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BURMA RELATED NEWS - July 25,
2001.
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HEADLINES
---------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Thai Defense Min: Ties With
Myanmar Improving - Agency
AP - SE Asian Nations Meet; Urge
US,China To Ease Tension
AFP - Asia Pacific security forum
graduates to preventive diplomacy
Reuters - Australia to continue to
push Myanmar on rights
Asia Pulse - Asean Foreign Ministers
Adopt Hanoi Declaration
Reuters - Key U.S. senator details
proposal for Bush trade bill
AP - ASEAN: Reduce U.S.-China
Tension
Reuters - Thousands Curse Drugs at
Ceremony
The Nation - Chavalit hails Burma trip
Bkk Post - Chavalit reassures
Rangoon
Bkk Post - Burma, Vietnam against time zone change
---------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday July 24, 10:26 PM
Thai Defense Min: Ties With
Myanmar Improving - Agency
BANGKOK (AP)--Thai Defense Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh
said on his return from a visit to Myanmar on Tuesday that relations between the
two neighbors had returned to normal after a period of tension.
He told reporters that Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a top leader
of Myanmar's military government, would visit Thailand in September for
discussions on bilateral and regional issues, the official Thai News Agency
reported.
Chavalit, who is also deputy prime minister, described his
two-day visit as successful and said it had improved bilateral relations, TNA
reported.
He said Myanmar officials told him that their recently
revealed plans to buy 10 MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia were part of a
long-term strategy to boost the country's defense capabilities and posed no
threat to Thailand.
Chavalit met Monday at the Myanmar capital, Yangon, with
junta chief and Prime Minister Senior General Than Shwe. The visit came one
month after a fence-mending visit to Myanmar by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.
Thaksin was the first Thai prime minister to visit Myanmar
since Chavalit, then prime minister, went in 1997.
Many Western nations shun Myanmar's military regime for
its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically
elected government
Relations between Thailand and Myanmar, also known as
Burma, turned sour after several small border clashes in February. Drug
trafficking from Myanmar into Thailand and the activities of Myanmar
anti-government guerrillas are also sources of tension.
Chavalit said his discussions with Than Shwe also covered
Myanmar's plan to grant fishery concession to Thailand, and its ban on the
import of 15 Thai products, which he said Than Shwe had agreed to
reconsider.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25, 3:45 AM
WRAP:SE Asian Nations Meet; Urge US,China To Ease Tension HANOI (AP)--Southeast Asian
nations said the U.S. and China should ease their tensions to help ensure peace
in the region, as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived here Tuesday for
a regional gathering.
ASEAN ministers are likely to take their message directly to Powell and
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, who are expected to meet during security
talks starting Wednesday with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its
23 "dialogue partners" - including the U.S., China, Russia, South Korea and the
European Union.
"We reiterated the important role played by the major powers and called on
them to continue to make their contribution to strengthening peace, security,
cooperation and development in the region and throughout the world," the foreign
ministers said in a statement.
The U.S. and China have been sparring over issues including human rights
and U.S. plans for a missile defense system. Relations have also been strained
by a series of arrests of U.S. citizens or U.S.-residents in China. A scholar
from a U.S. university was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for
espionage. The sentence cast a pall over Powell's scheduled visit to Beijing on
Saturday.
The tensions have left the ASEAN nations grappling with how to balance
relations with the two powers, both of which play key roles in the region's
security and economic revival.
The ministers also hope to persuade Powell - visiting Vietnam for the first
time since the Vietnam War - that Washington should remain committed to the
region's security and not be preoccupied with North Asia.
Powell, who served twice with the U.S. military in Vietnam, said it was
"very emotional" to return. "I'm very pleased to be back," he said.
Powell met privately Tuesday night with Russian Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov. He said he might meet with a senior North Korean official, who replaced
Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun at the last minute when Paek said he was too busy
to attend.
ASEAN, formed in 1967, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - all still recovering
from economic crisis. More than half a billion people live in the region, which
has some of the world's most critical sea lanes.
The ministers welcomed the election of President Megawati Soekarnoputri in
Indonesia - the region's largest and strategically most important country.
They also expressed support for talks in Myanmar between its military
government and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. That conflict has
endangered the security of neighboring Thailand and complicated ASEAN's
relations with Western countries that maintain sanctions on Myanmar because of
its human rights abuses.
The ministers also discussed ways to persuade the world's five nuclear
powers to sign on to a treaty creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in Southeast
Asia. The treaty went into force across the region in June after the Philippines
became the last ASEAN member to ratify it.
"It's a question of getting the nuclear weapons states to respect the
treaty," said Rodolfo Severino, ASEAN's general secretary. "They're the ones
that matter."
South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo said participants in
Wednesday's regional security forum will urge North Korea to resume a dialogue
with the South. The talks have stalled since early this year, when U.S.
President George W. Bush called for a re-examination of U.S. security policy
toward the North.
North Korea participated in the security talks for the first time last
year. Its talks with the U.S. during that meeting resulted in the most important
breakthrough for their relations in years.
This year, the security forum is expected to endorse the principle of
"preventive diplomacy," a more active approach to security issues. In the past,
ASEAN has limited itself to mild confidence-building measures between rivals
because of its basic principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of
member states.
East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, said the transition to
preventive diplomacy won't be easy for the ASEAN countries. His country won
independence in a bloody break from Indonesia in 1999 while ASEAN largely stood
by.
"It's very easy to talk about preventive diplomacy, but it's not so easy in
reality," Ramos-Horta said. "Preventive diplomacy ... can be a reality if
countries are prepared to surrender a bit of their pride, their sovereignty to
outsiders."
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25, 9:47 PM
Asia Pacific security forum graduates to
preventive diplomacy
HANOI, July 25 (AFP) - The Asia-Pacific region's sole security forum adopted landmark operational procedures Wednesday that will help prevent disputes from flaring up into a full-blown war, officials said. The procedures would give the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) legitimacy in
resolving bilateral and multilateral problems, like the Korean conflict and
overlapping claims to the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
Foreign ministers and officials from 23 member countries of the ARF agreed
at a one-day meeting in Hanoi that the forum graduate from its traditional
confidence-building role to preventive diplomacy, said a statement issued after
the talks.
"The ministers agreed that while moving towards PD (preventive diplomacy),
the ARF should continue to strengthen its confidence-building process so as to
substantially enhance mutual trust, confidence and understanding as well as
cooperation among the ARF participants," the statement said.
Following its establishment in 1994, the 23-member ARF agreed on a gradual
three-stage evolution of confidence building, preventive diplomacy and, in the
longer term, conflict resolution.
So far, the forum, which includes the 10 Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) states, had concentrated on confidence-building measures.
Aside from having annual ministerial-level meetings which discuss pressing
regional security and political concerns, ARF members hold talks among their
military chiefs, compare notes on defence expenditures and keep each other
informed on military exercises.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ARF also includes Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India,
Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Korea
and the United States.
"We are (in effect) developing processes of conflict prevention and may be
one day, leading to conflict prevention policies," Belgian Foreign Minister
Louis Michel, the current holders of the EU presidency, told AFP.
"I feel there is a progress and there is movement now," he said.
Analysts said the agreement to move towards preventive diplomacy --
resolving or containing disputes through peaceful non-military methods -- was a
breakthrough because some members, China and India particularly, were worried
that the move might violate the principle of state sovereignty.
They were concerned that the new role would give a "third party" an excuse
to interfere in domestic affairs.
The forum had been debating the issue for more than two years.
Professor Amitav Acharya, among a group of experts and eminent persons who
act as a resource in ARF meetings, told AFP that preventive diplomacy procedures
within ARF would however be confined to resolving inter-state conflicts and not
intra-state disputes.
Acharya, the deputy director of the Singapore-based Institute of Defence
and Strategic Studies, said the ARF could reduce, if not eliminate, the reliance
of Asia Pacific countries on exclusionary bilateral military arrangements.
The ARF is different from European-style multilateral institutions. It is
non-legalistic and avoids binding and intrusive approaches to security
cooperation.
Acharya said the ARF had successfully engaged the region's two key security
players, China and the US, both of whom were reluctant to join a multilateral
security arrangement initially.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25, 12:22 AM
Australia to continue to push Myanmar on rights HANOI (Reuters) - Australia's
Foreign Minister said on Tuesday he would try to persuade military-ruled Myanmar
to press ahead with dialogue with the pro-democracy opposition when he holds
talks with his counterpart from Yangon this week.
Speaking in Hanoi, where he is due to meet Myanmar Foreign Minister Win
Aung on the sidelines of a regional conference, Alexander Downer said he had
detected some signs of progress in the past year.
"In this last 12 months, I get the sense there has been some movement, but
I would say that with a degree of caution. I wouldn't want to be interpreted as
overstating," he said.
Downer said he hoped the military was sincere about a process of dialogue
it launched with the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its detained leader
Aung San Suu Kyi last October after a long and bitter standoff.
"We want to push, and continue to push, for that dialogue to move forward,"
he said.
"There has to be constitutional reform; there has to be political
liberalisation within Burma if it is to be able to enter into the international
community and to be able to make real progress, of course, amongst other things,
economically."
Downer said it was estimated that about 80 percent of the heroin entering
Australia came from Myanmar and if reforms could move forward such problems
could be more readily addressed.
He said Australia saw recent releases of political prisoners as positive
but noted there were "some still there". Amnesty International puts the figure
at about 1,500.
Downer said the Australian embassy in Yangon did not take the view that Suu
Kyi's failure to attend a recent public ceremony in Yangon showed the process of
dialogue was breaking down, but he could not say if that interpretation was
correct.
He said Australia considered that some sort of engagement with Myanmar's
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) was beneficial but did not go
so far as to embrace the "constructive engagement" policy of Asian regional
partners.
"Obviously we don't want to embrace the SPDC� because we're very
concerned about what has happened over recent years and the human rights
problems in Burma," he said.
"But at the same time, we take the view that some sort of engagement is
better than none."
Suu Kyi is being held under de facto house arrest in Yangon and only a
handful of foreign diplomats have been allowed to see her.
Her failure to attend a national ceremony last week marking the 1947
assassination of her father, independence hero General Aung San, was widely
interpreted as a sign the talks with the military had run into trouble.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25, 1:06 PM
Asean Foreign Ministers Adopt Hanoi Declaration HANOI, July 25 Asia Pulse -
Foreign Ministers of ASEAN member countries on July 23 adopted the Hanoi
Declaration on narrowing the development gap for closer ASEAN integration.
The declaration, aimed at promoting equitable economic development and
reducing poverty and economic disparities in the ASEAN region, comprises 25
points:
Pledge document
1. We resolve to promote, through concerted efforts, effective co-operation
and mutual assistance to narrow the development gap among ASEAN member countries
and between ASEAN and the rest of the world for the sake of dynamic and
sustained growth of our region and prosperity of all our peoples.
2. We shall work together to identify, through research, analysis and
consultation, the comparative strengths of our economies and their potential for
complementarity, with a view to promoting regional economic integration and a
sense of community and shared responsibility among our nations.
3. We shall devote special efforts and resources to promoting the
development of the newer member countries of ASEAN (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and
Vietnam or CLMV) with priority given to infrastructure, human resource
development, and information and communication technology.
4. We renew our call for the development of the region through sub-regional
co-operative programs, including the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development
Co-operation, the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area,
the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle, the
Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle and the West-East Corridor across
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. We encourage contact and
co-ordination among the different frameworks as well as among the relevant
regional organisations in order to benefit from their best practices.
5. We shall continue to expand and deepen our linkages with the rest of the
world, particularly with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea within the
ASEAN+3 framework, and with the other dialogue partners of ASEAN.
6. We are determined, for these purposes, to mobilise resources in
partnership with our dialogue partners, the international community including
the private sector to develop the following priority areas:
Infrastructure
7. We shall strengthen our transportation linkages through developing and
implementing more extensive land, sea and air infrastructural projects in order
to facilitate the flow of goods and people and to generate higher income for
people in the region. Such projects include the Singapore-Kunming rail link and
the ASEAN highway network. We urge the international community to provide
technical support to and participate in these major infrastructure
projects.
8. We look forward to the expeditious implementation of the trans-ASEAN
energy networks consisting of the ASEAN power grid and the trans-ASEAN gas
pipeline projects, which would help ensure the security and sustainability of
energy supplies in ASEAN.
Human resource development
9. We place the highest priority on the development of our human resources
as the key to economic growth, social stability and human fulfilment.
10. We are encouraged by the assistance being extended by ASEAN member
countries to the newer member countries in various areas of human resource
development including under the IAI framework.
11. We attach great importance to the establishment and strengthening of
training institutes and programs in CLMV and their linkage with those in the
other ASEAN member countries for mutual assistance.
12. We strongly encourage efforts to promote and upgrade the use of English
as a tool of communication among all peoples of ASEAN in order to make ASEAN
competitive in the knowledge-based economy.
13. We recognise the need to explore the setting up of benchmarks and
time-tables in the field of education to ensure the development of skills and
attitudes of our people required by the knowledge-based economy and the
information age.
14. We welcome the comprehensive assessment being undertaken of the
training needs of Government officials in CLMV, and urge international support
to meet these training needs while mobilising our own resources for this
endeavour.
Information and communication technology
15. ASEAN is determined to use information and communication technology
[ICT] as a tool for narrowing the development gap and closing the digital divide
within and among member countries as well as between ASEAN and the rest of the
world. We reaffirm the importance for ASEAN to promote the development and the
use of ICT for raising people's income, especially in the rural areas, for
improving the system of public education, and for enhancing the benefits of
public health and medical care for the poor. Therefore, we call for the urgent
implementation of the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement and the Asian IT Belt
Initiative.
16. We look forward to the expeditious liberalisation and facilitation of
trade and investment in the ICT sector to ensure the widespread availability and
use of inexpensive ICT goods and services, and to adopt concrete measures aimed
at facilitating e-commerce in the region.
17. We reaffirm the importance of the assessment to be conducted, with
international support, of the needs of CLMV in terms of their e-readiness,
especially the level of ICT skills and infrastructure requirements. We call on
the international community including the private sector to co-operate with
ASEAN in meeting those needs effectively.
Regional economic integration
18. We fully support the measures being undertaken to integrate CLMV into
ASEAN as a regional economy, including the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the ASEAN
Investment Area and liberalisation of trade in services.
19. We especially welcome the decision by the ASEAN economic ministers on
the extension of unilateral preferential treatment by the six older ASEAN member
countries to imports from CLMV on bilateral basis.
20. We call for renewed resolve to conclude the remaining protocols
necessary to implement the ASEAN Agreement on Goods in Transit so as to
facilitate land transport in Southeast Asia and lower its cost. We look forward
to the early conclusion of the ASEAN multi-modal and inter-state transport
agreements.
21. We reaffirm the importance of expanding more efficient air services in
our region for the freer movement of people and goods. This would greatly help
integrate the ASEAN region, foster commercial and human contacts, and stimulate
broad-based economic activities and growth. In this light, we reiterate ASEANs
resolve to develop a Competitive Air Services Policy which may be a gradual step
towards an Open Sky Policy in ASEAN.
22. We reiterate the call of our governments on members of the World Trade
Organisation [WTO] to expedite the accession of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to
the organisation so as to enable them to benefit more fully from the
multilateral trading system in the world market.
23. We shall step up our efforts to make possible the participation of
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in the working groups of APEC and ASEM with a view to
their eventual full membership in those forums.
24. We shall convene a workshop in Cambodia to develop a comprehensive and
coherent program for Mekong development co-operation, especially for the
integration of CLMV into the ASEAN economic mainstream. We likewise support the
convening of a seminar in Brunei Darussalam on "complementing regional
integration through sub-regional groupings/growth areas such as the BIMP-EAGA,
ISM-GT, IMT-GT and the Greater Mekong sub-region."
25. We shall establish an IAI unit in the ASEAN Secretariat to enhance its
capability in co-ordinating and supporting ASEAN's efforts in realising the
objectives of this declaration.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25, 10:38 PM
Key U.S. senator details proposal for Bush trade bill By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a
move aimed at breaking a seven-year deadlock in Congress, a key U.S. Democratic
senator on Wednesday outlined a detailed set of proposals to give President
George W. Bush the authority to negotiate broad new trade agreements.
A dispute over whether trade pacts should contain protections for labour
and the environment has prevented renewal of "fast track" trade legislation -
also known as "trade promotion authority" - since it expired in April 1994.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has said he hoped his
proposals would lay the groundwork for a bill both Democrats and Republicans
could support.
According to a copy of his proposals obtained by Reuters, the Montana
Democrat's plan would elevate the role of labour and the environment in future
trade talks by requiring U.S. negotiators to seek a commitment that countries
not weaken their laws in those two areas to boost exports or attract investment.
Baucus's plan also calls for a greater role for the International Labour
Organization in governing world trade, including a pledge by countries in future
trade agreements to abide by the ILO's five core labour principles.
The United States should back up its commitment to the ILO by banning
imports from Myanmar, which has been rebuked by the ILO for its labour
practices, and by maintaining funding for the U.S. International Labour Affairs
Bureau at not less than $140 million per year, according to Baucus.
Bush has proposed cutting funding for the bureau, which coordinates U.S.
activity with the ILO, by about half.
In the key area of enforcement, which has been a major sticking point in
this year's trade debate, Baucus's plan would require the president to select
from several strategies to ensure countries live up to labour and environment
commitments.
Those could include sanctions or fines for non-compliance or incentives to
increase adherence to labour and environmental goals, depending on the trade
pact, said Baucus, who was set to outline his proposals to reporters on
Wednesday.
Republicans have been opposed to the use of sanctions to enforce labour and
environmental provisions, fearing they could create new obstacles to trade and
scare developing countries away from trade negotiations.
Democrats have argued labour and environmental provisions have as much
place in trade agreements as other more traditional areas and must be backed up
with "meaningful" enforcement mechanisms.
CONGRESS MONITOR
In another area, Baucus' proposals would create a Congressional Trade
Office to monitor trade talks and ensure congressional objectives have been met
in any final agreement.
Under fast track, Congress gives up its constitutional right to amend trade
agreements negotiated by the executive branch and agrees instead to vote yes or
no on the overall pacts within a specified period of time.
Supporters say without the legislation countries would refuse to negotiate
seriously with the United States because they know Congress could change any
pact.
Bush wants the authority to forge a free trade zone covering 34 nations
from Canada to Chile by 2005 and to help launch a new round of world trade talks
later this year.
Baucus's plan would give the Bush administration fast track authority for
just two years, but allow for a possible three-year extension. It would also
allow Congress to withdraw fast track if it determines the administration is not
pursuing its negotiating objectives.
Another element of Baucus's proposal would bar the administration from
making any trade agreement that weakens U.S. anti-dumping and other "trade
remedy laws."
That could reduce the Bush administration's negotiating leverage in trade
talks because a number of countries, such as Japan and Brazil, want changes in
that area.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday July 24 8:32 PM ET
ASEAN: Reduce U.S.-China Tension By PETER ENG, Associated Press Writer HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Southeast
Asian nations stressed that peace in the region is linked to stable U.S.-China
ties, as Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) returned here
Tuesday for the first time since the Vietnam War.
Powell is attending regional security talks, which begin Wednesday. The
meeting will include the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its 23
``dialogue partners'' - including the United States, China, Russia, North and
South Korea and the European Union.
In a statement, ASEAN foreign ministers said stable relations among the
major powers, ``particularly the U.S. and China,'' were important to peace in
the region.
The ministers hope to persuade Powell that Washington should remain
committed to Southeast Asia's security and not be preoccupied with North
Asia.
The region's foreign ministers are likely to convey their message directly
to Powell and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.
Powell was dismayed by the sentencing of two Chinese academics, a State
Department official said. Powell is expected to discuss their cases - the latest
irritant in recently rocky bilateral relations - in a meeting with Tang
Wednesday afternoon.
Powell, who served twice with the U.S. military in Vietnam, said it was
``very emotional'' to return. ``I'm very pleased to be back,'' he said.
Relations between the United States and China have been strained by China's
holding of a U.S. spy plane, U.S. plans for a missile defense system, disputes
over human rights, and a growing rapprochement between China and Russia that
challenges the U.S. framework for security in the post-Cold War world.
The developments have left the ASEAN nations grappling with how to balance
relations with the two powers, both of which play key security and economic
roles in the region.
ASEAN, formed in 1967, has 10 members still recovering from economic
crisis, more than half a billion people and some of the world's most critical
sea lanes.
The ministers also:
- Welcomed the election of President Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia -
the region's largest and strategically most important country.
- Expressed support for talks in Myanmar between its military government
and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. That conflict has endangered the
security of neighboring Thailand and complicated ASEAN's relations with Western
countries that maintain sanctions on Myanmar because of its human rights
abuses.
South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo said participants in
Wednesday's regional security forum will call on North Korea to resume a
dialogue with the South. The talks have stalled since early this year, when
President Bush called for a re-examination of U.S. security policy toward the
North.
North Korea participated in the security talks for the first time last
year. Its talks with the United States during that meeting resulted in the most
important breakthrough in years in their relations.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday July 25 8:17 AM ET
Thousands Curse Drugs at Ceremony SUPHAN BURI, Thailand (Reuters)
- Thousands of people gathered in central Thailand on Wednesday for a
drugs-cursing ceremony, shooting guns into the air and condemning
traffickers.
To the sound of throbbing drums and gunshots, Suphan Buri provincial
governor Wipat Kongmalai led some 5,000 people in the ritual cursing.
``Drug producers and traffickers should be condemned to hell and should die
by these shots and by the sword,'' a pre-recorded message wailed in the
background.
Wipat threw chilies and salt on an open fire, sending up thick clouds of
choking, yellowish smoke as police and army men opened fire with their automatic
rifles and pistols.
``Drugs are the worst enemy of Thailand at the moment,'' said high school
teacher Wirat Thunyajaroen, who attended the ceremony with his students in the
town of Don Chedi in Suphan Buri province, 80 miles northwest of Bangkok.
Fighting drug trafficking and growing addiction levels among young people
has been one of the top priorities of the government since it swept to power at
the start of this year.
Thailand forms part of the notorious ``Golden Triangle'' -- where the Thai,
Myanmar and Laotian borders meet -- one of the world's top heroin-producing
regions.
But Thai experts say production of methamphetamines is increasingly
supplanting opium and heroin there as the main threat.
Thai authorities estimate the number of the stimulant tablets being
trafficked across its borders from makeshift factories run by ethnic minority
gangs in Myanmar will reach 800 million this year, up from 500 million in
2000.
Wednesday's drugs cursing ceremony was held around a statue of Thailand's
ancient King Naresuan riding an elephant into battle against the Burmese.
---------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - July 25,
2001.
Chavalit hails Burma trip
Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh yesterday hailed his
fence-mending trip to Burma as a success and said the country's military had
agreed to jointly develop border areas.
Speaking to reporters on his return from Rangoon, Chavalit said all
activities along the border would be carried out in a transparent manner and in
consultation with the Burmese authorities.
Rangoon will send a team of senior military officials to Bangkok in the
near future to map out the border-development plan, Chavalit said, adding
prospective areas of cooperation included road construction and the fight
against malaria.
Burma's intelligence chief, Lt-General Khin Nyunt, also plans a visit,
possibly in September, to discuss joint fisheries projects, he said.
Chavalit said the Burmese had proposed the establishment of a joint General
Border Committee (GBC), a mechanism to address bilateral issues at the
defence-ministerial level similar to agreements that Thailand has with Malaysia
and Laos.
During Chavalit's two-day visit the two sides raised the question of the
fate of the anti-Rangoon armed ethnic groups along the border.
Chavalit has often blamed the border problem on the presence of these
armies, while officials on the ground said these groups functioned as "buffers"
between the Thai and Burmese armies. Chavalit's statement, on the other hand,
suggested that these "buffers" would not be needed any longer and that he was
willing to take a chance with the Burmese, who he often boasts are his
friends.
Thai-Burmese bilateral ties hit an all-time low in February when fighting
between the rebel Shan State Army and Burmese government soldiers spilled over
onto the Thai side, resulting in day-long cross border shelling between the two
armies, as well as a war of words between the generals on both sides.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - July 25,
2001.
Chavalit reassures
Rangoon
Wassana Nanuam Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has confirmed with the Burmese
leaders Bangkok's policy of non-intervention in Rangoon's internal
affairs.
Gen Chavalit reiterated the policy during dinner with Burmese Prime
Minister and Defence Minister Gen Than Shwe in Rangoon on Monday night.
Thailand would not interfere in Burmese politics nor support any ethnic
minority groups, he said.
The government realised Rangoon did not have full control over its ethnic
groups.
"We do not want to appease Burma or judge what is right or wrong. The
reunification of the nation by peaceful means should be the focus," Gen Chavalit
said yesterday.
"I have not proposed the formation of a national government with Aung San
Suu Kyi, as stated once in Bangkok, because I do not want to intervene in
Burma's political affairs." He said past border disputes between the two
countries were just "accidents". They must join forces to solve border, drug and
foreign labour problems, with the aim of building trust.
Border problems must be tackled on the basis of harmony, prosperity and
transparency and by proper demarcation of the 2,401km border, Gen Chavalit
said.
Rangoon was asked to lift a ban on the import of 15 products from Thailand
and to allow "account trade" by shifting from payment in US dollars to
transactions via bank accounts.
Gen Chavalit said the first secretary of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, would visit Bangkok in Sept for talks on
border, drugs and fisheries problems.
Deputy Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa said agreement was reached with
Burma's Immigration and Pollution Minister Saw Tun on the need to register the
estimated one million Burmese workers in Thailand to solve the problem of
illegal foreign labour.
---------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - July 25,
2001.
Burma, Vietnam against time zone
change
Burma and Vietnam were cool to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's idea of
advancing Thailand's time by one hour, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said.
The defence minister said in Rangoon yesterday that Mr Thaksin had asked
him to sound out reactions from neighbouring countries on the proposed time-zone
change.
When he raised the idea with Burmese Prime Minister Gen Than Shwe, he got a
reply that the current Thai time was just fine, Gen Chavalit said.
Vietnamese Defence Minister Pham Van Tra reacted the same way when they met
in Hanoi last week, he said.
Gen Chavalit said he had conveyed Mr Thaksin's invitation for Burmese
military leaders to visit Thailand. Gen Than Shwe responded that he would have
to clear any trips first.
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