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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
09, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Thailand and Myanmar agree on task force
to tackle illegal workers
AFP - Thailand wants date for sending back
illegal workers to Myanmar
Reuters - Afghan war boosts Thai and Myanmar
opium output
Reuters - Malaysia PM to discuss terrorism at
Koizumi visit
BBC - Burma frees Suu Kyi's cousin
AP - More Opium After Afghan Ban
Bkk Post - Wei follower threatens to take revenge Bkk Post - Rise in
opium crops expected
Bkk Post - Ties exceed
expectations
Bkk Post - Chief
rejects importers' rally
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday January 9, 5:12 PM
Thailand and Myanmar agree on task force to tackle illegal workers BANGKOK, Jan 9 (AFP) - Thailand and Myanmar will establish a task force aimed at repatriating illegal workers back to Myanmar, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Wednesday. He said the task force would meet by the end of February or in early March
to decide on about 100,000 workers who have not registered with Thai
authorities. Another 560,000 illegal workers have registered.
In the meantime, some of the workers will be held in a holding centre on
Myanmar's side of the border in Myawadi, across the border from Thailand's Tak
province.
Both countries would be responsible for its operations.
The agreement came at the end of two days of talks headed by Surakiart and
Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung at the southern Thailand resort of
Phuket.
"We can be proud to have achieved remarkable progress on a wide range of
issues in our bilateral relations," Surakiart said.
He said this included drug control, trade, cooperation in cultural and
environment issues and in the development of transport networks.
While negotiations were dominated by the army of illegal workers who have
fled across the border from Myanmar no agreement was reached on the fate of some
110,000 ethnic Karen and Karenni people.
The ethnic minorities, who are held in 11 camps along the Thai-Myanmar
border, have a staged long-running rebellion against Myanmar's military junta
and Thailand also wants the camps closed.
Surakiart added their fate was a separate issue to the illegal workers and
would be discussed at a later meeting between the two countries.
The Phuket meeting of the joint cooperation commission was the latest in a
series of top-level exchanges since tensions flared in March 2001 when problems
associated with the Karen insurgency spilled across the border into
Thailand.
Thai authorities forcibly closed a major camp for Myanmar dissidents in
late December and most obstacles between the two countries have focussed on the
rebels.
The closure raised objections from Thai and international human rights
organisations who claim forced repatriation could lead to possible persecution
of those who return.
Myanmar has said it will only take back those with a genuine interest in
leading a peaceful life in the country.
Surakiart said Thailand had also agreed to inform Myanmar about future
projects involving drug control programs through the Mae Fah Laung Foundation, a
local group which introduces substitute crops for farmers who normally cultivate
drugs.
"Rehabilitation or drug-free villages will be established opposite
Thailand's Chiang Rai province," Surakiart said.
Chiang Rai sits on Thailand's northern border opposite Myanmar.
A fisheries agreement was also close to completion and would be finalised
by the two sides shortly, he said.
Tuesday January 8, 4:07 PM
Thailand wants date for sending back illegal workers to Myanmar BANGKOK, Jan 8 (AFP) - Thailand
hopes to set a date to start sending back hundreds of thousands of illegal
workers from Myanmar when foreign ministers from the two neighbours meet later
Tuesday.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said it was one area of
strengthened cooperation that he expected from his two days of talks with
Myanmar counterpart Win Aung at the southern Thailand resort of Phuket.
Surakiart said he and Win Aung will discuss in detail the repatriation of
illegal workers and ethnic minorities who have fled Myanmar.
"We will talk today when we should start to sent back illegal workers"
Surakiart told reporters. He added he believed the first workers would return
soon.
Senior officials from Thailand and Myanmar agreed Monday to set up a
holding centre for the first illegal workers. About 560,000 Myanmar workers have
registered since last September with the Thai authorities.
About 110,000 ethnic Karen and Karenni people are in 11 camps along the
Thai-Myanmar border, which Thailand also wants to close.
But Surakiart also said the ministerial meeting starting after Win Aung
arrives late Tuesday will also see progress in several other issues including
fisheries and drugs suppression. Thailand wants to set up a project to creat
drug-free villages in border villages in Myanmar.
"There is likely to be more progress on fishery cooperation and drugs
cooperation" he said.
Myanmar cancelled Thai fishing licenses in October 1999 after the Thai
government supplied an escape helicopter to five anti-junta gunmen in exchange
for the release of hostages held at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok.
The two sides have failed to reach agreement on the revival of fishing
concessions in a stand-off that has cost Thai fishermen dearly.
Thailand has said Japan would be asked to play a role in the village
project which will have an initial budget of 20 million baht (about 500,000
dollars).
Wednesday January 9, 2:10 PM
Afghan war boosts Thai and Myanmar opium output BANGKOK (Reuters) - Falling opium production in Afghanistan has prompted growers in the notorious "Golden Triangle" region to boost production to serve the rising global demand for heroin, the Thai Army said on Wednesday. Lieutenant General Udomchai Ongakasing, commander of the Third Army
patrolling 17 northern Thai provinces, told Reuters that opium supply in
Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar was rising to fill a shortage caused by war in
Afghanistan and an earlier Taliban ban on production.
He said drug lords in the "Golden Triangle" -- where the borders of
Myanmar, Thailand and Laos converge -- had supplied opium growers with new
technology to boost their efficiency despite constant suppression by
authorities.
"A water sprinkler system helps opium farmers in some areas in Thailand to
raise their crops to three a year from just one in the past," Udomchai said.
Udomchai said satellites found around 2,800 acres of poppy fields in
Thailand last year and his troops destroyed around 75 percent of them.
Thai anti-drugs agencies say average opium production on Thai plantations
was 1.8 kg per rai (1,600 square metres) last year. Udomchai said productivity
would significantly increase this year.
Until 2000, Afghanistan was the world's main producer of poppies, which are
turned into opium and further refined into heroin. The then ruling Taliban
ordered a partial ban on poppy production in 1999, and outlawed it altogether
one year later.
Myanmar is now the biggest opium producer.
Despite the ban on opium production, the Taliban were accused by Washington
of having funded themselves with drug profits.
"The new Afghan government is a U.S. friendly one and will be tough on
drugs. Drug lords will look for supplies in Thailand and Myanmar," Udomchai
said.
Wednesday January 9, 5:53 PM
Malaysia PM to discuss terrorism at Koizumi visit KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he expects to discuss terrorism and human development issues with Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi who arrives on Thursday as part of a regional tour. Malaysia has committed to the international war on terror and is in the
midst of a crackdown on Muslim militants, having detained nearly 40 suspects
since the end of July.
"Maybe issues on education and human resources highlighted by ASEAN+3 will
also be discussed," the state-run Bernama news agency quoted Mahathir as saying
on Wednesday.
Leaders of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) met with their three dialogue partners, Japan, China and South Korea, in
Brunei last November.
ASEAN countries penned an agreement in November to work together to stamp
out cross-border terrorism, while Japan also raised concerns about sea piracy in
a region, home to some of the world's busiest sea lanes.
Koizumi's visit to Malaysia and four other ASEAN countries -- the
Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore -- will be his first to the
region since assuming office in June last year.
Other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
BBC - Wednesday, 9 January, 2002,
11:16 GMT
Burma frees Suu Kyi's cousin The military government in Burma has freed a relative of the opposition
leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and four members of her National League for Democracy
(NLD).
The release of Cho Aung Than, the cousin and liaison officer of Aung San
Suu Kyi, is seen as a significant conciliatory gesture by the military
authorities.
He was arrested in June 1997 and given a seven-year sentence under an
emergency law and a three-year sentence under a law banning unlawful
association.
More than 200 political prisoners have been released since Aung San Suu Kyi
began secret reconciliation talks with the military government in October 2000.
But last week, the NLD demanded the start of a meaningful political
dialogue, signalling increasing frustration with the slow pace of progress.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
More Opium After Afghan
Ban
The Associated Press, Wed 9 Jan 2002 BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Opium
growing in Southeast Asia's infamous Golden Triangle area has increased sharply
as the price of the drug has doubled because of falling production in
Afghanistan, a senior army official said Wednesday.
``Drug traffickers might see an opportunity in the world market because
Afghanistan's crop has dropped,'' said Col. Pairat Thongjatu, spokesman for the
Third Army, which operates in northern Thailand.
Satellite pictures showed that opium poppy plantations are spreading
throughout the Golden Triangle, the area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and
Myanmar meet, Pairat told The Associated Press.
The area is traditionally one of the world's major sources of opium and its
derivative, heroin. Myanmar, also known as Burma, is the world's biggest
exporter of the drugs.
According to U.S. figures, Afghanistan overtook Myanmar, also known as
Burma, as the No. 1 producer in 1998 and was responsible for 72 percent of the
global supply in 2000.
But its opium yield dropped drastically last year because of a successful
ban on poppy growing by its former Taliban rulers, who have been ousted by
U.S.-led forces in the war against terror.
Afghanistan produced just 185 tons of opium in 2001, compared with 3,276
tons in 2000, according to the U.N. International Drug Control Program, or
UNDCP.
Pairat said that rising opium prices had encouraged traffickers to invest
more in growing the drug.
The price for raw opium has surged from slightly more than $455 for the
traditional 3.5 pound packet to $900 or more since the United States and its
allies began their attacks in Afghanistan, Pairat said.
Some drug experts had been predicting a rebound in opium production in the
Golden Triangle since last year, when opium suppression efforts by the Taliban
began to take effect.
Production in Myanmar also fell last year, according to a joint
U.S.-Myanmar survey, which estimated production of 865 tons of opium in 2001,
down from 1,085 tons in 2000 primarily because of bad weather.
Pairat said the Thai army has been carrying out opium eradication efforts
in the northern area of the country for many years with great success, but could
not wipe it out.
Because a half-acre plot of opium poppies could generate income of up to
$9,090 per crop, Pairat said many poor farmers continued to cultivate poppy
despite the legal risks.
Bangkok Post - Jan 09,
2002.
Wei follower threatens to take revenge
Police expand search for crime kingpin
Manop Thip-osod and Sunthorn Pongpao
An unidentified man claiming to work for drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang has
threatened to blow up Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's residence, the United
States embassy and the National Police Office.
The threat came as police expanded their search in Samut Prakan to uproot
Wei Hsueh-kang's drug empire and his connections yesterday.
The man, speaking with a Chinese accent, called the city police's Pan Fah
radio centre and threatened to hurl grenades at the premier's residence, the US
embassy and the police headquarters.
The caller said he would avenge the crackdown on Wei and the recent
confiscation of millions of baht in assets believed owned by the drug
warlord.
The man told police he and other plotters were at a house in Soi Charoensuk
on Rama IV road.
Police immediately beefed up security at the targeted venues, but the
attacks failed to transpire.
Pol Col Panu Kerdlarppol, deputy chief of city police division 7, said
police were tracing the telephone number of the caller and searched the house
said to be the hideout, but found nothing connected to the claimed plot.
Yesterday, police widened their searches to two tanneries in Samut Prakan
but found nothing.
A police source said intelligence revealed Sa-nguan Tanning Factory and
Auto Mofin Lester Co, located in the same compound on Sukhumvit road, were
allegedly running businesses with Wei's drug money.
Wei, one of the world's biggest drug traffickers, escaped bail years ago
and fled to Burma. He was believed to have stayed in Mong Yawn, a major
methamphetamine production base.
Late last month, authorities impounded Wei's houses, vehicles, jewellery
and assets worth more than 100 million baht in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang
Rai, believed to have been acquired with money from illegal drug
activities.
Yesterday's raid panicked the workers, most of whom were legally-registered
aliens.
Wichian Srisa-nguansat, the factory owner, denied knowing Wei.
- Investigators say they have some clues regarding the identity of people
who carried out a bomb hoax at the Irrigation Department on Monday.
Pol Maj-Gen Theerasak Nguan-banjong, commander of the Metropolitan Police
Bureau's division 1, said investigators obtained useful information which could
lead to arrests.
It was reported the bomb threat was made by disgruntled department
officials who were unhappy with slow investigation into alleged corruption
involving officials at the department's workshop division.
On Monday, a police bomb squad found a suspicious-looking cardboard box on
the fourth floor of the department's administration building.
Bangkok Post - Jan 09,
2002.
Rise in opium crops expected
As Afghan war led to sharp drop in supply
Wassana Nanuam
Opium poppy growing in the Golden Triangle was expected to increase to fill
the void created by Afghanistan being forced to give up almost all of its
production, the army said.
The war in Afghanistan and the downfall of the ruling Taliban militia had
resulted in a drastic decline in opium supply from what was the world's largest
opium-producing country.
Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongakasing, commander of the Third Army, said the army was
on the offensive to wipe out cultivation of opium poppies, which were used to
make heroin.
He said Golden Triangle drug lords had ordered highlanders to grow more
poppies to fill the gap in global demand created by the Taliban's
downfall.
The drop in supply had pushed up the opium price and the Golden Triangle
was seen as the major production base to take over from Afghanistan.
Areas opposite Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son were expected to be
cleared for poppy plantations.
Lt-Gen Udomchai said the army had discovered 6,897 rai of opium fields last
year and destroyed 5,199 rai.
Drug dealers were investing more in poppy growing to cash in on rising
opium prices. The army had found highlanders were growing poppies out-of-season
with the aid of water sprinklers to boost production.
Lt-Gen Udomchai said it was possible that producers of methamphetamine
pills would switch to opium cultivation.
However, he said the increased focus on opium was not expected to reduce
the production of speed pills.
Gen Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operations
Command, said methamphetamine production remained high with an estimated 700
million pills expected to hit the Thai market this year.
Last year, only 8.4 million pills were seized nationally while the supply
of heroin increased.
Gen Pallop said it was believed a total of 61 speed pill factories had been
set up across the border with 39 in Burma, 19 in Laos and three in
Cambodia.
A powdered form of methamphetamine was also available to buyers who pressed
it into tablets themselves.
Bangkok Post - Jan 09,
2002.
Ties exceed expectations
FMs preside over joint commission
Achara Ashayagachat
Thailand and Burma have restored relations beyond the ``state of normalcy''
the Thaksin government sought from the start, Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai said yesterday.
But neither side could be complacent as they still needed to build
``resilient, strong and enduring relations'' that would enable them to
``withstand frictions and pressures that may arise naturally between
neighbours,'' he added.
Mr Surakiart and his Burmese counterpart Win Aung presided over the formal
opening yesterday of the Thai-Burma Joint Commission on bilateral co-operation
.
Mr Win Aung said bilateral ties had improved over the past year as some
serious misunderstandings and obstacles had been removed.
He cited co-operation in narcotics suppression as an example, saying
``exchanges of information and intelligence between law enforcers of the two
countries led to the arrests of some leading drug traffickers in Rangoon last
October.''
Mr Surakiart said closer cross-border co-ordination since the signing of an
agreement on co-operation in narcotics control had resulted in more arrests. The
pact was signed during the visit to Rangoon in June of Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.
But more energy, resources and determination was still needed to
``eliminate or to see a clear reduction in the volume of narcotic drugs that are
threatening our societies,'' he said.
The two sides welcomed the progress that senior officials had achieved over
the past two days on matters of trade, fisheries and illegal workers.
Mr Win Aung said he hoped an MoU on account trade would soon be signed to
boost bilateral trade, particularly across the border, as this would reduce
dependency on hard currencies.
The Burmese minister expressed confidence that arrangements for joint
ventures in fisheries could be concluded soon.
On illegal immigration, Mr Win Aung said Burma had mutual interest in
clearing the issue. Mr Surakiart looked forward to a ``new systematic employment
of workers'' under a legal framework that would be mutually beneficial to all
sides, including the workers themselves.
In what was seen as a bid to keep the lid on controversy, senior officials
stopped short of raising the environmental concerns sparked by a plan to build a
coal-fired generator in Tachilek, just 5km from the Thai border.
But sources said the joint commission on bilateral co-operation was the
ideal body to raise the issue, at least to ask Burma to move the site of the
plant some 20km inside their border.
``They are in dire need of Thailand's transportation network for the
shipment of the equipment as roads connecting the China-Burma border were in bad
shape,'' one source said.
Bangkok Post - Jan 09,
2002.
Chief rejects importers' rally
Supamart Kasem
The forestry chief has shrugged off a threat from local enterpreneurs to
stage a huge protest against a ban on furniture imports from Burma.
They would only waste their time if they went ahead with their protest
plan, said Plodprasop Suraswadi.
A group of local furniture importers has threatened to mobilise 1,000
people to protest against the ban after the Forestry Department refused to
consider lifting it.
Mr Plodprasop said there was evidence that most of furniture items that
local traders claimed to be Burmese imports were actually made of illegal wood
from Thai forests.
Mr Plodprasop on Monday led 100 forest rangers and soldiers to raid an
illegal furniture factory in Tha Song Yang district.
Teak wood, furniture parts and more than 200 items of equipment were found
in the underground factory hidden beneath a closed restaurant.
The restaurant premises, located near Mae Sot-Mae Saring highway in tambon
Mae Tan, was reportedly owned by Somchai Kulkittiket, 38.
Mr Plodprasop said checks showed most of the wood and furniture parts found
at the factory were made of illegal Thai wood.
Their makers were Burmese who had escaped from refugee camps, he
said.
``In my four years as the forestry chief, I have never seen such a large
illegal sawmill. It is worth at least 5-6 million baht. Its biggest chainsaw can
be used to process logs of at least 200cm in diameter,'' he said.
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