|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - May 21,
2001.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AP - Thai Pop Stars Lend Moral Support To
Myanmar Guerrillas
AFP - Bangkok governor
seeks Chinese funding for train plan
Reuters - China pledges to
join regional drugs war
Bkk Post - Beijing keen to
assist in drugs war
Bkk Post - International
laws are up for three-day discussion
SCMP - 112 arrested in raid
on disco
JT - Labor leader urges Japan not to resume Myanmar aid
ST - Isolated Myanmar driven
by black economy
Chicago Tribune - U.S.
troops in military exercises near China's border
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday May 21, 5:42 PM
Thai Pop Stars Lend Moral Support
To Myanmar Guerrillas
BANGKOK (AP)--Two Thai pop
stars have lent moral support to a guerrilla group in neighboring Myanmar by
singing for them nationalist songs and sending them beer, a guerrilla officer
said Monday.
He said that Surachai Chantimathorn, a veteran singer, attended a ceremony
Monday at Shan State Army base across the border from Thailand to mark the Shan
Resistance Day and performed for the troops.
The other singer, Add Carabao, who co-founded the folk-rock group Carabao,
didn't attend the ceremony but sent 50 cases of beer, said the Shan officer,
contacted by telephone. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Shan State Army is an armed group representing the Shan ethnic minority
seeking autonomy from the central government of Myanmar.
In recent months, there has been more fighting between the Shan State Army
and Myanmar government troops.
Surachai, also known as Nga Caravan, attended the ceremony to provide
"moral support for the Shan fighters," said the officer. Surachai's attendance
couldn't be independently confirmed, but he was known to be in northern Thailand
near the Shan area this past weekend.
Surachai in the 1970s founded the folk-blues group Caravan, which was very
popular with the student movement that helped topple a military dictatorship in
1973.
When a right-wing coup took place in 1976, Surachai and most members of his
band fled to the jungle to join the guerrillas of the Communist Party of
Thailand. They rejoined society in the early 1980s after the government granted
a blanket political amnesty.
Add, the other singer, is the advertising spokesman for the Thai beer
company whose product he sent for the Shan. Add, whose real name is Yuenyong
Opakul, had previously recorded a song in support of the Shans' struggle.
Earlier this month, he met with the guerillas' leader, Col. Yawd Serk, at a
Shan base, said the guerillas' news agency.
The agency quoted him as saying afterward that "... in a national
independence struggle, you need a hero to keep you going through hell and water.
I'm sure Yawd Serk fits that role."
Monday May 21, 4:22 PM
Bangkok governor seeks Chinese funding
for train plan
BANGKOK, May 21 (AFP) -
Bangkok's governor asked visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Monday for Chinese
funding to build a suburban train system around the congested Thai capital, city
officials said.
Samak Sundaravej asked for the entire two billion dollars needed for the
project in an early morning meeting with Zhu, who was on the third day of a
four-day visit to Thailand at the conclusion of an Asian tour.
The proposed electric rail system, spanning some 80 kilometers (50 miles),
would be aimed at easing the traffic congestion crippling the sprawling Thai
capital.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) last month signed an
agreement with a Chinese company, China Rail Construction Ltd., to carry out a
three-month feasibility study of the idea.
Zhu said China was prepared to lend its encouragement and expertise to the
project, but Thailand should fund the transit system itself, according to a BMA
spokesman.
The Bangkok governor said he would submit his funding request to China
nonetheless and await a decision later.
The suburban rail system is one of a number of railway projects in the
pipeline for Thailand.
A Chinese state firm, Shanghai Metro Construction Corp., is expected to
build a 300 million dollar extension to Bangkok's debt-burdened light rail
system known as the Skytrain.
Defense Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh reportedly said Sunday that China
would finance a high-speed train linking Thailand with China.
During the third day of his visit to Thailand, Zhu was scheduled to meet
with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the resort town of Hua Hin.
Thailand and China were later expected to discuss trade quotas for products
including rice and rubber, said Commerce Minister Adisai Bhotaramix.
China was likely to maintain its annual import quota of 200,000 tonnes of
rice from Thailand, he said
But Thailand would ask China to decrease its import tax on Thai goods,
which are taxed at higher rates than products from Myanmar and Laos.
The issue of illicit drugs was also expected to figure in discussions
between the visiting Chinese leader and Thai officials.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said China was ready to host a
meeting on anti-drug cooperation with Thailand, Myanmar and Laos -- whose
borders meet in the notorious "Golden Triangle" drug production region.
Sunday May 20, 11:48 PM
China pledges to join regional drugs
war
By Vithoon Amorn BANGKOK (Reuters) - China on
Sunday pledged full cooperation with its southern neighbours in fighting the
threat of drugs trafficking in the region.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman told a news conference China would
fully cooperate with other countries and international organisations in the war
against narcotics.
Spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said through an interpreter: "China has a resolute
stand on cracking down upon� the trafficking and trade in drugs."
Zhang said visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji backed Thailand's proposal
for an anti-narcotics summit of prime ministers of the two countries, Laos and
Myanmar.
"Premier Zhu said in his meetings with Thai leaders that China's position
on drug controls is both clear-cut and strong. Once criminals engaging in drugs
trafficking are caught, they would be sentenced to death."
The official said China offered to host the multilateral meeting in Kunming
in southwest China at a time to be agreed on by the four countries.
Kunming is close to the opium-growing Golden Triangle which straddles hilly
borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
SPORADIC CLASHES
Thai and Myanmar troops have been engaged in sporadic clashes along their
border in recent weeks after fighting between Myanmar government forces and
warring ethnic groups spilled over into northern Thailand.
Thai officials have accused Myanmar of failing to take action against
production of methamphetamine by the United Wa State Army, a pro-Yangon ethnic
militia group operating from jungle bases near the Thai border.
Premier Zhu is in Thailand for a four-day visit, the last leg of his
five-nation tour of South and South East Asia. He has visited Pakistan, Nepal,
the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai said on Saturday cooperation in
drugs suppression topped the agenda of Zhu's talks with Thai counterpart Thaksin
Shinawatra.
Zhang sidestepped a question whether China objected to a Thai-American
military exercise in northern Thailand last week.
She said: "Our consistent position is that activities by countries in this
area should be in the interest of peace and stability in this region."
The official also declined to comment on U.S.-China tensions caused by U.S.
arms sales to Taiwan and a recent collision between a U.S. spy plane and a
Chinese jet fighter.
She said, however, that China would not welcome any attempt by European
countries to use a scheduled Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing next week as
a forum for criticising China's human rights record.
Bangkok Post - May 21,
2001.
Beijing keen to assist in drugs
war
Urges other nations to endorse efforts Achara Ashayagachat China is eager to co-operate in drug suppression at regional, bilateral and
multilateral levels, provided all countries involved agree, visiting Foreign
Minister Tang Jiaxuan said yesterday.
Beijing was already encouraging others to fight against illicit drugs, but
it was essential that other countries endorse any co-operative efforts, he
said.
Prime Minister Zhu Rongji was in favour of Thailand's proposal for a summit
meeting on drugs involving leaders from Burma, Thailand, China and Laos,
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. China was resolute about cracking down on drug
abuse and trafficking.
Mr Zhu had told Thai leaders China would like to host the proposed summit,
"but Thailand should solicit further ideas from Burma and Laos", she said.
Mr Zhu described his first official visit, which started on Friday, as a
family visit with relatives. Since the two countries had no outstanding issues
the two leaders discussed further co-operation in all aspects for this new
century, the spokeswoman said.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the two leaders would discuss
agricultural products at their meeting today in Cha-am, after Mr Zhu and his
wife had an audience with Their Majesties the King and Queen at Klai Kangwon
Palace.
There would also be a "good news" announcement, in addition to the pledged
purchase of Thai rice, rubber, and dried longan by China.
Mr Zhu had meetings yesterday with Parliament President Uthai Pimchaichon,
Senate Speaker Manoonkrit Roopkachorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence
Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, and former premiers Chuan Leekpai and Anand
Panyarachun.
Bangkok Post - May 21,
2001.
International laws are up for three-day
discussion
Anucha Charoenpo Security and law enforcement officers gather in Chon Buri today to discuss
measures to stop drug trafficking in Thai waters.
The talks will focus on problems and obstacles in the implementation of
Thai and international drug laws at sea and decide if they needed to be
changed.
The outcome of the three-day seminar will be forwarded to the national
drugs committee for further action.
Kitti Limchaikij, head of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB),
said drug trafficking at sea increased since border controls were stepped
up.
Intelligence information obtained this year by the navy and the ONCB
indicated drug traffickers were shipping their goods through the Andaman
Sea.
Most of the fishing boats carrying drugs came from Burma's Kawthaung,
opposite Ranong, and stopped in Ranong and Phuket before heading for
Singapore.
Thai officials earlier this year seized five million methamphetamine pills
and 100kg of heroin after boarding two fishing boats in the Andaman Sea, off
Ranong. The seizure was worth more than one billion baht. The ONCB and the navy
expects the three-day meeting to yield concrete legal measures to deter
traffickers.
Adm Thaweesak Somapa, navy chief-of-staff and director of the Drugs
Suppression and Prevention Centre of the navy, said state representatives would
take part in the meeting.
South China Morning Post
Monday, May 21, 2001 MALAYSIA - 112 arrested in raid on disco ASSOCIATED PRESS in Kuala Lumpur Police arrested 112 people and seized a sword, cannabis and Ecstasy pills
in two weekend raids on the same Kuala Lumpur nightclub, reports said on Monday.
City Narcotics Chief Ayob Mohamed said 11 people who tested positive for drugs were arrested early Saturday morning in the first raid on the club in the Klang Valley, the New Straits Times newspaper reported. The second raid took place early on Sunday and police arrested 101 alleged
drug users, Mr Ayob was cited as saying. Police found a sword and three knives,
as well as 17 cannabis cigarettes, four packets of cannabis and 44 Ecstasy
pills.
The raids were part of a crackdown on drug use in nightclubs in recent
weeks. In two raids earlier this month, police arrested 100 people at one dance
club and 205 at another for alleged drug use.
Mr Ayob said most of the people arrested in the latest raids were aged
between 19 and 35, the Star newspaper reported. It said more than 1,000 people,
mostly teenagers, have been detained during the operation to clean up drug abuse
at nightspots.
Among those arrested were five illegals immigrants from Burma who were
working at the club. They have been sent to the Immigration Department for
probable deportation.
Ecstasy has become the drug of choice for youth in Malaysia and other parts
of Southeast Asia. If found guilty of drug abuse, the detainees could be fined a
maximum of 5,000 ringgit (about HK$10,500) or go to jail for two years.
Under Malaysian law, drug traffickers face a mandatory death penalty. The
government is considering updating the laws to cover Ecstasy.
The Japan Times: May 22,
2001
Labor leader urges Japan not to resume
Myanmar aid
More than 3 million people have been forced into slave labor under the
military government in Myanmar, according to a Myanmarese labor leader visiting
Japan.
Maung Maung, secretary general of the outlawed Federation of Trade
Unions-Burma, said that Japan should not resume official development assistance
to Myanmar, saying that such assistance will strengthen the junta.
Maung Maung, 48, said that since the junta came to power in the late 1980s,
the economy has deteriorated because of sanctions placed on the country.
With the national budget under pressure, the proportion devoted to military
expenditure has expanded to nearly 50 percent, he said.
Due to the lack of money, the military government has been forcing farmers
to build dams, roads and military facilities without pay.
Poverty and famine are subsequently becoming serious problems in rural
areas, as farmers are unable to attend to their fields.
According to Maung Maung, foreign aid is being funneled to the military and
Japan will be unable to clearly monitor what its aid is used for.
European countries and the International Labor Organization have voiced
concerns over the use of forced labor in Myanmar and have toughened their
sanctions on the military government.
Tokyo is considering resuming aid to Myanmar, following the beginning in
October of talks between the military and prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Japan suspended assistance to Myanmar in 1988 when the junta took
power.
The Straits Times - May 21,
2001.
Isolated Myanmar driven by black
economy
Bribes and illegal markets keep the country going after foreign exchange dries up as the West protests against Yangon's poor human-rights record By Jon Greenaway - IN BANGKOK
STEPPING off a plane at Yangon's international airport, the visitor is made
aware immediately of how important the black economy is in Myanmar.
A government requirement, that each foreigner changes US$200 (S$360) for
Foreign Exchange Certificates, can be circumvented with a US$10 'present'. The
certificates are legal tender in Myanmar, but not reconvertible to United States
currency on departure.
On the way from the airport into town, the driver might take a back road and stop his taxi - typically an antiquated Japanese car with torn seats, smashed windscreen and a death rattle in the exhaust - to buy a litre of petrol from a bootlegger who hides his jerry can in the bushes. It could be argued that this is symbolic of the economy as a whole:
state-controlled, inefficient, burdened with foreign debt and lacking in foreign
investment.
One expatriate businessman said: 'For anything to happen here, you must
first pay a bribe, whether it is for health care, education or just getting the
phone put on.
'Nobody can afford to live on what the government pays them, so bureaucrats
and civil servants earn most of their income under the table.'
A senior nurse is paid 5,300 kyat a month, a university professor might
earn twice that.
This would be good income if the official exchange rate of six kyat to the
US dollar were observed. But in the hotels, shops and among street corner money
changers, the rate fluctuates from 500 to 800 kyat to the US dollar.
Myanmar's isolation adds to the low value of the kyat and the demand for US
dollars.
In the mid-90s, US states and local authorities banned the issue of
contracts to companies that did business in Myanmar.
This was because of the military government's poor human-rights record and
refusal to recognise the results of the 1990 general election, won by Ms Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
Numerous companies such as Levi Strauss, Hewlett Packard and Eastman Kodak
have pulled out, and this has drained the economy of foreign exchange.
'We had more customers before two years ago,' said a waiter in one of the
few bars and restaurants catering to tourists and expatriates. A glass of beer
there might cost what it would take most Myanmar nationals a week to earn.
Yangon's streets show signs of neglect. The only buildings that do not have
fading paint and falling plaster are those belonging to the military or occupied
by foreign embassies.
But recent statements by the ruling State Peace and Development Council
that talks are being held between the government and Ms Suu Kyi have given hope
that change is near.
A student attending a recently reopened university said with a nervous
laugh: 'A new government is what we need. We hope.'
Chicago Tribune
U.S. troops in military exercises near China's border By Uli Schmetzer
Tribune staff reporter Originally published May 20, 2001, 5:12 PM EDT BANGKOK, Thailand -- Some 5,000 American troops are in northern Thailand
not far from the Chinese border this weekend as part of long-scheduled Cobra
Gold 2001 military exercises being staged at a time when Thailand and Myanmar
are trading angry diplomatic missives and live artillery shells.
Among the troops are about 20 instructors from the U.S. 1st Special Forces
Group who will stay behind after the maneuvers to train Thai commandos in
anti-guerrilla warfare.
Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, have been at loggerheads for weeks
over the disputed Doi Lang border area, a longtime stronghold of drug warlords
whose heroin refineries and amphetamine laboratories have flourished for years
with the knowledge of key military officers and officials on both sides of the
border.
Periodic hostilities over control of drug trafficking are no novelty. But
this time the United States and China are playing key roles on opposite sides,
just weeks after the U.S. spy plane incident strained their bilateral
relations.
Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, confirmed last
week at a news briefing that Washington has sent Special Forces guerrilla
warfare specialists to act as "instructors" for a Thai commando unit known as
Task Force 399. Thai military officials gave the initial number of U.S.
instructors as 20 but said more could be expected.
The same Thai sources said Task Force 399 and the U.S. instructors would be
stationed at Mae Rim Village just north of Chiang Mai, a garrison town on the
edge of the infamous Golden Triangle, the poppy-growing zone on the Myanmar,
Laos and Thailand borders.
The highly mobile unit of about 100 men will use two U.S.-donated Black
Hawk assault helicopters to chase and neutralize drug smugglers along the Golden
Triangle, operating less than 100 miles from Chinese border troops.
Their main enemy on the other side of the border will be the United Wa
State Army, an ethnic narcotics-guerrilla force loyal to the Myanmar military
junta. Western intelligence sources say China is the principal supplier of arms
and expertise for the Wa and the Myanmar armed forces.
More than a year ago the Chinese persuaded the ethnic Wa, the most powerful
and most militant of the hillside tribes, to move their people, their army and
their drug laboratories from the Myanmar-China border in the north to Myanmar's
border with Thailand at Doi Lang in the south.
"It was a cunning move. By sending the Wa away from their own border the
Chinese dramatically reduced drug trafficking into China, which had become a
major problem for their own population. Sending the Wa to the Thai border meant
dumping the problem on the Thais and their Western allies," said a narcotics
expert who requested anonymity.
Asian intelligence sources said Beijing supplied the Wa with sophisticated
weapons and money in exchange for Wa help in constructing a network of roads
through Myanmar from China. The road system would give Beijing access to
seaports and naval bases on the Myanmar coast, an access the Chinese have
coveted for years.
In a blunt warning, Myanmar's ruling military junta announced it was ready
"to fight side by side" with the Wa, whom the U.S. State Department has
identified in reports as major drug producers in the region.
"If intrusions at the border become direct threats to either Wa territory
or Burmese soil, we are ready to counter them," said Brigadier General Kyan Win,
deputy director of Myanmar's military intelligence.
At the same time, Win praised China for "offering material and technology
to develop the border area."
Thai intelligence sources say the Wa already have been given sophisticated
Chinese-made HN-5N surface to air missiles capable of knocking out low-flying
airplanes and helicopters. On the other side, the U.S. has supplied Thai forces
with the latest night-vision, radar and digital mapping equipment.
Warriors, the Wa are renown for their do-or-die fighting spirit. With an
estimated 15,000 members under arms, the Wa members are no pushover for any
conventional army in the rough terrain of their native habitat.
As U.S. forces prepared last week week for the annual two-week Cobra Gold
Thai-US exercises, the largest in Asia this year, the Pentagon left no doubt
which side it supports in the looming Thailand-Myanmar drug war.
"As a military man, I support Thailand," Adm. Blair said. Blair was in
Thailand to oversee the maneuvers, which also include Singaporean officers this
year. Both China and Vietnam declined to attend as observers this year.
Myanmar has already warned the Thais that calling in American "specialists"
over the escalating border dispute is perilous to regional peace. In a blunt
diplomatic note last week, the junta demanded the Thai military withdraw from 35
border outposts that Yangon claims are within its own territory. Bangkok has
ignored the demand.
Admiral Blair said the U.S. Special Forces instructors and two US Black
Hawk helicopters had joined Thai Special Forces in the troubled North to "teach
skills needed to patrol the border." The Americans are working closely with
Thailand's 3rd Army, a force largely untainted by military involvement in the
narcotics trade.
Although the maneuvers are publicized as an anti-narcotics campaign, some
Western diplomats say the extensive military mobilization and American
participation also are aimed at containing growing Chinese influence in the
region. Narcotics experts blame Beijing for precipitating the current tension by
urging the Wa to go south. These observers fear the escalating border incidents,
with casualties on both sides, have the potential to explode into a conflict
drawing China and the U.S. into a confrontation.
The military government in Yangon, formerly the Burmese capital of Rangoon,
made a deal with the Wa in 1989. Diplomats say that in return for allowing their
poppy-growing and heroin refineries, the Wa would have autonomy in their region
and police tracts of border areas against armed incursions by the Shan people,
an ethnic group allied with Thailand. The Shan have been fighting Myanmar troops
for years.
The Shan also control parts of the border on behalf of their Thai
neighbors. Myanmar claims the Thais, who long have shown a preference for making
deals rather than fighting, are allowing the Shan to run their own narcotics
trade along the border.
The focus of the current trouble is a 20 square-mile border region known as
Doi Lang near Thailand's northern city, Chiang Mai. Doi Lang virtually straddles
the border. This makes it a perfect smuggling post for drug trafficking.
Narcotics laboratories on the Myanmar side import chemicals and export heroin
and amphetamine through Thailand.
In yet another attempt to crack down on drug peddling, especially in
schools where as many as 35 percent of students have tested positive to
amphetamine, the Thais on April 18 executed four narcotics dealers by firing
squad in Bangkok and had their last hour televised nation-wide. The Thais say
the Wa settlement of Mong Yawn, which has schools, hospitals, stores and bars
has only one industry -- laboratories that refine opium into heroin or fabricate
the designer drug amphetamine with imported chemicals. The settlement is just 15
miles inside Mayanmar border, opposite the booming Thai border town of Chiang
Mai and less than an hour by road from the headquarters of Task Force 399.
The man who founded Mong Yawn was Wei Xue-Gang, a Chinese born drug lord.
He was indicted by a New York court in 1993 for drug-trafficking and is on a
State Department blacklist of the most wanted drug lords. Soon after Wei changed
from producing drugs to laundering drug money, the Wa negotiated a contract with
the United Nations. In exchange for giving up growing poppies, the Wa would
receive UN financing for alternative crops.
Drug experts say the irresistible lure of vast profits from drugs makes any
such deal shaky and difficult to police. Aware the UN would monitor by air if
the poppy crop really had been replaced, the Wa thought of a lucrative
alternative: The mass production of amphetamines, known as Yaa Baa in Thailand
and "Ice" in its crystalline form in the West.
The amphetamine industry, based at clandestine Wa laboratories that produce
the designer drug with imported chemicals, flooded Asia with an estimated 800
million pills last year. Revenue from this new narcotic windfall provides an
estimated $250 million annual profit, far more than what the UN could offer.
|