed by the majesty of the 325-foot-high main shrine,
said to be plated in almost nine tons of gold.
Despite the beauty of this and other sites, Myanmar is one of Asia's
least-known destinations. The military government has tried hard to promote
tourism but visitors are not flocking in, partly because of chronic political
instability and partly because the country just does not have the
infrastructure.
Pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
winner who opposes the government and has been kept under house arrest in the
capital on and off for more than six of the past 12 years, advises tourists to
stay away. She says their dollars bolster the military, who have ruled the
country since 1962, and help keep the generals in power.
Most Pro-democracy activists agree and also say foreign companies should be
discouraged from investing in the country.
Two British-based groups, Tourism Concern and the Burma Campaign UK, have
even called for a boycott of the popular Lonely Planet travel guides because
Lonely Planet has refused to bow to calls to stop printing its book on
Myanmar.
Lonely Planet says it believes tourism will improve the situation in
Myanmar while a boycott will simply prolong its isolation, making it easier for
the military to stay in power.
And some budget travelers, visiting despite boycott calls, say their money
does not help the government. ``When you are on really big group tourism then
it's ... organized by state-owned companies and the money ends up in the
state,'' said Thomas Bosch from the Netherlands.
``If you spend your money really locally and you are coming here as a
backpacker and you use local transport and hire locals, then the money is really
being spent locally and not going to the government,'' he said. ``If you come as
a backpacker, you can (exchange) ideas with the people ... and that's always a
good thing.''
While government coffers would certainly benefit from more tourism, many
ordinary people in Myanmar, where the average annual per capita income is less
than $300, say they too would stand to gain if more people visited.
As for infrastructure, Sam Kokweng from Malaysia said the lack of
development was an essential part of Myanmar's charm.
'ABOUT TO DEVELOP'
``What appeals to me is actually going to parts of Asia that are going to
be developed really soon and to catch it as it's about to develop and to see the
people as they really are, before commercialism sets in,'' he said.
But the lack of development that so charms adventure-hungry backpackers
hampers a more mainstream tourist industry. Some hotels have been built to
international standards in recent years in Yangon and the second city, Mandalay,
but facilities elsewhere are woefully inadequate.
Myanmar's domestic air system has a bad safety record, roads are poor and
the rail system is rickety. Other hassles are odd foreign exchange procedures
for tourists and the need to get a visa in advance.
Tourist arrivals in Myanmar are falling far short of the government's
target of 500,000 a year. Official figures show 234,900 visited last year, a
drop of 9.3 percent from 1999.
By contrast, neighboring Thailand, with culture and geography similar to
Myanmar, got 9.5 million tourists last year and billions of tourist
dollars.
Myanmar's director general of tourism, Khin Maung Latt, plays down the
impact of the anti-government campaign in discouraging tourists. He blames
infrastructure, a shortage of direct flights to Myanmar and the difficulty in
getting visas.
``I don't believe (it's) because of that campaign,'' he said. ''It's
because of the lack of infrastructure and some of the airlines,'' he told
reporters during a conference in Yangon.
``We don't have many direct ... long-haul flights -- that's the constraint
for us.''
The Nation - May 17,
2001.
RELATIONS WITH WASHINGTON:
US 'fully committed' to anti-drug fight
on border
Kulachada Chaipiat
US Pacific commander-in-chief Admiral Dennis C Blair said yesterday the
United States was fully committed to helping Thailand combat the flow of
narcotics that has sparked recent border disputes between the Kingdom and
Burma.
Blair said he supported Thailand's efforts to enforce the patrols along the
border, but added he was "not an expert" about Thai-Burmese affairs so he could
not predict what would happen in the dispute.
"I am more concerned with anti-narcotics efforts," he said, when asked how
he viewed the current border tension.
Blair was on two-day visit to Thailand to witness the launch of Cobra Gold
01, the 20th instalment of an annual military exercise between Thailand and the
US.
The military exercise on Tuesday in Phitsanulok coincided with increased
border tension, sparked in February by the spill-over of fighting between
Burmese forces and Shan rebels.
His visit also occurred amid rising tension between Washington and Beijing
over the Taiwan issue and the US National Missile Defence programme.
Blair said he believed the two countries could work to overcome their
differences, saying that Sino-US relations were "not a single screen shot but an
entire movie".
He also said he believed that Thai-US relations remained strong and would
continue to be, judging from his discussions on Tuesday with Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra and other senior government and military officials, including
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Defence Minister Gen Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh.
Thaksin's recent speeches regarding Thailand's economic resolutions had
raised fears that the country might be moving away from the US sphere of
influence.
The senior US officer yesterday allayed concerns that the timing of the
Cobra Gold exercise, and the presence of US troops in Thailand, were directed
against Burma or any other Thai neighbours.
"If there is a feeling in Burma or somewhere else that Cobra Gold was
directed against them, then that is incorrect," he said.
In a related development, some of the US troops taking part in Cobra Gold
will participate in a separate training programme for a combined military and
patrol-police unit to enforce patrols of the Thai border against the drug flow
from Burma.
Blair held talks with Third Army Commander Gen Wattanachia Chaimuenwong on
Tuesday about future cooperation between the US army and its Thai counterpart in
the latter's anti-narcotics suppression efforts.
He did not say how long the US troops would stay, adding it would depend on
Thailand's needs.
Present cooperation included intelligence exchanges, the use of US
satellite sensors for accurate mapping, and a US supply of small and portable
survey and weapons equipment during patrol operations.
Blair also fully supported ongoing efforts by Thailand to engage China and
Laos in the anti-narcotics drive.
Thaksin said he would propose that Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji invite
leaders of Laos and Cambodia to join the drugs summit.
"I believe we need comprehensive international efforts to eradicate this
problem," he said.
Blair asserted that common problems such as the war on drugs reinforced his
belief for the need to set up a multilateral security arrangement for the
region.
He said he believed that China was considering a move in this direction,
citing the fact that it was keen to observe the Cobra Gold events.
He confirmed that China had told Thailand before the April spy-plane drama
that it would send observers to Cobra Gold next year.
Bangkok Post - May 17,
2001.
US backs army's
position
Three-nation action on drugs 'essential' Anuraj Manibhandu
The United States supports Thailand's defence position in its stand-off
with Burma, the chief of the US Pacific Command said yesterday.
"As a military man, I support Thailand," Adm Dennis Blair said.
"The support that we have for Thailand in patrolling its border is an
important part of our policy."Adm Blair was here to open the 20th Cobra Gold
military exercises joined by Thai, US and Singaporean forces, and to discuss
anti-drugs co-operation with Thai authorities.
The location of the exercises in the Third Army Region, which covers the
border with Burma, was a matter of rotation, he said. Neither the location nor
timing was intended as a signal for Burma or any other country.
The presence of a US Special Forces unit in the North was for training the
army's Task Force 399 to fight drugs, he said. The task force is made up of
elements of the Third Army and the Border Patrol Police.
Rangoon earlier alleged that the US unit was intended for intervention in
Burma.
Adm Blair said the US unit was teaching the task force the skills needed to
patrol the border, and that necessary equipment would be supplied as part of the
training.
The US was supplying two Black Hawk helicopters to the army as part of its
modernisation programme, he said.
But a Bangkok-based US military officer said he "wouldn't be surprised" if
the helicopters were sent to the Third Army. Under an intelligence-sharing
programme, Thai forces already had access to related US equipment, he
said.
The US also had delivered part of a "very important programme" of accurate
digital mapping that Thailand was buying under a contract.
Adm Blair affirmed US support for the Thai initiative towards three-way
co-operation against drugs with Burma and China. The project was "absolutely
essential", as drug runners would go where law enforcement was weakest.
Adm Blair discussed US, Thai and various other countries' relations with
China during talks with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The US spy plane incident in early April had "put a damper" on
military-to-military contacts with China, he said.
The US was also concerned with China's activities in the South China Sea,
and its commitment to a code of conduct initiated by Asean.
China and Vietnam did not take up invitations to observe Cobra Gold this
year but China had made known it might do so next year, he added.
The exercises, which this year drew observers from nine countries, are part
of a US bid to encourage the formation of "security communities" in the region.
The US also runs an Asia-Pacific website for exchanges among regional military
authorities.
The observer countries-Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, the
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Australia and France-were all considering the question
of full participation in Cobra Gold in the future, Adm Blair said.
Cobra Gold is part of a joint combined exercise called Team Challenge 01,
which also features US exercises with Australia and the Philippines.
Bkk Post - May 17, 2001.
Wattanachai says Burma is concealing
'speed' labs
Wassana Nanuam and Anucha Charoenpo Lt-Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong has claimed Mong Yawn is a major
drug-producing area and said there are at least 60 methamphetamine plants in
that part of Burma's Shan state.
The Third Army commander said he was not fooled by Rangoon's attempts to
change the town's image.
Foreign journalists from China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand found
no evidence of drug production in Mong Yawn during a recent press trip to the
area.
He said the Burmese organised the trip to fool the world and claimed some
of the plants had modern laboratories and machines to produce methamphetamine
tablets.
"The Burmese government would definitely not allow outsiders to see them.
The arranged trip would not clear Mong Yawn's image," Lt-Gen Wattanachai
said.
"Burma should instead show sincerity by joining hands with Thailand to
destroy those plants."Burma's Triangle Region commander Maj-Gen Thein Sein and
army chief Gen Maung Aye, both of whom promised to destroy the drug plants,
remained silent on the matter, he said.
He confirmed Thai soldiers would remain in Doi Lang in Mae Ai district,
Chiang Mai, despite protests from Rangoon. Government-level talks to settle the
dispute would begin soon.
Meanwhile, drug busters vowed to keep an eye on Mong Yawn despite Rangoon's
efforts to hide the drug factories.
Chatchai Suthiklom, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics
Control Board, said the recent press trip was very useful for Thai narcotics
officials and the international community.
For five years, the township was considered Southeast Asia's largest
drug-producing area.
The drug factories were run by the United Wa State Army and are now
controlled by Rangoon.
Burma denied this and organised the special trip to show Thailand and the
international community the town was free of drugs.
Mr Chatchai admitted seeing no drug-producing factories in the town but
said there could have been plants "outside the town" or in the jungle near
Thailand.
He was taken to two electricity-generating plants, commercial buildings and
200 shacks belonging to ethnic Wa people, relocated from northern Shan state.
Almost 50,000 ethnic Wa were moved there as part of Burmese efforts to establish
opium-free zones.
The military junta expects to relocate another 200,000.
Bangkok Post - May 17,
2001.
Army to drill troops in night combat
The army will hold a night combat exercise on Sunday, to prepare troops for
service along the Burmese border, sources said yesterday.
Rapid deployment battalions, special warfare and infantry units, and the
Army Aviation Centre will take part.
The exercise will focus on helicopter transport of troops to target areas
and night combat operations, including drug suppression.
The drill, at the Muang Khom tactical training ground, Lop Buri, will be
viewed by Gen Surayud Chulanont, the army chief.
He will visit the Pha Muang task force in Chiang Mai tomorrow for a
briefing and make an inspection trip to the disputed Doi Lang area in Mae Ai
district, and Hua Lone hill in Fang district.
Burmese and Wa soldiers seized the hill for three days last week before the
army took it back.
Myanmar, ROK to Promote Bilateral
Trade Cooperation
2001.05.17 11:03:41 YANGON, May 17 (Xinhuanet) --
Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and officials of three
Myanmar government ministries held a business meeting here Wednesday to
seek ways to promote bilateral trade cooperation between the two
countries, according to official newspaper the New Light of Myanmar on
Thursday.
The business meeting, sponsored by the Myanmar-Daewoo Ltd of ROK
investing in Myanmar, was attended by ROK entrepreneurs from Gamhae city
and Myanmar officials from Ministries of Industry-2, Mines and Rail
Transportation as well as Myanma Economic Corporation.
Meanwhile, a seminar between the Indochina Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
of ROK and Myanmar entrepreneurs was held in Yangon in March, in which
representatives of nine companies of the ICC and 37 textile companies of
Myanmar discussed matters on textile, garment and leather goods, according to an
earlier official report.
Official statistics showed that in 2000, ROK injected over 38 million
U.S. dollars' investment in 6 projects in Myanmar, ranking the highest in the
country's foreign investment line-up during the year.
The statistics also showed that ROK has so far poured in Myanmar a
total of 143.9 million dollars' investment since late 1988 when the
country opened to foreign investment.
Meanwhile, bilateral trade between Myanmar and ROK amounted to 353.2
million dollars in 2000, accounting for 8.6 percent of Myanmar's total
foreign trade during the year. The balance of trade was in favor of
ROK.
ROK stands as Myanmar's fourth largest trading partner after
Singapore, China and Thailand.
ASEAN-Japan Meeting on SME Opens
in Myanmar
2001.05.17 12:12:06 YANGON, May 17 (Xinhuanet) --
The third meeting of the working group of Economic and Industrial
Cooperation Committee (EICC) of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on small and
medium enterprises (SME) opened here Thursday following the eighth
meeting of the ASEAN SME agencies working group.
The two-day ASEAN-Japan EICC working group meeting is to adopt some
decisions and submit to the ASEAN economic ministers meeting for
approval.
The meeting will also be an exchange of information on the SME
promotion measures taken by each member country and cooperation among the
members for ultimate realization of the objective of the Hanoi Plan of Action
(HPA), which was worked out at the Sixth ASEAN Summit in 1998 for
fostering of SMEs in the ASEAN countries.
Strategies laid down include encouragement of the member states to
establish national export financing for SMEs, exploration of the
possibility of establishing regional export financing, ASEAN investment
fund and a trade or industrial cooperation scheme to promote intra-ASEAN
cooperation for SMEs.
Since Myanmar became an ASEAN member in July 1997, the Directorate of
Myanmar Industrial Planning of the Ministry of Industry No.2 had been
nominated as the focal point for ASEAN SME agencies working group
activities.
Myanmar also hosted the fourth meeting of the ASEAN SME agencies
working group in April 1999.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
South China Morning Post
Thursday, May 17, 2001
BURMA - Bank guests 'close to
junta, drug lords'
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok The Asian Development Bank (ADB) was wrong to admit senior Burmese bankers
to its annual meeting when they were close to the ruling military junta or
linked to drug traffickers, exiled Burmese activists said yesterday.
The "invited guest" list at the ADB's well-attended Hawaii gathering that
ended at the weekend included representatives of four Burmese banks, one of
which, sources in Burma say, is backed by the country's premier trafficker, Wei
Hsueh-gang. Other bank guests were described by informed observers as extremely
close to senior regime members.
All these banks were created, or have blossomed, since the mid-1990s after
the military partially opened up the economy. The State Department's latest
narcotics review says that in recent years, "drug profits formed the seed
capital" for many legitimate businesses, including banks.
US officials refused to comment on whether it was correct to issue visas to
friends of the military regime to visit Hawaii. Under restrictions signed by
former US president Bill Clinton five years ago, "persons who formulate or
implement policies that are impeding the transition to democracy in Burma, or
who benefit from such policies" should be barred admission to the US.
The invited guests included the chairman of the new and rapidly expanding
Kanbawza Bank, Aung Ko Win, who was apparently a little-known schoolteacher but
acquired in the 1990s a reputation of being, effectively, army chief General
Maung Aye's "adopted son". He hails from the important border town of Tachilek,
in the Golden Triangle region of Burma. He is married to the daughter of a
senior general.
Thein Tun, known as "Mr Pepsi" until his American partner was forced to
pull out of Burma, is one of the country's most powerful businessmen and
chairman of the Tun Foundation Bank. He is known to be close to the regime's
powerful intelligence chief, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt.
The Myanmar Universal Bank, whose chairman Tin Sein was an invited guest,
is said by informed sources to be closely associated with Wei, an ethnic Chinese
drug gangster with a price on his head in the US and Thailand. Wei is an
associate of the United Wa State Army, which has been described by a US official
as the "biggest armed gang of drug traffickers in the world".
Tin Sein is said to be an ethnic Chinese who, because he is unable to speak
Burmese, has refused to give interviews to the domestic press. He also claims to
be from the Tachilek region.
"They should not have been invited. They are not independent, neutral
businessmen. They are very close to the military junta. The ADB should be more
careful," said Maung Maung Aye, a spokesman for the exiled National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma.
There was a row at the last ADB annual meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in
2000, when it was discovered that the chiefs of the Asia Wealth Bank and the
Mayflower Bank attended. Both banks have been strongly linked to drug
traffickers.
The Straits Times - may 17,
2001.
Powell slams Japan over new aid
package to Myanmar
Talks between military rulers and opposition failing, he says WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday sharply
criticised Japan's largest aid package to Myanmar in a decade, saying it was not
appropriate to deal with the country's military rulers.
Japanese diplomats said in Yangon last month that ministers would soon
rubber-stamp a 3.5-billion-yen (S$51.6-million) plan to revamp a hydropower dam
in eastern Myanmar built by Japan in the 1960s.
But Mr Powell made clear that the United States was vigorously opposed to
the programme, which would alleviate some of the pressure on Myanmar's power
grid still reeling under international economic sanctions.
'The Japanese are making an investment in a hydroelectric plant that we
have suggested to them is not a proper investment to be making at this time with
this regime,' Mr Powell told the Senate appropriations sub-committee on foreign
operations.
US officials said last month, on condition of anonymity, that Washington
did not agree with the deal, even though it had been consulted by Japan.
Tokyo made its decision in light of the fledgling dialogue between
Myanmar's generals and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But Mr Powell said on Tuesday that rays of hope emerging from the talks
were 'few' and 'dim' amid reports from Yangon that the dialogue is in trouble.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won an overwhelming
election victory in 1990 which was never recognised by the military government.
The party has since been subjected to a campaign of imprisonments and
harassments designed to crush its structure and ability to organise.
The government faces a punishing regime of sanctions and investment
restrictions, mainly backed by Western nations in a move supported by Ms Suu
Kyi. --AFP
The New Straits Times Press
May 17, 2001.
Ampang break-in gang crippled
By Azura Abas KUALA LUMPUR, Wed. - Police believed they have solved 53 cases of break-ins
in Ampang since January following the arrest of four Myanmar illegal immigrants,
including a 42-year-old woman, recently.
Hulu Langat (Kajang/Ampang) deputy police chief Superintendent Azmi Hashim
said two were detained on April 11 in Lembah Jaya while the woman and another
member of the group were arrested 11 days later in the same area.
He said this was the same group that was believed to be behind a series of
house break-ins in Ampang in 1999. They were arrested the same year and were
deported.
"One of them is wanted by the Penang police in connection with three other
break-ins there."
Azmi said police recovered 30 stolen items from the group, including 20
gold rings, two gold necklaces, two gold lockets, three gold earrings, a video
cassette recorder and two television sets.
The group would normally target end-lot houses where they forced open the
grill door or cut the lock to enter the premises.
"They broke into the houses without taking into account whether the owners
were in or not," he added.
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