|
-----------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS - March 25,
2002.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Two Thai soldiers injured in clash along
Myanmar border
AFP - GSM mobile network launched in Myanmar:
report
Reuters - Thai queen cancels trip after Myanmar
border clash
Reuters - Two top Myanmar leaders make rare show
of unity
The Independent - Developments along Myanmar
border being monitored
AP - Cubans Get Bootleg Internet
The Star - Myanmar trip likely next
month
The Independent - Bangladesh Fair in Yangon
begins Mar 26
ABC online - Burma's
military regime warns on rice prices
Bkk Post - Manhunt on for soldiers linked to
rape
Bkk Post - Rumoured
rebel pact expected to boost trafficking
Bkk Post - Soldiers who attacked convoy were
under siege for 9 hours
The Nation - Opium
crop on the rise
----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday March 25, 6:25 PM
Two Thai soldiers injured in clash along Myanmar border BANGKOK, March 25 (AFP) - Two
Thai soldiers were injured Monday in an ambush near the Myanmar border just days
after a fierce gunbattle there left 12 alleged drug traffickers and a soldier
dead, military officials said.
Army spokesman Somkuan Saengpattaranetr said an unidentified group fired on
Thai soldiers on a mid-morning patrol near the border in Wieng Haeng district of
Chiang Mai province in the country's north.
Two soldiers were sent to hospital with gunshot wounds, he added, but the
extent of their injuries was not known.
Somkuan said authorities were unable to determine if the group who attacked
the troops were drug traffickers.
Wieng Haeng was the scene Friday of a fierce gunbattle with a Thai border
patrol which left 12 alleged drug runners and a soldier dead.
Police there seized a haul of 1.6 million amphetamine tablets from a
caravan which according to intelligence reports was making its way across the
border from Myanmar.
Lieutenant-General Udomchai Ongkhasingh, commander of the Third Army which
patrols the region, reportedly said the traffickers were with the United Wa
State Army (UWSA), which is allied to the Myanmar junta.
Heroin and amphetamine trafficking is rife along the Thai-Myanmar border,
and clashes between narcotics-financed ethnic armies are common during the dry
season.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday March 24, 6:52 PM
GSM mobile network launched in Myanmar: report Yangon, March 24 (AFP) -
Myanmar's long-awaited GSM mobile telephone network has been launched, paving
the way for the release of 100,000 handsets in Yangon and Mandalay, the Myanmar
Times reported.
Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) project manager for the GSM
project, Kyaw Win, told the weekly that the first phase of the system involved
70,000 GSM handsets in Yangon and 30,000 in Mandalay.
Under the current CDMA and AMPS systems operating in tandem in Myanmar,
only 15,500 handsets are in circulation, and they exchange hands for up to 3.0
million kyats (3,660 US dollars at the current blackmarket rate).
Kyaw Win declined to reveal the cost of the network, which uses equipment
provided by Germany's Siemens and Chinese company ZTE, but other reports have
valued it at 144 million dollars.
The MPT project manager said the system was established by Sky-Link
Communications, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, under a
"build and transfer" arrangement.
Sky-Link has ties to the family of former dictator Ne Win, whose son-in-law
and three grandsons were arrested earlier this month for allegedly plotting to
overthrow the ruling junta in a military coup.
Ne Win's daughter Sandar Win, who is being held under virtual house arrest
along with her father at their Yangon home, is a prominent businesswoman who was
a major shareholder in Sky-Link.
The family's involvement in the project was one of the elements believed to
have led to their downfall, after they began selling the handsets before being
given permission by MPT, cheating other powerful investors in the scheme.
Myanmar's communications minister was forced to resign amid the
scandal.
Kyaw Win said the two-year delay in the launch of the GSM system was caused
by extensive trials to ensure the system was reliable and operated
smoothly.
But the Thailand-based magazine Irrawaddy said last year that the launch
was delayed due to conflicts among shareholders.
But it was not immediately clear what links the disgraced Ne Win family now
have with Sky-Link.
Kyaw Win told the Myanmar Times that agreements would have to be struck
with overseas telecom operators before the new GSM system could offer a roaming
service for visiting GSM handset-owners.
The first international agreements would be with other Southeast Asian
countries, he said.
The initial payment to sign on to the network has been set at 500,000 kyat,
and tariff rates are two kyat per minute for incoming calls and four kyat a
minute for outgoing calls.
Even at that price, the licences mandatory to own a mobile phone in
Myanmar, are likely to be snapped up.
In January 2001, MPT sold 3,000 CDMA handsets after applications were
invited through the state media. MPT was obliged to set up two more stations to
receive the flood of thousands of applications. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday March 25, 6:20 PM
Thai queen cancels trip after Myanmar border clash BANGKOK, March 25 (Reuters) -
Thailand's Queen Sirikit cancelled a visit to a royal project on the border with
Myanmar on security grounds on Monday after Thai troops clashed with an
unidentified armed group in the area, a senior army officer said.
"We feel the situation is not safe and it could upset Her Majesty if she
visited the area," Lieutenant General Udomchai Ongkasing, commander of the Third
Army stationed on the border, told reporters.
One Thai soldier was killed and another critically injured when a Thai
platoon clashed with an armed group of some 30 men, Udomchai said.
The gunbattle erupted just three hours before the queen was due to fly from
her palace in Chiang Mai, 700 km (435 miles) north of Bangkok, to a village just
three km (1.8 miles) from the Myanmar border town of Jod, Udomchai said.
Military sources said the armed group in Monday's clash was believed to be
a unit of the United Wa State Army, a Myanmar ethnic militia group allied with
the ruling military in Yangon.
The ethnic Wa army is accused by Thailand and the United States of
producing and trafficking narcotics.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Monday March 25, 12:24 PM
Two top Myanmar leaders make rare show of unity By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Two leaders
of military ruled Myanmar, rumoured to be locked in a long-running power
struggle, have appeared together for the first time in months in a show of unity
after an alleged coup plot.
Photographs of Army Chief Maung Aye and Military Intelligence Chief Khin
Nyunt, officially number two and three in the military government, inspecting
troops together were prominent on the front pages of all state-run newspapers on
Sunday.
The two men, rarely seen together without the leader of the military
government Than Shwe, were shown on state television on Saturday at the same
military parade.
The high-profile media coverage appears to be an attempt to play down
speculation of serious rivalry between the two men, which diplomats and analysts
say could have been the reason behind an alleged coup plot unearthed and foiled
by authorities this month.
Three weeks ago, military intelligence arrested a son-in-law and three
grandsons of former dictator Ne Win along with three high ranking military
officers, accusing them of plotting to overthrow top government leaders.
Ne Win, 92, and his daughter Sandar Win have both been confined to their
house, and the military say they have interrogated 100 suspects in the alleged
coup plot.
Some diplomats and exiled Myanmar analysts have suggested the crackdown was
a sign that Maung Aye was getting the upper hand in a power struggle with Khin
Nyunt, seen as Ne Win's hand-picked choice to lead the country.
Others say the military wants to sideline Ne Win and his clan so that it
can come to some kind of political settlement with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).
The NLD won the country's last general elections in 1990 by a landslide,
but was never allowed to rule. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for the last
18 months.
Talks between the military and the NLD, brokered by United Nations envoy
Razali Ismail in late 2000, have raised the prospect of some kind of power
sharing.
Although 200 political prisoners have been released since the talks began,
many in the NLD say negotiations are progressing too slowly. Little headway has
been made on the country's political future and about 1,500 political prisoners
remained in Myanmar's jails, they say.
Razali, under international pressure to show the talks are progressing, had
to postpone a visit to Myanmar last week after the government said at the last
moment it was too busy dealing with the alleged coup plot to meet him.
Myanmar says Razali can visit the country in early April.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Independent (Bangladesh) - 25
March 2002.
Developments along Myanmar border being
monitored
by Diplomatic Correspondent
Bangladesh is monitoring the developments following the setting up of
landmines by the Nasaka along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and has also kept
all concerned alert in this regard, official sources said yesterday.
Nasaka, the border security force of Myanmar, allegedly kidnapped a number
of the Bangladeshis, particularly woodcutters, from within the Bangladesh
territory and killed them during the last few days.
The unhappy incident took place when Myanmar was set to host the Bangladesh
Trade Fair in its capital.
Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury is due to leave for Yangon
today. He is scheduled to inaugurate the fair on Tuesday.
Earlier, Dhaka sent a proposal to Myanmar to hold border talks at the
earliest convenience. The proposal is under the active consideration of the
Myanmar government, sources said.
Bangladesh and Myanmar, having 197 miles of common land boundary, signed a
border treaty in 1979.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Cubans Get Bootleg
Internet
The Associated Press, Sun 24 Mar 2002 HAVANA (AP) ? Jesus Garcia
Leiva flashes a nervous smile at the small desktop computer and 14-inch monitor,
both arranged carefully on a lace tablecloth barely hiding the crude wooden
table beneath.
Wearing the kind of dark suit worn here only for solemn events, the
cyber-dissident declares that the Pentium machine will launch a new computing
learning center for opponents of President Fidel Castro.
``An hour from now, this computer could be gone,'' Garcia, a systems
analyst and programmer, recently told a small gathering.
While the communist government has multiplied efforts in recent years to
promote cyberliteracy in the workplace and youth clubs, it tightly controls
access to computers and the Internet, restricting private use to the politically
trustworthy and foreigners.
That hasn't stopped hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Cubans hungry for
Internet access from finding unauthorized and sometimes downright illegal ways
to get online.
Authorities have seized unauthorized computers, mostly from government
opponents, preventing the Internet from posing a serious political threat.
The government blames the controls on economic limitations, not politics.
``Technologically it is impossible to connect all those who are
interested,'' said Sergio Perez, director of the government office that
maintains the nation's official Web site, in a rare interview with state media.
Although Cuba has used foreign investment to expand and modernize its
antiquated telecommunications grid, it still had just 4.4 phones per 100 people
in 2000, half as many as Mexico.
Even for those with phone lines, Internet service remains excruciatingly
slow.
Cuban officials have shied away from discussing the country's Internet
program with foreign media, except for a few news conferences organized after
reporters sought interviews.
But the government teaches millions of Cubans how to use computers, send
e-mail and conduct Web searches ? albeit on island-wide networks that use the
same protocols as the global Internet but are not connected to it.
Such restrictions only whet Cubans' appetites for real Internet access,
Cuba specialist Phil Peters wrote in a recent paper for the Lexington Institute,
a U.S. think tank.
Cuba's restrictions are similar to those of such tightly controlled nations
as Myanmar and North Korea. They are far stricter than those in China and Saudi
Arabia, for example, which merely use software to block sites authorities deem
objectionable.
At more than 300 government-run computer ``Youth Clubs,'' dozens of young
people can be found furiously typing away at computers.
Castro himself champions these computer literacy efforts, often showing up
at computer youth club openings to chat with young cyberphiles. The government
estimates 60,000 of the island's 11 million citizens have e-mail accounts.
In a country where the average monthly government salary is about $9, post
offices sell $4.50 cards that provide three hours of access to international
e-mail plus access to domestic Web sites, including those of official media.
But even monied Cubans cannot legally buy a personal computer. Nor can they
sign up for one of several full access Internet services available to foreigners
at around $60 a month.
Garcia said access is even more difficult for dissidents, who are more
closely monitored than average citizens.
``If you aren't integrated into the political system, there are no other
possibilities'' for computer access, he said.
What is available to all Cuban surfers are several national Intranets, some
with specialized content such as Infomed, which is geared toward physicians and
other health care workers.
Back in 1996, the first law passed to govern how the Internet would be used
stated that access would be selective and granted ``in a regulated manner ...
giving priority to the entities most relevant to the country's life and
development.''
That has not changed.
The government controls full Internet access ? which depends on satellite
connections to Europe and Canada ? through three service providers including
Infocom, which is operated by Cuban telephone monopoly Etecsa, a mixed
enterprise in which Havana has a majority interest in partnership with Telecom
Italia and a Panamanian consortium.
Etecsa this year began selling Internet access cards to foreigners. Costing
$15 cards for five hours of access, they are often obtained by Cubans, who open
free Webmail accounts such as Yahoo and Hotmail. Resembling telephone cards,
each comes with a temporary logon and password hidden under scratch-off paint.
To use the cards, all one needs is a modem-equipped computer, which
hundreds of Cubans have bought on the black market or cobbled together with new
and old components.
Garcia's PC, which runs a pirated version of Windows 98, was fashioned from
bought, begged and borrowed parts.
Cuban ``informaticos'' can also get full access to international e-mail and
the World Wide Web via pirated accounts.
Scores tell of paying $40 a month to buy clandestine access to an already
existing Internet account ? often held by an unsuspecting foreign firm. Black
market clients are advised to use the account at night and on weekends when
activity probably won't be noticed.
The outright theft of dial-up account passwords also is common, with
hackers using special programs to copy Internet passwords from other people's
computers while they are online.
Even the least restricted Cuban Web surfers still can't reach the
Miami-based, anti-Castro Web sites that feature critical writings of dissidents.
Garcia contributes to one such site, Cuba Free Press, dictating his
writings by phone to Miami.
``We cannot find out what is really going on in the world,'' said Garcia.
``That's what we want - not just the government's version.''
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Star
Monday, March 25, 2002
Myanmar trip likely next month KUALA LUMPUR: UN special envoy to Myanmar Tan Sri Razali Ismail is
expected to visit the country early next month after his latest trip, which was
scheduled for last Tuesday, was postponed by the Myanmar government as they were
busy dealing with an alleged coup plot.
Razali said talks with the Myanmar government to fix a suitable date were ongoing. ?We are talking to them about doing it early next month. We have to see
when,? he said yesterday after opening Restaurant Paradise Palace and Souvenir
Shop at Sogo Shopping Complex.
The restaurant was jointly opened by the Myanmar ambassador to Malaysia
representative U-Khin Maung Lynn. The ceremony was hosted by educationistTan Sri
Prof Dr Awang Had Salleh.
It was reported last Wednesday that Myanmar was too busy dealing with the
alleged coup plot to meet Razali, raising doubts about talks with pro-democracy
opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for the
past 18 months.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Independent -
Bangladesh
25 March 2002.
Bangladesh Fair in Yangon begins Mar
26
Bangladesh Week and Fair 2002 begins on Tuesday in Yangon, the capital of
Myanmar, with the objective to promote Bangladeshi products and culture, reports
UNB.
A 154-member delegation led by Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud
Chowdhury left here yesterday for Myanmar to take part in the week and
fair.
The commerce-ministers of Bangladesh and Myanmar will jointly inaugurate
the fair. Besides, they will have talks on various aspects of bilateral trade
and investment.
There will be 60 stalls in the fair to display products including
medicines, toiletries, construction materials, cosmetics, food, melamine, jute,
tea and agri-products.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Bangladesh and Bangladesh-Myanmar Business
Promotion Council have jointly organised the Bangladesh Week and Fair
2002.
The programmes of the week include exhibition, seminar, food festival,
cultural function, fashion show and one-to-one trade negotiations.
Besides, businessmen of the two neighbouring countries will play a charity
golf tournament.
A 26-member cultural delegation led by renowned musician and composer Azad
Rahman will be visiting Myanmar
Col (Retd) Oli Ahmed MP, Maj (Retd) Abdul Mannan MP, former Deputy Prime
Minister Jamaluddin Ahmed, FBCCI president Yussuf Abdullah Harun, Dhaka Chamber
president Matiur Rahman, Bangladesh-Myanmar Business Promotion Council president
Rashed Maksud Khan, vice-president Syed Mahmudul Haq, Chittagong Chamber
president Farid Ahmed Chowdhury, Women's Chamber president Selima Ahmed, Women's
Entrepreneurs Association president Nasrin Awal Mintoo and EPB vice-chairman Abu
Saleh, among others, are included in the country delegation.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Burma's military regime warns on rice
prices
25/03/2002 05:35:38 | ABC Radio Australia
News
Burma's military regime has warned rice traders to curb excessive price
manipulation of the staple in the wake of a failed coup attempt, saying
fluctuations would harm the nation's poor.
The Burmese Junta's number three Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt warned
"destructionists" were taking advantage of "unstable" conditions to hike prices
of commodities such as rice, edible oil, gold and silver.
He says the stability of rice prices is linked to the food, clothing and
shelter needs of the people and the stability of the State.
Khin Nyunt says the manipulation of prices would be "burdensome and
harmful" to grassroot level workers, the poor and service personnel.
The warning came as commodity prices spiralled amid uncertainty after the
coup attempt, with gold prices at an all-time high and the value of the local
currency, the kyat, at new lows against the greenback.
The ruling junta announced on March 7 that it had arrested four relatives
of former dictator Ne Win for plotting to seize power in a military coup.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Monday 25 March 2002
Manhunt on for soldiers linked to rape
Mae Hong Son _ Police were conducting a manhunt yesterday for three
soldiers accused of raping two Burmese refugees in a forest on Thursday.
In a complaint filed with police, 15-year-old Kao Mae and 20-year-old Pue
Mae said they were raped by three soldiers wearing civilian clothes while they
were returning to their camp from a garlic plantation at Ban Nai Soy.
The men allegedly fled toward the Pang Mu project site.
Mae Hong Son governor Pote Uthana requested provincial police chief
Thong-in Harnpachonsuek and Muang district chief Kasem Chaemchoy to launch a
search for the suspects.
Pol Sgt-Maj Thawil Onnuch, head of Ban Nai Soy police station, said the
women underwent medical checks at Sri Sangwal hospital on Friday.
They would be asked to identify their alleged assailants from a line-up, he
said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Monday 25 March 2002
Rumoured rebel pact expected to boost
trafficking
Shan army thought to be in talks with senior Wa leader
Sermsuk Kasitipradit Subin Khuenkaew
Drug trafficking in the upper North will worsen if reports are true about a
new military alliance between the Shan State Army and Wei Sai-tang, a senior
United Wa State Army figure.
``Co-operation between these two Burmese minority groups will undoubtedly
aggravate the situation,'' said a senior 3rd Army officer who asked not to be
identified. He said the 3rd Army was keeping a close watch on the movements of
the SSA and the UWSA, the biggest drug trafficking minority forces in the Golden
Triangle.
The SSA has always denied any involvement in drugs and its reported drug
alliance with UWSA would be a big blow to the movement, he said.
A source close to SSA, led by Col Yawd Serk, admitted there was an informal
approach from Wei Sai-tang with a view to military co-operation.
SSA maintains military bases along the Thai border close to the area under
the UWSA's influence.
``Income from the drug trade is so huge that Wei Sai-tang will do anything
to protect his interests in the area, even make a deal with its arch-rival
SSA,'' the source said. There were rumours along the border about an internal
rift among senior UWSA members following Wei Sai-tang's refusal to comply with a
UWSA order to return to headquarters in Pang Sang, on Burma's border with
China.
Wei Sai-tang is now deputy commander of UWSA's southern command. He played
a crucial role in the mid-80s to defeat opium warlord Khun Sa and push his Mong
Tai Army troops from Doi Lang, which is now a disputed territory claimed by both
Burma and Thailand.
The officer said Wei Sai-tang commands 1,500-2,000 soldiers and operates in
Mong Yawn town. His rival, Wei Hsueh-kang, agreed to move to move north to Ban
Hong, 25km north of Mong Yawn, opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang
district.
``Mong Yawn is known worldwide as a drug city, so Burma tried to clean the
town and improve its image by moving people directly linked to drug
trafficking,'' the officer said.
An intelligence officer from the Pha Muang Task Force said Friday's seizure
of 1.6 million speed pills from drug traffickers protected by SSA soldiers
partially confirmed suspicions of the alliance.
Two of the 13 drug traffickers killed during the ambush by 3rd Army
soldiers were wearing SSA uniforms.
Col Yawd Serk denied his forces were involved in the drug trade and said
the two fighters were SSA renegades.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Monday 25 March 2002
Soldiers who attacked convoy were
under siege for 9 hours
Wassana Nanuam
Eighteen soldiers who raided a drug caravan from Burma on Friday night were
under siege for more than nine hours, according to Maj Vichayakoon Kongpoonsin,
the unit's leader.
One Thai soldier and 13 suspected drug traffickers were killed, and 1.6
million methamphetamine pills were seized.
The two sides exchanged sporadic gunfire throughout the night as
traffickers tried to retrieve the drugs and the bodies of their colleagues. A
19-member operation unit of the Pha Muang Task Force launched the raid after
hearing the caravan would enter the country through Doi Kham.
Maj Vichayakoon said his troops waited in a village near Wiang Haeng on
Thursday but no one showed up. The unit withdrew on Friday morning and returned
in the afternoon and planted four claymore mines. At 7pm, armed men on a
motorcycle turned up in advance of the caravan to scout the place. Another two
motorcycles came 30 minutes later.
With night-vision goggles, Thai soldiers spotted about 60 armed men moving
to the site about 8.30pm.
They detonated the claymore mines and opened fire. The two sides exchanged
fire for 30 minutes.
By 9pm, the traffickers had not withdrawn.
They made repeated attempts to pick up the bodies of their men and the
drugs in their backpacks.
``At the time we lost one soldier. I radioed for reinforcements. Three
other small operation units with about 30 men arrived but were not allowed to
move in. Doing so would have been too risky,'' said Maj Vichayakoon.
``We stayed there throughout the night. the other side had 50 men compared
to our 18. It was a night filled with tension.''
Maj Vichayakoon said the 30-strong back-up team moved in on Saturday
morning, when the 13 bodies and speed pills were found.
Kothaing sae Lee, suspected leader of the caravan, and two men clad in Shan
State Army uniforms were among the traffickers killed.
Pvt Panya Sriput, the Thai soldier killed in action, would be promoted
posthumously to sub-lieutenant.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Opium crop on the rise
Published on Mar 25, 2002
More opium is being grown in northern Thailand this year than last year but the Army is confident that it can destroy the entire crop by the end of this month, the commander of the Third Army Region said yesterday. Opium growing in areas under the regional army's jurisdiction has increased
by more than 1,000 rai this year, to about 7,000 rai, said Lt-General Udomchai
Ongkhasing .
Soldiers have already eradicated some 6,200 rai of the banned plants and
the rest will be destroyed this week, Udomchai said.
Villagers who were paid by people from outside the region grew most of the
opium in remote wooded areas, he said.
Referring to the Army operation that killed 13 suspected drug smugglers in
Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng district on Friday night, Udomchai said intelligence
reports showed that besides the 1.6 million pills seized in the clash, the
smugglers had left about 20 million methamphetamine pills on the Burmese side of
the border, to be sneaked into Chiang Mai later.
"They may change the trafficking route but our soldiers will try their best
to intercept them again," he said.
Udomchai said the latest intelligence reports also showed that fugitive
drug barons, Wei Xia-kang and Surachai Ngoenthongfu, better known as Bang Ron,
were in the Baan Hong area in Burma. It was up to the Burmese government to
arrest and repatriate them to Thailand to stand trial, he said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- |