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BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 22,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- CNN News - Junta frees Myanmar five
AP - Thailand Set To Lift Ban On Strategic
Supplies To Myanmar
AFP - UN officials
warn of AIDS explosion in Asia and Eastern Europe
Reuters - Thai-Myanmar border crossings set to
re-open
AP - U.S. Clamps Down on Money
Laundering
BBC - UN welcomes Burma releases
ABC online - More Chinese executed for drug
trafficking
The Nation - PM: border trade with Burma to
resume
The Nation - Let time be judge’of PM’s overtures
with Burma
Bkk Post - PM offers soft-term trade
deal
Bkk post - Burma's Win Aung on
visit
Bkk Post - Burma joins health
campaign
Xinhuanet - Thailand, Myanmar to Reopen Border
Checkpoints Sunday
Xinhuanet - Thaksin's Visit Eases Myanmar-Thai
Tense Relations
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Seizes Large Amount of
Ephedrine Powder
---------------------------------------------------------------- CNN News - Junta
frees Myanmar five
June 21, 2001 Posted: 5:44 PM HKT (0944 GMT) YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military junta has freed five more
opposition lawmakers in the latest move that eases pressure on the country's
pro-democracy movement.
The five elected representatives of the National League for Democracy party
had been kept in government guest houses since 1998, and had been allowed to
leave the facilities infrequently, only on weekends.
"We have heard about the releases but those people haven't reported to the
party headquarters yet," NLD secretary U Lwin told reporters.
He identified the five as Win Naing, Pike Chone, Nyan Win, Phein Lwin and
Aung Soe Myint.
The releases are apparently the outcome of secret talks between NLD leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and the military government, which started last October in a
bid to restart the democratic process in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Suu Kyi, however, has been kept confined to her lakeside residence since
September 22 when she tried to defy a travel ban.
Party chairman Aung Shwe and vice chairman Tin Oo also remain under virtual
house arrest.
The junta had released eight more elected NLD lawmakers last Thursday. U
Lwin said 22 more remain confined in guest houses.
The current group of generals ruling Myanmar seized power in 1988 after
crushing a pro-democracy movement with a bloody crackdown that killed hundreds.
The junta called general elections in 1990 but refused to recognize the
overwhelming victory of the National League for Democracy, and never allowed a
new Parliament to convene.
Authorities detained hundreds of elected representatives, mostly from the
NLD, in 1998 following its announcement that it intended to unilaterally convene
a parliament.
Junta leaders had said they would be released when they renounced their
intention to convene an alternative parliament.
A group of 84 NLD members were released from Insein Prison in January and
16 more were released in March.
Last week, the junta also gave permission to the NLD to reopen 18 branch
offices among the 40 NLD offices in Yangon division.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday June 22, 12:58 PM
Thailand Set To Lift Ban On Strategic
Supplies To Myanmar
BANGKOK (AP)--Thailand may soon
lift a ban on strategic supplies to Myanmar, which was imposed five months ago
after a border clash, the army spokesman confirmed Friday.
The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the local Thai-Myanmar Township
Border Committee to be held over the weekend, said the spokesman, Col. Somkuan
Saengpattaranetr.
This follows a reconciliation visit to Myanmar this week by Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the first by a Thai premier to the military state
in four years.
The Thai army banned the export of supplies - including fuel, rice and
construction equipment - through the main crossing point at the northern town of
Mae Sai to Tachilek in eastern Myanmar in February following border skirmishes
between the armies of the two countries. The clashes plunged bilateral relations
to their lowest point in years.
Thursday, army chief Gen. Surayud Chulanont indicated that the ban on
supplies may be ending soon.
"For the ban of the strategic goods, it may have to lift," Surayud told
reporters. He added that smuggled goods were still getting over the border
despite the ban.
The army claimed the goods were supplying the Myanmar military and the
jungle stronghold of the United Wa State Army at Mong Yawn, which it says
produces most of the illegal methamphetamine drugs smuggled into Thailand.
A Thai army official said that lifting the ban was the Myanmar government's
main condition in reopening the Mae Sai-Tachilek checkpoint.
Thailand has reopened its side of the border, but Myanmar has yet to follow
suit.
In a bid to improve relations, Thaksin offered to extend trade privileges
to the military state similar to those Thailand grants to its poorer neighbors
Cambodia and Laos, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported Friday.
He asked Myanmar leader Gen. Than Shwe to submit a list of goods to the
Thai Commerce Ministry for preferential treatment, the report said.
In a follow-up visit, Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung met with Thaksin in
Bangkok Friday. He is also scheduled to visit his Thai counterpart, Surakiart
Sathirathai.
The drug trade is at the root of the tensions between the two countries.
Thailand contends that Myanmar is turning a blind eye to the Wa's drug dealings.
Myanmar says Thailand has been supporting anti-Myanmar guerrillas.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday June 22, 6:37 AM
UN officials warn of AIDS explosion in
Asia and Eastern Europe
UNITED NATIONS, June 21 (AFP) -
Top UN officials warned Asian and Eastern European leaders Thursday that their
lack of political commitment put their countries at risk from an explosion of
HIV/AIDS.
"Eastern Europe is the region with the fastest-growing epidemic," Peter
Piot, executive director of the UN joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
said.
"It is no secret that the response and political will are not commensurate
with the scale of the epidemic," he told a news conference.
Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations Development
Programme, said: "We are projecting that deaths are going into the millions very
quickly" in India and China.
"If the disease is allowed to accelerate to African levels, the number of
lives lost is going to be absolutely dramatic," he told AFP in an
interview.
India already has an estimated 3.7 million people living with the HIV virus
that causes AIDS, and lost 310,000 lives to the disease in 1999.
China has 836,000 reported cases but the figure could rise quickly to
epidemic proportions, said a UNAIDS report released Thursday. China had 17,000
deaths from AIDS in 1999.
These figures are far lower than the 24 million people estimated to be
infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa -- two-thirds of the world's
total.
But "Asia is where Africa was five years ago in terms of awareness and
confronting the problem," Malloch Brown said.
"There are a lot of cultural inhibitions, a lot of refusal to accept that
either there is sex outside marriage, or that there is a pattern of drug abuse,
or, in the case of China, that there was such a mess-up on blood
donations."
Piot noted that not one Asian or Eastern European head of state or
government was scheduled to take part in next week's three-day special session
of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, which starts Monday.
"AIDS in those regions is still in the portfolio of health ministers only
and not on the national agenda," he said.
Seventeen African and five Caribbean heads of state or government are due
to address the special session. Another three African vice-presidents are on the
provisional list of speakers, together with two Western European
presidents.
"If business as usual continues in Russia, we will go into an Africa-type
situation," Piot added.
"But there is a possibility, just as there is Asia, to prevent the spread
of the disease," he said.
The UNAIDS report noted an "alarming increase" in infections in Asia, where
six million people are already HIV-positive.
The number "is set to multiply manifold unless concerted and determined
measures to halt the epidemic are swiftly introduced," the report said.
"The recent steep rise in sexually transmitted infections in China and the
vast transmigration of people (spurred by the country's economic growth) could
unleash an epidemic," it said.
Last year, 780,000 people became infected with HIV in south and south-east
Asia, the report said, and the proportion of adults between the ages of 15 and
49 who carry the virus in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand exceeds two
percent.
"If Asia is where Africa was three to five years ago, Eastern Europe is
where Africa was five to seven years ago," Malloch Brown said.
"Infection rates are climbing ominously in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,
where overlapping epidemics of HIV, injecting drug use and sexually transmitted
diseases are swelling the ranks of people living with HIV/AIDS," the report
said.
"New epidemics have emerged in Estonia and Uzbekistan, while in Ukraine,
240,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in 1999," it said.
In Russia, only a few cities reported cases of HIV in 1996, but today 82 of
the country's 89 regions harbour the virus.
"Growing prostitution and alarmingly high levels of sexually transmitted
diseases in Russia could, in a climate a jolting social change, cause it to
spread rapidly," the report said.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday June 22, 3:52 PM
Thai-Myanmar border crossings set to
re-open
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday that Myanmar would reopen its three
main border gateways with Thailand at the weekend, after having closed them in
February amid tension between the two countries.
Thaksin told reporters after meeting visiting Myanmar Foreign Minister Win
Aung that the border passes in Thailand's Chiang Rai, Tak and Ranong provinces
would be fully open for all commercial products, including exports of "strategic
items" such as fuel which were previously banned.
He said Thai and Myanmar border officials would meet on Saturday to work
out regulations on traffic crossing the border.
"At 6 a.m. on Sunday, the border passes will be opened unconditionally.
There will be no limitations on strategic supplies. We will renew our friendly
relations at this most favourable time," he said.
The border reopening comes after Thaksin returned from an official visit to
Myanmar this week.
Fighting between Myanmar government troops and ethnic minority guerrillas
in northeastern Myanmar's Shan State spilled over into Thailand's Chiang Rai
province early this year.
The clashes prompted exchanges of mortar and artillery fire and border
skirmishes between Thai and Myanmar forces before Yangon closed the key
checkpoints.
Relations worsened in the following months, with each side accusing the
other of backing the drugs trade.
Bangkok says the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic minority militia
group allied to the Yangon government, is the main producer of heroin and the
hundreds of millions of methamphetamine pills flooding Thailand.
But Myanmar denies the UWSA is involved in the drugs trade and says the
rebel Shan State Army (SSA) is the region's main drug producer. Yangon has
accused the Thai army of backing the SSA and profiting from the drugs trade.
Thais were outraged when articles in official Burmese-language newspapers
last month criticised one of Thailand's former kings, and when a school textbook
was released this month in Myanmar describing Thais as lazy and opportunistic.
But on Friday, Thaksin said he was confident friendly ties would be fully
restored, and both sides could co-operate in fighting drugs.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Friday June 22 11:15 AM ET
U.S. Clamps Down on Money Laundering By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and its economic allies
are giving Russia, the Philippines and the Pacific island nation of Nauru until
Sept. 30 to crack down on money laundering or face tighter
sanctions.
The 26-nation financial task force that includes
Britain, Japan and other industrial powers issued a report Friday singling out
the three countries as having failed to make progress in fighting money
laundering over the past year, when they were named on a new ``blacklist'' with
12 other countries and territories.
A Russian official said the international action showed
a ``slightly discriminatory attitude.''
The new punishments could include requiring U.S. and
other banks to gather detailed information before doing business with companies
or individuals from the three countries, or warning international companies away
from them. The measures will take effect Sept. 30 unless the Russian,
Philippines and Nauru governments ``enact significant legislation before then to
address these problems,'' the Treasury Department (news - web sites) said in a
statement Friday.
Treasury said it supports such sanctions against
countries that refuse to make ``constructive legal reforms'' to combat money
laundering and said the Bush administration ``remains firmly committed to this
global battle.''
Last July, Treasury issued formal advisories to U.S.
banks warning they could inadvertently make illegal transactions with countries
and territories on the ``blacklist.''
In Moscow Friday, Alexander Babich, deputy head of the
government's Anti-Money Laundering Center, said, ``This slightly discriminatory
attitude and the blacklist are a little political.''
He said Russia had made significant progress in the
past two years in fighting money laundering but acknowledged that his center was
underfunded and the country needed to create a system to track down illicit
money.
Spokesmen at the Philippines Embassy in Washington
didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
The action comes at a time of improving U.S. relations
and increased cooperation with Russia, following President Bush's first meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin last weekend in Slovenia. The encounter
was considered an important step toward defusing tensions that have marred
recent relations, including U.S. plans for a missile defense and Russia's war in
Chechnya and ties to Iran.
Several Democratic lawmakers expressed concern recently
after the Bush administration disclosed it is reviewing federal rules designed
to fight money laundering, saying they may be burdensome for U.S. banks without
achieving their goal. The lawmakers are pushing legislation to give the
government new authority over U.S. banks that do business with foreign banks and
customers.
The U.S. banking industry has been shaken in recent
years by several high-profile scandals involving the funneling of illicit
profits from drug trafficking, foreign political corruption or other criminal
activities through accounts in major banks. Money from illegal activities is
``laundered'' when it is moved through a series of bank or brokerage accounts to
make it appear to be proceeds from legitimate business activities.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill ordered the major
review of anti-money-laundering regulations as part of a study of all department
functions aimed at finding out whether taxpayers get value for the money being
spent.
The international task force, part of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development, also issued a revised ``blacklist'' of
countries and territories deemed uncooperative in fighting money laundering. The
designation is considered a major embarrassment for countries on the
list.
Removed from the original list, on grounds they made
significant progress over the year, were the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands in
the Caribbean, Liechtenstein in Europe and Panama.
``We applaud the legal reforms made by these
countries,'' O'Neill said.
Added to the list were Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary,
Indonesia, Myanmar and Nigeria.
In addition to Russia, the Philippines and Nauru, eight
countries and territories named on last year's list remain on the new one: the
Cook Islands, Dominica, Israel, Lebanon, the Marshall Islands, Niue, St. Kitts
and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Experts say there has been a migration in recent years
of illicit money from havens in the Caribbean to Nauru and Niue, both remote
islands in the South Pacific.
---------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Friday, 22 June, 2001, 10:05 GMT 11:05 UK
UN welcomes Burma releases The United Nations has welcomed the decision by the
Burmese military authorities to release from detention five opposition
activists.
Twelve others had been released last week. A UN spokesman said the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan,
hoped that the latest releases would prove a boost to ongoing talks between the
military government and the leader of the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi.
No news has been released on the progress of the talks,
which started last year and have been conducted in secret.
The NLD won elections in Burma in 1990, but has never
been allowed to govern.
The BBC's regional analyst Larry Jagan says sources in
the military government have hinted that more releases are likely in the next
few weeks.
UN role
Earlier this month the UN special envoy Razali Ismail
met Burma's military leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi.
His visit is thought to have broken the deadlock after
fears that the talks had broken down.
Before he left Rangoon, Mr Razali told Burma's military
government that to resume the dialogue they must free some of the 200 political
prisoners that the NLD were asking to be immediately released.
However, diplomats will be more inclined to believe the
talks are making real progress when the restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi are
lifted.
Sources in Rangoon believe this may happen in July
around the time the UN envoy is due to return to Rangoon.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
June 22, 2001.
More Chinese executed for drug trafficking
Chinese police have started an annual crackdown on
drugs and already nine drug traffickers have been executed in southwestern
China.
Xinhua news agency says the traffickers, including two
women, were executed in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi autonomous region
bordering Vietnam,.
They were sentenced, along with 26 other drug
traffickers who receive prison terms and death with a two-year reprieve, for
having imported 23 kilogrammes of heroin from Burma between February and May
2000.
The Chinese authorities are taking a hard line in an
effort to supress the escalating drug use and executes dozens of drug
traffickers every year around June 26, the United Nations' International
Anti-Drugs Day.
This year's crackdown comes amid China's anti-crime
campaign, launched in April, which has already seen at least 1,000
executions.
----------------------------------------------------------------
PM: border trade with Burma to resume
BANGKOK, June 22 (The
Nation) -- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday
Burma had agreed to reopen the Mae Sai-Thachilek border checkpoint on Sunday and
the rest of border trading points as soon as possible.
Speaking after meeting with Burmese Foreign Minister
Win Aung this morning, Thaksin said the Mae Sai-Thachilek checkpoint would be
opened after the joint Thai-Burmese Township Border Committee meets on
Saturday.
Rangoon ordered border checkpoints closed following
strains in bilateral ties after border skirmishes and accusation made by Thai
authorities that Burmese government had condoned trade in illicit drugs,
particularly amphetamines destined for Thailand.
The Burmese foreign minister, who arrived in Bangkok
this morning for a two-day visit, will be granted an audience with HM the King
at Klai Kangwol palace in Hua Hin this evening after discussing bilateral issues
with Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation - June 22, 2001.
Let time be judge’of PM’s overtures with Burma
Burma observers were cau¬tiously optimistic yesterday
about Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’ s visit to the country, saying it
looked good on paper but adding it would take time before any substantive
results could appear.
Thaksin’s selfstyled diplomacy was put to the test when
he made his first visit to Burma on Tuesday in an effort to salvage bilateral
ties. Relations between the two coun¬tries sunk to their lowest ebb in years
during his first four months in office, mainly due to accusations over
responsibility for drug flows along their common border.
Speaking after his return on Wednesday, Thaksin vowed
after a summit meeting with the Burmese junta that all lingering
misunderstandings had effective¬ly been dispelled and the two nations would be
able to look for¬ward to a brighter future.
Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan agreed Thaksin’s
mis¬sion should be given time to yield results.
However, Surin, who heads the Democrat Party’s foreign
affairs committee, warned that the Thaksin administration’s appar¬ent decision
to make resolving the drug issue a bilateral issue risked losing Thailand’s
leverage with its neighbour.
“Our friends who shared our position on the drug
problem at the regional and international lev¬els will back off, and we will
lose the alliance [that has been formed] on the drug issue,” he said. Surin was
referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ enhanced antidrug
efforts, which have received the backing of the international com¬munity and
were recently joined by China.
A noted Burma observer said he was not convinced
Thaksin’s visit would fundamentally improve the problems plaguing ThaiBurma
ties, solutions to which are typi¬cally complicated by political instability in
Burma and vested business interests in Thailand.
The observer said Rangoon’s priority was not the drug
issue but enforcing security along the bor¬der and consolidating its strength in
talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on national rec¬onciliation. The
regime does not have the resources to tackle the drug trafficking problem, said
the observer, who insisted on anonymity.
Describing the talks as “old wine in a new bottle”, the
observ¬er said Thaksin had achieved noth¬ing more than his predecessors in
putting efficient border security mechanisms in place and getting Burma to agree
to cooperate seriously on antidrug efforts.
While the trip appeared to arrest the alarming tensions
sparked in part by Thaksin’s highprofile antidrug campaign, whether it would
deliver lasting result remained to be seen, he said.The fact that the Mae
SaiTachilek border checkpoint remained closed despite the pro¬claimed success of
Thaksin’s visit was a case in the point. “According to common practice, it
should be reopened after the neighbouring leader’s visit to reflect the
normal¬isation of ties,” he said.Defending the claims made for the visit,
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said he believed Rangoon was sincere in
addressing the drug and border problems. He said mechanisms are being
incrementally developed to solve all the problems, adding they would not be
resolved overnight.
Surakiart will today meet with Burmese Foreign Minister
Win Aung, who was expected to follow up on the cooperation framework agreed upon
by the Thai and Burmese leaders.
The minister will call on Thaksin before holding a
meeting with his Thai counterpart. Among the issues likely to be discussed are
ways to follow up Thaksin’s visit and enhance bilateral relations, as well as
border checkpoints and narcotics.
Win Aung is expected to be granted an audience with His
Majesty the King at the Klai Kangwon Palace in Hua Hin, during which he is
expected to extend an invitation to Their Majesties the King and Queen and other
members of the Royal Family to visit Burma. He will stay at the seaside resort
overnight and leave for Rangoon the next morning.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said the
agenda would be allencompassing, with emphasis given to developing
peopletopeople relations in the fields of culture and the study of history.
Outstanding issues including the Mae SaiTachilek border crossing, border
demarcation, and quadrilateral cooperation on fighting narcotics between
Thailand, Burma, China and Laos would also be discussed in detail, Norachit
said.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - June 22, 2001.
PM offers soft-term trade
deal
Export ban could be lifted and tariffs cut Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has offered to extend
trade privileges to Burma along the lines of tariff breaks offered to Cambodia
and Laos.
He made the offer on Wednesday, during talks in Rangoon
with Gen Than Shwe, Burmese prime minister and chairman of the ruling State
Peace and Development Council.
He asked the general to submit a list of goods for
preferential treatment to the Thai Commerce Ministry, which would pursue the
matter. Gen Surayud Chulanont, the army chief, said Thailand may lift the export
ban on items categorised as strategic materials to Burma once border checkpoints
reopen. He said it might no longer be necessary to ban exports of fuel, rice,
medicines, vehicles and automobile spare parts.
Even with the ban in force those items could still make
it to Burma through other channels.
Foreign Minster Surakiart Sathirathai quoted the prime
minister as saying the two countries "have to trade as much as possible and
co-operate as much as they can in terms of imports and the tariff
system".
Thailand gives Laos tariff breaks on 40 products, and
Cambodia on 23 products, in line with concessions allowed under the Asean Free
Trade Area and the World Trade Organisation.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the SPDC, agreed
to open a "hot line" with Mr Thaksin.
Mr Thaksin also proposed an account trade programme, to
be paid in kyat or US dollars, whereby Burma would offer agricultural products
in exchange for semi-industrial goods from Thailand. Burma, for its part,
promised to waive a ban, imposed in March, on Thai energy drinks, and monosodium
glutamate.
But Burma gave no commitment to reopen its waters to
Thai fishermen after closing them in protest when exiles stormed the Burmese
embassy in Bangkok in October 1999. Gen Than Shwe said he would look into it.
Meanwhile, meetings of the Joint Border Commission and Joint Township Border
Committee are pending.
Resumption of economic co-operation would be raised at
the joint commission meeting, along with displaced people and "irregular
immigrants", a source said.
The timing of the meeting, the first in two years, and
that of the boundary committee, will be discussed by Mr Surakiart and his
Burmese counterpart, Win Aung.
Thailand should have faith in Burma's pledge to
co-operate on drugs and border problems, Mr Surakiart said.
"We have to trust [them] since they have gradually
agreed to more concrete bilateral co-operation," he said, citing Burma's
agreement to sign a memorandum of understanding on drugs, and to allow special
envoys to visit suspicious areas.
"We have to understand that border and drug problems
cannot be solved overnight since it takes time to adjust attitudes and policies.
But we have to be confident in joint co-operation," the foreign minister
said.
The Township Border Committee meets tomorrow to discuss
opening the Tachilek checkpoint.
Col Wanthip Wongwai, committee chairman, said his
Burmese counterpart had proposed the meeting.
It would be held at the Golden Triangle Hotel in
Tachilek, about 200m from the border of Chiang Rai's Mae Sai
district.
Traders in Mae Sai district are tidying up their shops
ahead of a possible reopening.
Sermchai Kittirattanapaibul, president of Chiang Rai's
chamber of commerce, said he was optimistic the meeting would succeed. Thailand
and Burma closed the checkpoint in mid-February after border skirmishes.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - June 22, 2001.
Burma's Win Aung on visit
Achara Ashayagachat Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung visits Thailand
today, a follow-up to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's trip to
Rangoon.
As part of his 25-hour visit, U Win Aung will call on
the prime minister before holding talks with Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai. He then goes on to Klaikangwon Palace in Hua Hin for an audience
with His Majesty the King.
The ministers are due to discuss cultural and technical
co-operation, road links and preparations for the drugs summit in Kunming also
to be joined by China and Laos.
"We will discuss how to expedite the Kunming talks,
which will be preceded by senior officials' and ministerial meetings," Mr
Surakiart said.
The ministers also would discuss the timing of the next
Joint Border Commission, which last met in Rangoon two years ago, and the Joint
Boundary Committee, he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - June 22, 2001.
Burma joins health campaign
Agrees to battle deadly diseases Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan has announced a first-ever joint initiative between Thai and Burmese health authorities to fight border health problems which are soaring because of an influx of illegal immigrants. The unique united campaign against diseases such as HIV
/ Aids, malaria and tuberculosis will be headed by Ms Sudarat and her Burmese
counterpart. It will be instigated next month in the Mae Sot district of Tak,
the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai, the ThreePagoda Pass in Kanchanaburi and
Ranong.
"Instead of individually campaigning as earlier, the
joint campaign is expected to be more effective in increasing awareness against
diseases among people moving between the two countries," she said.
Ms Sudarat also said mental hospitals in provinces
bordering Burma and Cambodia will be turned into drug rehabilitation centers
where addicts can reduce dependency levels.
The hospitals are expected to take care of at least
80,000 out-patients and 10,000 in-patients by the year-end.
On Tuesday, over four tonnes of seized drugs will be
torched on the Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate, Ayutthaya to mark World
Anti-Narcotics Day.
The incineration is being carried out for the second
time this year.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will preside over the
ceremonial destruction of confiscated drugs, which include 14 million
methamphetamine tablets and 6.19kgs of heroin.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Thailand, Myanmar to Reopen Border Checkpoints
Sunday
2001.06.22 16:58:21 BANGKOK, June 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Thailand and Myanmar have agreed to
reopen all three border checkpoints on Sunday, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra said here Friday.
Thaksin told reporters after meeting visiting Myanmar
Foreign Minister Win Aung that three Thai-Myanmar border checkpoints would
be reopened as of 0600 AM local time (1100 GMT) on Sunday unconditionally.
Win Aung, who began a two-day official visit to
Thailand on Friday, held a meeting with the Thai leader at the
Government House in the morning.
The reopening came after Thaksin paid a two-day
official visit to Yangon earlier this week.
The two countries closed all three border checkpoints
in February after the fighting between Myanmar government troops and
ethnic minority rebels spilled over into Thailand's northern province
Chiang Rai.
The two countries' forces exchanged fire, leading to
tensions in bilateral relations.
Win Aung told Thaksin that Than Shwe, Myanmar prime
minister and chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (
SPDC), has ordered authorities concerned to put forward various issues
discussed with his Thai counterpart earlier, the Thai leader said.
A meeting of the Thai-Myanmar Township Border Committee
(TBC) would be held Saturday, which is expected to pave the way for
closer ties and cooperation in many areas in the future, Thaksin said.
The Thai premier said his Myanmar counterpart, Than
Shwe, will pay a visit to Thailand, but the itinerary has yet been
concluded.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Thaksin's Visit Eases Myanmar-Thai
Tense Relations
2001.06.22 13:35:37 YANGON, June 22 (Xinhuanet) --
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's two-day official visit to Myanmar
from June 19 to 20 has brought ease to four months' tense relations
between the two countries out of border clashes.
Thaksin declared his Myanmar visit, which was the first to the
country since he became the prime minister early this year, as a " successful"
one.
Drug problem has been one of the main reasons that gave rise to the tense
relations between Myanmar and Thailand.
During the trip, Myanmar and Thailand reached a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) on cooperation in narcotic drugs, psychotropic
substances and precursor chemicals control, indicating the two countries'
determination to cooperate closely to overcome the menace posed by
narcotic drugs.
At the end of Thaksin's Yangon visit, Myanmar and Thailand issued a
joint communique, which revealed that during the talks between Thaksin and
Senior-General Than Shwe, Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council and Prime Minister, both sides renewed their
determination to further enhance the traditional friendship and
cooperation between the two countries in the spirit of goodwill,
friendship and mutual understanding, guided by the principles of mutual
respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and the
settlement of disputes by peaceful means.
The two leaders reiterated the pledge of their governments, expressed
in the joint communique of May 17, 1997, to turn the common border between
the two countries into one of friendship and harmony.
The two prime ministers agreed that the two countries' existing mechanisms
-- the Township Border Committee (TBC), the Regional Border Committee
(RBC), the Joint Boundary Committee (JBC) and the Joint Commission (JC) for
Bilateral Cooperation be meeting and consulting regularly to strengthen
the mutual understanding and for amicable settlement of issues.
"Although problems may sometimes arise between the two countries due
to the sharing of a long common border, they are confident that these can
be resolved amicably based on friendship, understanding, mutual trust and
respect," the communique said.
The two sides also agreed to promote exchange of visits between the two
countries in all fields.
Besides the signing of the anti-drug cooperation MOU between Myanmar
and Thailand, the two prime ministers also welcomed the proposal to
enhance anti-drug cooperation among the governments of China, Laos, Myanmar and
Thailand, expressing their confidence that such quadrilateral cooperation
would provide the region with an effective framework to fight the scourge
of drugs.
On the issue of displaced persons and irregular migrants, the two
leaders agreed that it be discussed and addressed as a matter of priority
within the framework of the JC with a view to expediting their eventual
return in safety and dignity.
There are reportedly over 140,000 Myanmar refugees and more than
400,000 illegal immigrants in Thailand.
Both sides also reaffirmed the spirit of the 1997 Myanmar-Thai
Agreement on Border Crossing, agreeing to normalize border crossings at
Tachilek-Maesai, Myawaddy-Maesod and kawthoung-Ranong checkpoints, especially at
Tachilek which was closed since February due to border clashes and will be
reopened by the Myanmar side within a week.
Than Shwe extended his invitation to the King and Queen of Thailand
to visit Myanmar, while accepting Thaksin's to tour Thailand.
Before Thaksin's trip to Myanmar, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai came in May in the midst of uncooled tension arising from a series
of border clashes between the two countries over the last few months since
February, in which the two sides charged each other with intruding their
respective territories.
The discussions then between Surakiart and his Myanmar counterpart U
Win Aung had produced a number of agreements including a plan for the two
countries' JC , which last met in 1999, to meet again as soon as
possible.
Earlier in April, the two countries were able to have their RBC met in
Myanmar's border town of Kengtung, reaching understanding over the need
for them to cooperate in the sectors of drug control, border demarcation and
border trade.
Despite achievements made in the easing of tension between Myanmar
and Thailand, there still remain a number of issues that call for efforts
for resolvement by both sides.
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Myanmar Seizes Large Amount of
Ephedrine Powder
2001.06.22 10:19:23 YANGON, June 22 (Xinhuanet) --
The Myanmar authorities seized 1.6 tons of ephedrine, a kind of precursor
chemical powder used in producing stimulant drug, in the country's second
largest city of Mandalay earlier this month, according to the country's
Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control Friday.
The seizure was made by a combined team comprising local intelligence
unit and special anti-drug squad when they searched a godown in a township in
the city on June 7.
Five people were arrested in connection with the case, it said, adding that
they were punished under the country's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Law.
Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities destroyed 1.56 tons of seized
ephedrine along with 1.3 tons of opium and 116.47 kilograms of heroin as well as
27.25 million tablets of stimulant drug during its annual ceremony of
destruction of confiscated narcotic drugs in May.
According to official statistics, the authorities seized a total of
17.6 tons of ephedrine along with 4 tons of heroin and 31 tons of opium as well
as 82.5 million tablets of stimulant drug since September 1988 up to April
this year.
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