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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
07, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- WP - Nuclear Burma
AFP - Chinese police
seize record amounts of heroin in 2001
AFP - Koizumi to use ASEAN trip to strengthen
Japan's influence in Asia
Reuters - China police make
"Asia's biggest drug bust"
BBC - China's biggest drug
haul ever
Chicago Tribune- U.S. companies
halt Myanmar imports
The Boston Globe - A second life for
Mission of Burma
Bkk Post - Talks on how to repatriate alien workers
Bkk Post - Editorial - Chasing
violence across borders
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Catches Over 1 Mln Tons of Fish, Prawn
Annually
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Says 2001 -- An Unprecedented Year for
Int'l Cooperation
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Tourism Industry Under-Developed:
Leader -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Washington Post Nuclear Burma Sunday, January 6, 2002; Page B06 SO NOW Burma is going nuclear. The Southeast Asian nation also known as
Myanmar, one of the poorest in the world, has purchased a 10-megawatt "research
reactor" from Russia. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this month at "a secret
location near the town of Magwe," reports the Far East Economic Review. The news
coincides with reports that two Pakistani nuclear scientists, wanted for
questioning in their own country for reported connections to Islamic extremists,
found refuge in Burma. None of this means, necessarily, that the thuggish
generals who run Burma have aspirations for a nuclear arsenal. Maybe, like
dictators throughout the atomic age, they see nuclear power as a glorification
of their otherwise unsung rule.
More interesting perhaps is the seller's motivation. Put differently, is
there nothing the Russian Atomic Ministry won't stoop to? Most civilized
governments shun the Burmese regime. Democratic leaders who had to fight their
own dictatorships, such as South Korea's Kim Dae Jung and the Czech Republic's
Vaclav Havel, tend to be the most supportive of Burma's beleaguered democrats.
But even governments less inclined to act on the basis of morals or ethics find
the odiousness of Burma's dictators too pungent to ignore -- which leaves the
"engagers" in a kind of isolation of their own.
Leader of those engagers and arms suppliers, not surprisingly, is China.
The Burmese junta's corruption and its history of massacring peaceful
pro-democracy students must be comforting to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who
recently toured Burma. He said the nation "must be allowed to choose its own
development path suited to its own conditions" -- the usual words of dictators
who do not allow their own people to choose anything. Then we have Japan, ever
eager for commercial advantage, and some U.S. and European clothing importers
and energy companies, such as Unocal. These, at least, show occasional signs of
embarrassment at the assistance they render the world's leading practitioner of
forced labor. And then there is Russia, selling MiG-29 fighters as well as
nuclear technology and demonstrating, yet again, its less than full embrace of
the democratic values it claims now to cherish.
By aligning themselves with the junta, the governments of Russia and China
may gain commercially in the short term, but they are unlikely to reap long-term
strategic advantage. Burma's economy is imploding. The regime is so fearful of
its own people that it recently banned a Norwegian postal stamp honoring Aung
San Suu Kyi, the rightful leader of Burma who remains under house arrest a
decade after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The junta puts people in jail for
owning fax or copying machines. That is a leadership without much prospect, and
when it falls, and the nuclear reactor is rusting, most Burmese people are
likely to remember who stood with them and who sided with their
oppressors.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday January 6, 12:40 PM
Chinese police seize record amounts of
heroin in 2001
(AFP) - Chinese police seized
record amounts of heroin last year as poppy production in the neighboring
"golden triangle" region grew, public security officials said in press
reports.
In the first 11 months of 2001, Chinese police had confiscated 12.3 tons of
heroin and 1.87 million doses of ecstasy, while arresting some 67,500 suspected
traffickers, Vice Minister of Public Security Bai Jingfu told the China Youth
Daily.
The report did not say how much of the drug was seized in 2000. Earlier
reports said 5.3 tons of heroin was seized in 1999.
Most of the heroin in China was confiscated along the border of
southwestern Yunnan province which neighbors the "golden triangle" poppy growing
region of Myanmar, Laos and northern Thailand.
In the first 10 months of 2001, Yunnan police had already captured 3.2 tons
more heroin than they did for the entire year of 2000, the paper said.
"The domestic market for drug consumption has continued to expand, while
the use of heroin has also continued to rise," the minister said.
Chinese police estimated that some 230,000 acres (92,400 hectares) of poppy
fields were under cultivation in the golden triangle last year, capable of
producing 1,800 tons of heroin, it said.
At a nationwide anti-drug meeting in Beijing last week, Bai said 2,051
Chinese counties or cities were plagued by drug problems and urged a crack down
in more than 200 counties and cities with more than 1,000 registered drug
addicts each.
On November 8, Yunnan police in Luoping county seized 672.9 kilograms of
heroin in two trucks transporting timber from Myanmar, Xinhua news agency said
in a separate report.
The seizure was the largest-ever heroin bust in Asia according to Minister
of Public Security Jia Chunwang.
Some 20 suspected traffickers were arrested following the bust, and 4.55
million yuan (548,000 dollars) and nearly two million Hong Kong dollars (251,400
dollars) were seized, the report said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday January 6, 4:56 PM
Koizumi to use ASEAN trip to strengthen Japan's influence in Asia (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi will use a trip to southeast Asian nations this week to try to
strengthen Tokyo's economic and political influence in the region in the face of
China's growing clout.
Koizumi will visit the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and
Singapore in a trip starting on Wednesday. The tour was originally scheduled for
September but postponed after the terrorist attacks in the United States that
month.
It is the popular prime minister's first trip to those five Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries since he took office in April last
year.
"This trip is a good opportunity to hammer out our new partnership with key
Asian countries," a foreign ministry official said.
Koizumi will start the week-long trip in Manila, where he will meet
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Japanese premier flies to Kuala Lumpur to meet Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad before moving on to Bangkok on Friday to meet Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Koizumi will talk with Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri in
Jakarta on Saturday and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in the city
state on Sunday before returning to Tokyo on January 15.
Koizumi is likely to use this trip to boost Japan's profile in the region
in a bid to counter China's intensified dialogue with ASEAN members, said
Yasuhiro Takeda, professor of international affairs at National Defense Academy
in Japan.
"One of the main purposes of his trip is to stress Japan's role in the
region and the importance of close ties between Japan and ASEAN members, at a
time when China is approaching ASEAN rapidly," Takeda said.
In November, Japan was left out in the cold when China and the 10-member
ASEAN agreed to create the world's most populated free trade bloc within 10
years, covering two billion consumers.
During the trip, Koizumi is expected to propose an action plan to form a
comprehensive economic alliance, including free trade accords, with ASEAN
members.
Japan is likely to hold a working-level meeting this month with ASEAN
counterparts to begin drawing up the action plan, the Yomiuri Shimbun said
paper, adding that Tokyo hopes to launch the alliance in five to 10 years.
The alliance would include free trade accords, mutual investment
agreements, energy security treaties and a framework designed to protect
intellectual property, the newspaper said.
In October, Japan and Singapore completed negotiations to launch a
bilateral free trade accord, the first ever for the world's second-biggest
economy.
"Another objective of the trip is to let Asian countries understand that
Japan will never return to being a military power," National Defense Academy's
Takeda said.
Concerns about Tokyo's potential revival of militarism grew after Koizumi
made a controversial visit in August to the Yasukuni Shrine dedicated to the
nation's 2.5 million war dead, including several war criminals.
Many Asian survivors, in particular from China, South Korea and the
Philippines, are still seeking an apology and compensation from the Japanese
government for the brutality they suffered at the hands of Japanese occupiers
before and during World War II.
Concerns about Japan's military activity were also raised by Japan's
decision to dispatch warships to the Indian Ocean to provide non-combat support
for the US-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan.
Analysts also said Koizumi would seek ASEAN leaders' understanding of
Tokyo's plan to reduce its overseas aid as part of Koizumi's efforts to reduce
the nation's massive national debt.
ASEAN members are the biggest beneficiaries of Japan's aid after China,
which received 214.4 billion yen (1.6 billion dollars) in Japanese low-interest
loans, followed by the Philippines with 128.8 billion yen in the year to March
2001.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday January 6, 10:51 AM
China police make "Asia's biggest drug
bust"
BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in southwestern China have seized 672.9 kg (1,483 lb) of heroin and smashed an international drug trafficking ring in what has been called the biggest case of its kind in Asia, the Xinhua news agency said early on Sunday. Police in Yunnan province, which borders major heroin-producing country
Myanmar, also confiscated nearly HK$2 million ($251,400) and 2.65 million yuan
($320,200) in the bust, it said.
China's Minister of Public Security Jia Chunwang called it "the largest
case of its kind ever recorded in Asia", Xinhua said without giving details.
Yunnan police said that they detected 651 blocks of heroin inside two
trunks transporting timber from Myanmar on November 8, 2001. Xinhua said a
manhunt led to the arrest of 20 suspects and the confiscation of 1.9 million
yuan ($230,000) in illicit money.
Heroin has become an increasingly worrisome problem in China, where more
than 70 percent of China's known drug addicts are heroin users.
In the first nine months of 2001, China seized 8,000 kg (17,640 lb) of
heroin -- more than in all of 1998, and the most of any country for which the
U.N. has statistics.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Saturday, 5 January, 2002, 16:30
GMT
China's biggest drug haul ever The Chinese authorities say they have broken up what they describe as the
biggest drug-smuggling ring ever found in Asia.
Chinese police in Yunnan Province seized nearly 700 kilograms of heroin, along with more than $500,000-worth of Chinese and Hong Kong currency. They say the heroin was hidden in a shipment of timber, being imported from
Burma.
Twenty suspected members of the drug ring were arrested in the operation.
The seizure happened in November but has only now been announced by the
official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chicago Tribune
U.S. companies halt Myanmar
imports
Forced labor used, rights activists say By Kirstin Downey
Grimsley
Published January 6, 2002 WASHINGTON -- A group called the Free Burma Coalition, using pressure
tactics like those anti-apartheid activists employed against U.S. companies
doing business in South Africa in the 1980s, has persuaded more than two dozen
American corporations in the past 18 months to stop importing goods made in
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
Last month, Ames Department Stores Inc. joined the list after being
threatened with a holiday boycott. Ames, which has about 300 stores, said the
coalition's work "focused our attention on reports on working conditions
experienced by many manufacturing employees" in Myanmar.
The U.S. State Department and international organizations have accused
Myanmar's military government, which annulled the results of elections in 1990,
of using forced labor.
Other companies promising to stop buying products made in Myanmar include
Jones Apparel Group; Sara Lee Corp.; Family Dollar Stores Inc.; TJX Cos., which
operates T.J. Maxx stores, and Nautica International Inc.
Most of the companies involved no longer make their own merchandise and
said they had inadvertently placed orders with subcontractors that operated in
the Southeast Asian nation of 48 million.
The Free Burma campaign is another illustration of growing activism against
labor abuses around the world, which critics view as the dark side of
globalization. Students and human-rights advocates have rallied to protest low
wages in Indonesia, sweatshop conditions in factories in Central America and the
U.S. territory of Saipan, and child labor in Pakistan.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won a majority in the
1990 parliamentary elections but who has been held under house arrest by the
military regime that renamed the country Myanmar, has urged international
companies to stay out of the country until democracy is restored there. She won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
More exiles are taking up her cause.
"We believe the Burmese regime won't yield until substantial diplomatic and
economic pressure is placed on them," said Zar Ni, a dissident from Myanmar and
founder of the Free Burma Coalition, which was formed at the University of
Wisconsin in 1995. "We're choosing economic pressure because there is nothing
else left to us to do."
Han, second secretary at the Myanmar Embassy in Washington, said it was
"really regrettable" that American companies are leaving his country but that
factory workers would be hurt more than the government. He said reports of
forced labor were "totally not true."
The State Department and several international organizations scoff at such
denials. The State Department has called the Myanmar government "a highly
repressive authoritarian military regime widely condemned by the international
community for its serious human-rights abuses."
"The government restricts worker rights and uses forced labor on a
widespread basis," a State Department report said in February. "The military
authorities continue to force ordinary citizens, including women and children,
to `contribute' their labor, often under harsh working conditions, on
construction projects in many parts of the country. Child labor continues to be
a serious problem, and the armed forces conscript children as young as 14 to
serve as porters in combat areas."
The International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, imposed
sanctions on Burma last year. Twice the agency has sent investigators to study
the continued use of forced labor.
A report issued last month by the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions said that "military and civilian authorities at every level, including
the highest echelons of the state, have colluded to deny or disguise" the
reality of forced labor.
Despite the international criticism and the activists' efforts, the value
of goods imported from Myanmar to the United States increased to $470 billion in
2000 from $107 billion in 1996, according to the Commerce Department. The growth
has leveled off, but imports have not fallen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Boston Globe
A second life for Mission of
Burma
Legendary trio regroups to play handful of
shows
Jim Sullivan, Globe
Staff
Sunday, January 06, 2002
In a tiny cluttered rehearsal space, a cellar in Allston on gracious loan
from a much younger rock band, Boston's semi-legendary Mission of Burma is
rehearsing together for only the second time in nearly 19 years.
The band's three members, all in their 40s, pile on the chords, drumbeats,
and decibel levels. It's a sound of gorgeous chaos, a collision of order and
disorder, a beautiful racket. And it's a sound no one - especially the members
of the band - ever thought they'd be hearing or creating again.
Mission of Burma, which existed between 1979 and 1983, belonged to another
era, after the first wave of punk rock, long before the phrase "alternative
rock" entered the lexicon.
Its recorded output is minimal: just two 45s, a six-song EP, one LP, and a
posthumous live album. But its influence on later generations of smart rockers,
from R.E.M. to Moby, has been considerable, surprising even the band
itself.
Burma stopped playing the first time around because of singer-guitarist
Roger Miller's worsening tinnitus. Peter Prescott's drums, especially, were
doing severe damage to Miller's ears; today he still hears a constant series of
tones ringing. There was just no way to continue.
And there is no cure for tinnitus. But Burma is temporarily together, as
the time feels right and Miller admits, with a wry laugh, that every job has its
incumbent hazards. And this one - the reunion, that is - won't last
forever.
Mission of Burma has gigs in New York (Saturday and next Sunday at Irving
Plaza) and Boston (Jan. 18 at Avalon, Jan. 19 at the Paradise). As of press
time, the first New York show was nearly sold out; the first Boston show already
was. The band will also play a festival called All Tomorrow's Parties in
Cambersands, England, in late April.
For a few weeks on the East Coast, and a few nights in England, Mission of
Burma - arguably the most acclaimed band of the fertile early '80s Boston scene
- goes back in time and moves forward. Then it will all end again.
Re-creating the buzz
In the rehearsal space, singer-bassist Clint Conley asks of his mates, "Can
we slow it down? My forearm is completely numb." And, later, "My fingers are
ground hamburger."
Miller, of course, wears ear protection. He occupies a small room adjacent
to the room where Conley and Prescott play - he's as far away from the amps and
drums as he can reasonably be.
Prescott is sweaty and a little winded, but feels better than he did during
the first rehearsal. "I'm amazed at how non-crappy that sounded," he says during
a break. Miller pauses to spoon yogurt from a cup. "I'm really out of control
now," he says, sending up rock 'n' roll excess. Prescott jokes that they're all
trying to outsympathize each other, with their old-man complaints about rocking
out.
Earlier that eve ning, Miller walks down Commonwealth Avenue, talking about
a recent photo session for Time Out New York, the sharp arts and nightlife
weekly. There's a buzz about Burma. Mission of Burma may not have been a
commercial success, but among the groups of its time, its punk/art-rock hybrid
was highly regarded. Time Out was thinking it would put Miller, Conley, and
Prescott on its cover.
But the magazine reconsidered, Miller says with a laugh, because the photos
came out looking like this: "Three guys in their mid-40s wondering what they're
doing together."
What are they doing together?
Certain planets aligned to make this reunion happen.
1) Conley, who'd abandoned music, became interested again, picked up a
guitar, and started writing and playing. (He recently debuted his own band,
Consonant.) 2) Miller decided he could put up with the risk - feeling it was now
or never. 3) Prescott had put his last band, the Peer Group, to bed and had the
time. 4) The three played together onstage for the first time in 18 years at a
Peer Group concert last year, opening for another band they all admired, Wire,
which had reunited.
And 5) Mission of Burma was prominently featured in Michael Azerrad's
recent book, "Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes From the American Indie
Underground 1981-1991," along with such important bands as Sonic Youth, Husker
Du, and Black Flag.
"Mission of Burma's determination against the odds was not lost on the
generations of indie bands who followed," Azerrad wrote. "Nor was their music.
Mission of Burma took elements of free jazz, psychedelia and experimental music
and injected them into often anthemic punk rock."
Burma's sound was terse, often harsh, noisy. In a way, all three players
played lead; all three played rhythm. Melody was not often front and center.
Angular rhythms and odd time signatures leapt out.
A common first-time reaction by music fans of the day was bewilderment. But
the intensity, the raw power and the brainpower, sucked you into the whirlwind.
It was like learning a language.
The band had the fortune - both good and bad - to break up while it was at
a creative apex, before punk and the punk-inspired rock that followed it had
been overly co-opted and codified. Their music, originally released on Ace of
Hearts Rec ords, has been reissued on Rykodisc.
For their upcoming concerts, they figure they've got about 45 songs from
which to choose. During the Burma years, Conley wrote eight, Prescott three, and
Miller the rest.
"Roger and I were really symbiotic," says Conley, who penned "Academy Fight
Song" and "(That's When I Reach for My) Revolver," Burma's semi-hits. "I don't
think his experimentalism would have carrried him as far if he hadn't had my
tunefulness, and my tunefulness wouldn't have had the weight and muscle without
Roger's exploratory" approach.
One memorable song from the day is the bitter yet celebratory "Fame and
Fortune." Sang Miller: "Fame and fortune is a stupid game / And fame and fortune
is the game I play." Miller laughs and says that it was, curiously enough, the
song that gave them the most trouble at their first rehearsal.
"We've often been portrayed as these intellectual rebels, kind of brainy,"
Miller says, "but we're really goofballs."
Mission links
Mission of Burma formed in 1979, arising out of Miller and Conley's old
band Moving Parts. The band came up through the network of Boston-area small
clubs. Around town, you would see "MoB" graffiti spray-painted everywhere,
including, it seemed, every other stop sign.
They bid Boston adieu in 1983 with a show at the Bradford Hotel Ballroom,
now the Roxy, and sold it out, going out in a blaze of glory. Conley repeatedly
sang "Thank you very much" at the close of the final song.
They went their separate ways. Miller was involved in a series of solo and
collaborative efforts, mostly using keyboards; since 1998 he's been a member of
the silent-film scoring trio Alloy Orchestra.
Prescott formed the bands Volcano Suns and then - as he shifted to
guitarist-vocalist - Kustomized and the Peer Group. Conley painted houses, went
to school, put music behind him, and landed a job in 1991 as a producer for
WCVB-TV's "Chronicle," where he still works.
(Conley jokes that his TV buddies half-expect him - "Mr. Milquetoast," as
he describes himself - to sport a mohawk onstage.)
Martin Swope was considered the fourth member of Burma, handling the live
sound and adding tape loops. Miller and Conley wrote Swope, who now lives in
Hawaii, by e-mail about the upcoming gigs, but he opted out.
Mission of Burma's semi-rueful in-joke has always been that they broke up
before they got a chance to sell out.
"There was a premature aspect to it," says Miller. "And I grew up
worshiping obscure bands that were tragically overlooked. Our story does conform
to that kind of model - a very earnest band, largely overlooked, doing creative
stuff."
"I'm not a nostalgist," says Prescott. "I've seen enough bands do reunions
and it's always made me uncomfortable. I listen to tons of old music, but it's
not for me to get a teary-eyed memory rush; it's because it's still vital and
I'd like to hope so are we." Each member is bringing one new song to the
stage.
When somebody floated the idea of a Mission of Burma reunion show in New
York, the former bandmates had varied reactions, Conley recalls. "Roger had
sniffed with a derogatory remark and sent me an e-mail. I said, 'Maybe I'm
crazy, but I'm in trigued,' which was the first time the door had cracked open
from my corner.
"I wasn't interested in faking it. I didn't want it to be fraudulent. It
had never made emotional sense before, but this year, I was active musically
and, in truth, the Azerrad book got me fired up: 'Wow, we were included with all
these great bands we'd have been happy to open for.' The passage of time has
been kind to our reputation."
One man who played a key role was Mark Kates, Burma's former publicist at
Ace of Hearts and a former West Coast rec ord executive. Kates, a Burma fanatic,
left his post at the now defunct Grand Royal label this summer and returned to
the Boston area. "My role was the person who refused to let it go away," says
Kates, who's managing them. (Conley calls him "our lord and master.")
"I think they were relieved, because they needed someone to fulfill that
role," Kates says.
Serious fun
Mission of Burma had a gravitas that few Boston bands attained - back then
or now. It was serious and it was fun. The band demonstrated that punk and
art-rock could coexist, and that an inquisitive subset of music fans wanted
non-cliched rock.
Other bands were among their biggest fans. R.E.M. and Miracle Legion
covered Burma's "Academy Fight Song." Husker Du, with whom Burma shared a bill
in Boston, was highly influenced by them. Soul Asylum covered "(That's When I
Reach for My) Revolver," and later Moby scored big with another version of the
song. A New York band named itself Versus after Burma's "vs." album. Guitarist
Graham Coxon from Blur recorded "Fame and Fortune."
"We all had a certain appreciation of minimalism," Miller says. "We wanted
to strip things down, which was the essence of punk rock, but we couldn't help
but listen to this other stuff and we brought a lot of other layers on top of
that thing. We rarely talked about it."
"There's some mystery detail and little land mines in all of them," adds
Conley. "It's more difficult than I remember."
How will Mission of Burma 2002 be taken? Miller laughs. "I have no idea.
Some people will go 'How come you don't sound like Nirvana?' Our stuff will be
much more complex than what you hear on the radio.
"On the other hand, the avant ish aspect of our band you can hear more
commonly on [FM college stations] WZBC and WMBR. Our stuff has been incorporated
into the lexicon of sound."
"Back then, there was a context," Prescott adds. "We fit into it, somewhat,
in just the way there were dozens and dozens of bands that didn't fit anywhere
and got lumped into this big pile of slop called punk rock.
"Now there isn't any context I can decipher. Now that I'm listening to it
and playing it, it sounds completely alien. There are signifiers like anger,
grit, and terseness. For a lot of people, that's a negative thing. For me, it's
a cool thing."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Jan 07,
2002.
Talks on how to repatriate alien workers Obstacles expected on displaced people Achara Ashayagachat Thailand hopes to make headway towards repatriating more than half a
million illegal Burmese workers in talks starting in Phuket today.
But sources expect the Thai-Burmese joint co-operation commission to face
obstacles on the more thorny issue of what to do with 108,584 displaced people,
mostly from Burmese ethnic minorities.
The commission, with senior officials meeting today and tomorrow before the
country's foreign ministers come together on Wednesday, will also address
problems with fisheries, drug control and trade.
With 568,000 illegal Burmese workers registered since September last year,
and an estimated 100,000 more remaining unregistered, Thai officials were
anxious to find a solution, sources said.
The sources said Thai officials would table options on how to send the
illegal workers back to Burma as well as attempting to create a framework for
the legal entry of workers.
Burma has proposed the Township Border Committee handle the repatriation of
the illegal workers while Thailand wants to set up a new mechanism to deal with
the problem.
``Sending them back secretly across the border is not appropriate as there
is no guarantee that they will not return [to Thailand],'' a source said.
``Rangoon should have people and money to deal with the issue.''
Another source said that with the 1,000 baht registration fee for each
foreign illegal worker, Thailand could support the repatriation if
identification could be proved by the workers and the Burmese authorities.
``However, the Burmese should co-operate in curbing the illegal crossing of
these job seekers,'' the source said.
Pornpimol Trichote, a Burma expert at Chulalongkorn University's Institute
of Asia Studies, said Burma should not have a problem with taking back the
illegal workers as most were of Burmese origin.
However, she said Rangoon would be reluctant to accept the more than
100,000 displaced people as most were from ethnic minority groups which had
fought against the military junta.
Of the 108,584 displaced people living in 11 camps in Thailand, 89,564 of
them are Karen, with the rest being Karenni.
Thailand has insisted that the displaced people be repatriated in safety,
with provisions for a decent livelihood after their return to Burma.
However Burma would take back insurgents and their dependents only ``if
they are genuinely interested in leading a normal way of life in the legal fold
by exchanging arms for peace,'' according to the minutes of the 19th Regional
Border Meeting held in Pattaya in September last year.
``We might have to accept the reality that reconciliation inside our
neighbour Burma might not come easily, but while the internal process is under
way, we have to help develop other positive options,'' a source said.
The commission is meeting for the first time in 212 years. The resumption
of talks is seen as a sign of success for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's
government in its bid to mend sour ties with Burma.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Jan 07,
2002.
Editorial - Chasing violence across
borders
More than ever, it is clear that nations must think locally but also act
globally to make their citizens secure. The mafias began to look outward decades
ago, realising that crossing borders gave them an advantage against nations.
Terrorists also have their fights abroad, often using different countries in
different parts of the world for planning, training and sanctuary. Governments
are behind the criminals, and must hurry to catch up.
Two events of the past week showed the need to increase international
efforts. They involved the two most serious problems faced by Thailand and the
world. The first was the government's attempt to revive its moribund war on
drugs, the worst threat to Thailand. The second was the Thai version of the
problem now rivetting the most attention of security experts: international
terrorism.
Thai authorities finally have seen that Burma is unwilling to act against
the drug traffickers who threaten to addict our youth and corrupt our democracy.
The government has properly launched an attack on the finances of the leading
drug trafficker. The Money Laundering Commission seized cash, homes, businesses
and other assets of Wei Hsueh-kang.
Wei is the head of the United Wa State Army, the official name of his drug
cartel. He has been an opium and heroin dealer since the 1980s. He was convicted
of heroin dealing in a Thai court, but escaped before the death sentence was
passed. In the 1990s, Wei and his gang discovered methamphetamines, and began
marketing the drug in Thailand, where it has caused immeasurable
suffering.
The tentacles of the Wei gang spread around the world. He is wanted in
America for smuggling 680kg of heroin and has a $2 million reward on his head.
After Thailand seized 100 million baht of Wei assets last month, authorities
have opened new lines to US drug agents. William Snites, the representative of
the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Thailand, has joined Pol Col Pheerapan
Premaputi, secretary-general of the Money Laundering Commission, to trace and
seize Wei's assets wherever they can be found. The two should talk with China
and India, if they have not already done so. Wei operates across borders in
those countries. It is another, international effort against transnational
criminals. Similar, new lines of communication are opening in another serious
international crime that threatens everyone: terrorism.
Last week, anti-terrorism officials opened new talks with Malaysia over the
renewed terrorist attacks in the South. Although Malaysia has worked closely
with Thai authorities in recent years, there is vast room for better and more
practical co-operation.
In the past year, a small handful of self-described separatists have
indulged in armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion, bombings and murder. They have
tried to claim they are southern nationalists, and have tried to exploit their
religion. It won't wash. But the nearby Malaysian border has provided the
bandits with a sort of sanctuary. Without active help and close co-ordination,
Thai and Malaysian authorities find it almost impossible to track and arrest the
terrorists.
Thai police found a ringleader of one of the southern gangs in November.
Stopped at a checkpoint, Madaree Jaehae tried to run, and was shot dead. Last
month, members of his gang almost certainly were responsible for attacks on
police outposts in the South. Five policemen and a civil defence volunteer were
killed.
Our authorities have the duty to protect citizens from domestic and
international threats. They cannot accomplish this alone. Burma may not help,
but the international community can co-operate better to oppose terrorists, drug
traffickers and other international criminals.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Catches Over 1 Mln Tons of
Fish, Prawn Annually
Xinhuanet 2002-01-07 12:32:06 YANGON, January 7 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar catches over 1 million tons of fish and prawn annually without
causing extinction of them, said sources at the country's Ministry of Livestock
and Fisheries
Monday. The ministry is setting free fingerlings into rivers, streams, lakes and
dams, and to prevent extinction of fish and prawn, no fishing zones like nursery
ground have been designated with rules and regulations issued with respect to
fishing, it said.
In addition, the government is giving all kinds of encouragement to the
fishery sector, aimed at promoting the
development of the sector, extending fish and prawn breeding using modern techniques in catching, breeding, packaging, distribution and production without causing extinction of them, the sources added. Myanmar people mainly live on fish and prawn, getting 60-70 percent of
protein from them and the annual per capita consumption of fish of the Myanmar
people increased from 18 kilograms (kg) in 1998 to 21.4 kg in 2001, signifying
the country's high consumption of fish by international standard.
In the fiscal year 2000-01, Myanmar's fish and meat sector contributed 7.5
percent to gross domestic product and its marine products fetch about 200
million U.S. dollars of foreign exchange annually, it disclosed.
Myanmar, with half of its boundary as coastline extending as long as 2,276
kilometers and abundant rivers, creeks and lakes, is rich in inexhaustible
marine resources. The fishery sector is the third productive mainstay of the
country's economy after agriculture and forestry.
According to official statistics, Myanmar exported 39,600 tons of fish and
prawn in the first eight months of 2001, a 7.9-percent increase compared with
the same period of 2000.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Says 2001 -- An
Unprecedented Year for Int'l Cooperation
Xinhuanet 2002-01-06 15:22:44 YANGON, January 6 (Xinhuanet)
-- 2001 was a year which marked an unprecedented year for Myanmar in terms of
international cooperation, said a government press release here Sunday.
The release cited the visits to the country during 2001 of high-ranking
officials of the United Nations organizations, including those of the Special
Envoy of the U.N. Secretary-General for a number of times and International
Labor Organization, the U.N. Special Rapportuer on Human Rights and several
other envoys from European Union (EU), United States and United Kingdom.
All of them have consistently witnessed a situation that "the people of
Myanmar, the national government and majority political parties seem determined
to find a solution among themselves," the release said, adding that the
situation was applauded and encouraged by the U.N. secretary-general who openly
favors a settlement that is "home grown."
However, the press release charged that some groups and non-governmental
organizations with vested interests wanted to keep the Myanmar related issues
alight for their own domestic political agendas and were "paradoxically frowning
and developing an apprehension or even a fear that the disappearance of such
issues may deprive them of their 'roles' both domestically and internationally"
in spite of the positive development viewed by the U.N. and crucial regional
organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the
EU.
It said that for the first time at the U.N. in 2001, major power in Asia
such as China, India, Japan and the ASEAN countries had expressed their
indignation in one form or another on the language and on some unacceptably
negative paragraphs contained in the Myanmar resolution on human rights.
The press release stressed that "A home grown settlement that engenders a
steady evolution towards a multi-party democratic state should ensure proper
adaptation of the democratic process which in turn should prevent disruption of
long standing cultures and traditions of the diverse Myanmar people."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's Tourism Industry
Under-Developed: Leader
Xinhuanet 2002-01-06 15:23:36 YANGON, January 6 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt has admitted that his country's
tourism industry is under-developed in spite of abundance in favorable
conditions in the nation.
Speaking at a meeting here on Saturday of Myanmar's Management Committee
for Development of Tourism Industry, Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of the State
Peace and Development Council, called for ways for the development, official
newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.
"Although most sites all over Myanmar can attract tourists, implementation
of tasks for tourism development is weak," he complained.
According to official statistics, tourist arrivals in Myanmar registered at
77,773 in the first eight months of 2001, a year-on-year drop of 48.82 percent.
The number of tourist arrivals also dropped sharply due to the negative
impact of the last September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The statistics also show that since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in
late 1988, contracted investment in the sector of hotels and tourism has
amounted to 1.054 billion U.S. dollars in 42 projects.
The country targets to draw 500,000 foreign tourists annually.
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