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BURMA RELATED NEWS - July 14,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Thai Police Kill 2 Suspected Ethnic Chinese
Drug Lords
AFP - 50,000 Russian women are sex slaves in
China, South Asia: report
Reuters - Myanmar in nuclear reactor deal with
Russia
Reuters - Thai soldier killed during drugs
seizure
Reuters - ASEAN telco ministers sign
co-operation pact
The Nation - CROSS-BORDER MIGRATION: IOM to move into Burma
Bkk Post - More than a million pills taken last
month
Bkk Post - Drug dealers get death
Bkk Post - Wa rushes speed over border
before plants shift to Laos
---------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday July 14, 3:39 PM
Thai Police Kill 2 Suspected Ethnic Chinese Drug Lords BANGKOK (AP)--Two suspected
ethnic Chinese drug lords, members of the notorious 14K syndicate, were killed
in a shootout during a raid by undercover police in Thailand early Saturday,
police said.
Police Col. Wichai Sangprapai said the raid was a major victory against one
of the country's biggest criminal rings, operated by ethnic Chinese from China,
Taiwan and Malaysia.
The two alleged traffickers were only identified by police as A-Chong, an
alias used by a 40-year-old Chinese national sought by authorities, and Sonny,
believed to be a 50-year-old Malaysian. They were killed in an exchange of
gunfire after undercover police, acting as buyers, tried to purchase 10,000
methamphetamine pills from the duo.
Police linked the two men, who were based outside of Thailand, to several
cases of mutilation and killing of foreigners including the murder of five
Taiwanese family members several years ago.
Wichai said the 14K gang is also involved in smuggling people to foreign
countries, including the U.S. and the Netherlands.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has placed a high priority on fighting a
deluge of narcotics and methamphetamine smuggled in from neighboring Myanmar and
other countries.
An Office of the Narcotics Control Board report has estimated that up to 2
million of Thailand's 62 million people have taken illegal stimulant pills. Of
these, about 300,000 residents were heavily addicted.
The board predicts that this year some 800 million methamphetamine pills
will be smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Of these, 700 million pills are expected to come from the United Wa State
Army, a former rebel group that has reached a cease-fire pact with Myanmar's
military regime and has turned to wholesale drug production and
trafficking.
Saturday July 14, 11:50 AM
50,000 Russian women are sex slaves in China, South Asia: report VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, July 14 (AFP) - Russia's poverty-ridden far east is
the main supplier of sex slaves for the Asian Pacific region, with over 50,000
women exploited in China and South-East Asian countries, according to experts
here.
"The ease with which slaves are exported is astounding. A whole exporting
system has been developed here," the region's deputy prosecutor general
Konstantin Chaika lamented, adding that dozens of slave-traders from both Russia
and China take part in the human trafficking.
It is almost impossible to find the women and return them home, even if
their relatives promptly alert the law enforcement agencies, the head of the
local search FSB security service search team, who identified himself as Alexei
S., told AFP.
The sex slaves are often sold out of China and disappear without a
trace.
"So far, the only example of success we have are the three girls who were
returned home to Primorye from Myanmar," Alexei said, adding that the FSB
security service had had to smuggle the girls out in secret after they spent
three months in a brothel.
The girls left home in hopes of a high-paying job abroad, aided by a
Russian employment agency that arranged their transport to China. However, once
in China, their passports were taken away and the girls learned their
fate.
In Myanmar, where the kidnapped women were sold, one of the three managed
to make a call to her father, a well-known Primorye writer, who alerted the
authorities.
But more often sex slaves vanish, beaten to death for disobedience, their
bodies well hidden, Alexei said, adding that there are no official estimates of
how many Russian women fell victim to such treatment.
In June, the Russian foreign ministry was told that three women, natives of
Primorye, were hospitalized in Lupanshui, China, after they were cruelly beaten
up by security guards in a bar where they were working.
Two of them, aged 20 and 21, died shortly afterwards, and the third is in
critical condition, officials said.
However, the chances that the case will be investigated in China are slim,
as many brothels and casinos are under the police's patronage, a self-named "sex
tourist" told a local Internet site.
"But the main issue is not the Chinese, but our impotence and our state's
indifference," the site said.
The problem was discussed this week at an international seminar aimed at
developing a program to fight the slave trade, especially in Russia's far east's
southernmost Primorye region.
Hosted by the Vladivostok organized crime research center and University of
Washington's center on transnational crime and corruption studies, the seminar
featured experts from all over Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
Saturday July 14, 9:11 PM
Myanmar in nuclear reactor deal with
Russia
By Dan Eaton BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar's ruling military is negotiating with Russia to buy a nuclear reactor, in a move that raises concerns over the impoverished nation's ability to cope with high-maintenance technology. David Kyd, chief spokesman of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), said that although Yangon had asked for "general advice" on the
purchase, there were safety concerns.
The deal would provide Myanmar -- snubbed by much of the Western world for
its human rights record and alleged involvement in the illicit drugs trade --
with its first taste of nuclear technology.
"We have not been asked to get involved, except to give technical advice on
what the establishment of a research reactor involves," Kyd told Reuters in a
telephone interview on Friday.
"If asked for further advice, we will be impressing on Myanmar authorities
that they don't just have to get the piece of equipment and the instruction
book. You have to be sure you have the scientific ability to operate it, to
maintain it in good condition and to supervise its safety," Kyd said.
"You don't just hand this over to a bunch of scientists and say: 'get on
with it'."
Nuclear experts say that of the roughly 400 research reactors world-wide,
nearly half have been mothballed due to their expense and complicated
maintenance.
"Thailand already has one such reactor, and it has been struggling with the
construction of a second with technical problems, financial problems, and in the
case of Thailand, which I don't think will be a problem in Myanmar, with
environmental and political opposition," said one non-proliferation expert.
Myanmar officials have declined to discuss the reactor deal, but a nascent
Department of Atomic Energy is now in evidence on Yangon's Pyay Pagoda Road, in
the form of a blue and white sign in front of a cluster of low-slung, largely
empty buildings.
Moscow and Yangon reached an in-principle agreement earlier this year, and
are in ongoing talks to finalise the technical and commercial aspects of the
transaction.
"The idea is that Myanmar wants to have this reactor and the Ministry of
Atomic Energy in Russia is ready to cooperate," Russia's Ambassador Gleb
Ivashentsov said in a recent interview in Yangon.
"Do not demonise Myanmar. They should not be denied the right to develop
their own atomic science� If the U.S. has no doubts in making up their minds
to supply reactors to North Korea (why not Myanmar)."
NO MILITARY USE
Ivashentsov declined to give the reactor's specifications, describing it
only as "a kind of small research reactor."
"It is purely scientific, non-military," he said.
A source close to the deal said the reactor was likely to be in the
five-to-10 megawatt range with a cost of between $1 million and $5 million.
"The 10 megawatt is the standard model you will be offered when you walk
into the showroom," he said.
Kyd confirmed that such a reactor was not likely to be suitable for the
production of nuclear weapons.
"A research reactor of this type would be to advance science and not have a
more suspect dimension to it. However, we do keep our eyes on more elaborate
nuclear research reactors of this type. There have been worries, for example,
about one in Algeria built by the Chinese."
Foreign diplomats in Yangon said they were aware of the deal, and that a
number of technicians from Myanmar were believed to have left for Russia earlier
this year for training.
Ivashentsov said the financial aspects of the deal had yet to be finalised,
but that Myanmar could pay in cash or barter with produce such as timber, rice
and fish.
"Russia is not in a position to provide long-term credit, (but) we can
offer them technology," he said.
Russia and Myanmar have a long history of close bilateral cooperation,
which fizzled out with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It was resumed in the mid 1990s, and since then Moscow has sold around a
dozen Mi-17 transport helicopters to the military regime, the ambassador said.
The most obvious signs of the early years of cooperation include a hotel in
the capital, a university, and a number of dams and irrigation schemes.
The Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev also visited Yangon twice, in 1955 and
1960.
Saturday July 14, 6:56 PM
Thai soldier killed during drugs
seizure
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai
security forces said on Saturday they intercepted about 2.6 million
methaphetamine tablets being smuggled in from neighbouring Myanmar.
Thai army colonel Chucheep Srisomboon told reporters a Thai soldier was
killed during a brief clash with drug-smuggling ethnic Karens near the western
Thai border town of Mae Sod.
He said the armed Karen forces abandoned the drugs and retreated into
Myanmar after the fighting.
The methaphetamine seizure was one of the biggest made by Thai forces since
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra visited Myanmar in June.
Thai anti-narcotics officials estimate that some 700 million methaphetamine
tablets enter the country from its neighbours each year, mostly through its
porous northern border with Myanmar and Laos.
Friday July 13, 8:52 PM
ASEAN telco ministers sign co-operation
pact
KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Reuters)
- ASEAN telecommunications ministers on Friday signed an agreement to formalise
regional co-operation in telecommunications and information technology.
The 10 ASEAN ministers agreed to form five working groups to
collaborate on information infrastructure, capacity building, universal access
and the digital divide, trade and investment and the positive use of the
Internet.
"Communications and information technology are very important for economic
growth and it is important for member countries of ASEAN to recognise this so
that we are not left behind as a region in the fast moving information
technology
(sector)," said Malaysia's Communications Minister Leo Moggie, who chaired
the inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
ASEAN or the Association of South East Asian Nations groups Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.
The second telecommunications ministers meeting will be held in Manila in
July or August next year.
The Nation - July 14,
2001.
CROSS-BORDER MIGRATION: IOM to move into
Burma
Projects now conducted in Samut Sakhon, Ranong, Tak to
be relocated
In its first step toward taking a more active role in the country, the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will establish a field presence
on Burmese soil to deal with health issues related to cross-border migration,
IOM Director General Brunson McKinley said recently.
Speaking on his return from a two-day official visit to Rangoon on
Thursday, McKinley said the IOM would initially relocate to Burma projects that
are being carried out in co-operation with the Thai government. The Geneva-based
agency currently operates projects in Samut Sakhon, Ranong and Tak.
McKinley said he held talks during his July 10-11 trip with State Peace and
Development Council Secretary Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, as well as officials from
related government agencies. He said the Burmese authorities had been receptive
to the role of the IOM.
He said discussions with Rangoon did not focus solely on Thai-Burmese
relations, but covered a range of migration issues from the Burmese perspective.
Rangoon officials also "believe the IOM can help" end their isolation from the
international community, he added.
McKinley said many international bodies have detected a more cooperative
atmosphere in Rangoon, but added that the IOM would give its attention to human
trafficking and health issues.
Rangoon was concerned about the spread of HIV/Aids in Burma and requested
assistance in addressing this issue, McKinley said, adding that migrants were
one of the groups most vulnerable.
Any projects to tackle the spread of HIV/Aids that are introduced in border
areas would also benefit neighbouring countries, he added.
McKinley said he did not discuss in detail the issue of safe areas for
repatriated Burmese refugees with Rangoon officials, who said an understanding
with Bangkok would be a prerequisite to any IOM assistance in this regard. "It
is still one of the possibilities on the table," he said.
Bangkok recently proposed that self-subsistent communities for returnees be
established with the help of the IOM and multinational corporations with
interests inside Burma. The UN High Commission for Refugees has also floated a
similar idea.
IOM officials will be dispatched to Burma soon, initially to get the
health-related projects off the ground, McKinley said, adding that the planned
schemes were "not huge, but not insignificant" and that he was confident the
necessary funding would be secured.
McKinley said he had urged Burma to apply for observer status to the IOM,
adding that the organisation would not set any preconditions for Rangoon's
entry.
"The role of the IOM is not to talk about politics or human rights issues,"
he said, quickly adding that the body does advocate the improvement of
human-rights protection, especially for migrants.
McKinley said the IMO could not afford the luxury of dealing only with
democratic governments because of the need to address problems relating to
migration.
He conceded that there has been a mixed reaction to the role of the IOM
from the diplomatic corps in Bangkok, saying some countries had welcomed the
move, while others questioned whether Rangoon had done enough itself to warrant
such assistance.
Bangkok Post - July 14,
2001.
More than a million pills taken
last month
Burma will be told of factories on border Wassana Nanuam
Some 1.3 million speed pills were confiscated last month by the Third Army,
said spokesman Col Somkhuan Saengpattaranate.
Besides methamphetamines, 80 grammes of heroin, one kilogramme of marijuana
and two tonnes of caffeine were seized, he said. This is a drop on previous
months, but Third Army commander Lt-Gen Watanachai Chaimuangwong put it down to
poor intelligence rather than a fall in production.
Activity went on unabated, he said, but authorities failed to curb illicit
operations. Some drug factories are moving from Burma to Laos.
However, Thailand would supply information about drug plants along the
border to Burmese authorities during the Regional Border Committee meeting in
Pattaya in August, he said. At the previous meeting an agreement was reached to
crack down on the plants.
There were 55-60 plants along the border and several others on the Thai-Lao
border, he said.
In a bid to boost ties, Lt-Gen Watanachai would play golf in Chiang Rai on
July 23 with Burma's Regional Triangle commander Maj-Gen Thein Sein.
Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh would lead a trip by armed forces
leaders to Burma on July 23-24. Col Somkhuan said the army expected to treat
5,000 drug addicts each year under the government's rehabilitation
programme.
About 25 military camps nationwide would be used as rehabilitation
centres-six under supervision of the First Army, and five under the Second
Army.
Another seven come under the Third Army, five under the Fourth Army and two
at the Special Warfare Command Unit, he said.
Bangkok Post - July 14,
2001.
Drug dealers get
death
Theerawat Khamthita Two men were sentenced to death yesterday by the Chiang Rai provincial
court for possessing about one million methamphetamine pills and 20 kilogrammes
of heroin.
Kittisak Wongchan and brother-in-law Danai Wongrian said they would
appeal.
Kittisak was arrested in Mae Lao district on Oct 21, 1997, when police
searching his van found some one million speed pills and 20kg of heroin hidden
under the floor of the vehicle.
Danai became a suspect when he paged Kittisak from Bangkok at the time of
the arrest.
Danai was lured into proceeding with his plan to take delivery of the drugs
at a department store in Bangkok, where he was arrested.
Their arrests led to the sacking and criminal prosecution of three Mae Lao
policemen-a captain and two non-commissioned officers, who allegedly stole about
100,000 of the seized speed pills for resale. They are still at large.
Bangkok Post - July 14,
2001.
Wa rushes speed over border before
plants shift to Laos
Subin Khuenkaew The United Wa State Army is making speedy deliveries of methamphetamine
pills to northern Thailand before moving its factories from Burmese soil to
Laos.
The Wa had just supplied about 500,000 pills to four Chinese traffickers
from Chai Prakan district of Chiang Mai, a source said. The drugs were sold for
11 baht a pill. One trafficker was identified as Jia Hong from Tham Ngorb
village and the other three were said to come from Mai Nongbua village. The
delivery took place at Doi Kangtee opposite Ban Tham Ngorb on Thursday.
The source said the Wa were moving production from areas close to the
border, in line with Burma's policy to rid areas opposite Chiang Rai and Chiang
Mai of drugs by next year. Many left-over pills would be smuggled into Thailand
before the move and the price was expected to decline.
Burmese soldiers are replacing Wa troops at outposts near Chiang Rai. Burma
deployed Wa soldiers in February when bilateral border disputes started. At the
new site the factories would still be close to northern Thailand: they were
moving into bordering areas in Bor Kaew province of Laos, the source said.
Sixteen factories had been moved to Bor Kaew while many more factories of the Wa
and Shan were still occupied on the Burmese side of the Mekong river opposite
Bor Kaew.
Meanwhile, a military court in Tachilek has reportedly sentenced three
Thais from Chiang Mai to 24 years jail for possessing 900 kilogrammes of drug
chemicals.
Only one Thai man was identified as Phiyap Tinama, 42. He and another Thai
man and a Thai woman were arrested together with three
Burmese. |