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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- December 12, 2002.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Thai villagers protest China's
blasting of Mekong rapids
Bkk Post - Queen gets reprieve for
hilltribes
Bkk Post - Khin Nyunt invited for
drug talks
The Nation - Burmese denied bail
Xinhuanet - Thai trade
exhibition opens in Myanmar
Xinhuanet - Thailand, Myanmar
to hold meeting on drugs suppression ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thai villagers protest China's
blasting of Mekong rapids
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Thai villagers and environmentalists rallied in front of the Chinese Embassy Thursday to demand that Beijing halt the blasting of rapids in the Mekong River to clear a new trading route. More than 50 protesters gathered to complain that the blasting would cause irreversible damage to the river that would adversely affect the villagers' livelihoods. China, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand signed an agreement in 2000 to set up the Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, running from China's Yunnan province to Luang Prabang in Laos. The three-year project includes plans to blast 51 rock outcroppings in the four countries to deepen the waterway to accommodate large cargo vessels year-round. However, environmentalists say shifting waters could affect fishing and farming along the river. In a letter to the Chinese ambassador, the protesters called for an immediate halt to the project and for an in-depth study of its environmental and social impact. They also demanded that an alternative route be developed. ``We're ready to fight to the death. This is about the end of our livelihood. We live mostly on farm produce and fishing,'' said Jirasak Inthayos, 31, who claimed he represented 20,000 fellow villagers in a northern Thai district along the river. Blasting began several months ago, and villagers said they have already noticed soil erosion and smaller fish catches. Social and political activists from Myanmar, also known as Burma, have also prepared a letter raising ecological and political objections to the blasting plan. ``It is certain that the Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, if implemented in conjunction with the current military regime of Burma, will benefit only the military and business elites,'' it said. Chinese authorities, who have also been criticized for building dams upriver, argue the impact of reshaping the Mekong will be minimal and even beneficial. They say dams will ease the annual cycles of flooding and water shortages in the Mekong Basin, while deeper navigation channels are sure to foster regional trade and help alleviate poverty. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Thursday 12 December 2002
Queen gets reprieve for hilltribes Army scraps plan to shift them to lowlands Wassana Nanuam Her Majesty the Queen has asked the Third Army to drop its plan to move hilltribes to lowlands, fearing such relocation will affect their way of life. She also suggested their communities be turned into border-watch villages whose residents are trained to help look out for intrusions by foreign forces. The Queen's advice was revealed yesterday by Third Army chief Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasingh, at a security meeting held to discuss ways to reorganise border villages in the upper North. The Third Army had planned to relocate hilltribe villages to lowlands for better control. Following the Queen's advice, the Third Army decided to set up 43 border-watch villages in Tak and Mae Hong Son provinces bordering Burma. The Third Army had already spent 35.7 million baht to set up two such villages, one called Pang Khong in Mae Hong Son's Pang Mapha district, and the other called Mae Suay Ou in Muang district of Mae Hong Son. Army chief Gen Somdhat Attanand, who chaired the security meeting, said the Queen had also told the army to encourage young tribesmen to undergo military training and serve as volunteer border guards. The Queen had also invited several retired military officers to sit on committees handling royally-initiated projects, he added. Gen Pichitr Kullavanijaya, a former deputy supreme commander and now a privy councillor, also suggested the army recruit hilltribe children for training into national athletes. Currently, there are about 700,000 tribespeople from 11 ethnic groups living in 14 northern provinces. Meanwhile, this year's Magsaysay award winner Cynthia Maung yesterday asked the United Nations Commission on Human Security to help end the plight of Burmese children living as stateless people in Thailand. ``Burmese children in Thailand, both inside and outside of refugee camps, do not receive any official identity papers, nor do they acquire official refugee status,'' she said. Consequently, those children grew up to become illegal immigrants who were ``subject to arrest and harassment on a regular basis''. She urged the UN agency to help those stateless children gain official birth identity papers. ``These will assist them to gain Burmese citizenship when we are allowed to return.'' Stateless children were also deprived of education and health care services in Thailand, she said. The Interior Ministry has refused to issue birth identity papers to children of illegal Burmese workers for fear they would use the documents to claim Thai nationality later. The problem of stateless children also existed in Burma, she said. Displaced people or those born in remote areas in ethnic states were not granted birth certificates or citizenship papers, she said. ``Children who have no ID cards are targeted by the Burmese army and forced to join as child soldiers,'' she said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post -
Thursday 12 December 2002
Khin Nyunt invited for drug talks Chavalit to propose joint border patrols Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has invited Burma's number three, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, to a meeting to discuss bilateral ties and drugs. ``I have invited Khin Nyunt to a meeting in Chiang Rai in the next few days,'' Gen Chavalit said. He would propose joint military patrols at border checkpoints to avert conflict between the neighbours. ``Thailand will push for joint deployment of Thai and Burmese troops at checkpoints, where drugs cross, to avoid misunderstandings,'' he said. Thailand and Burma spent the first half of this year in a bitter diplomatic war sparked by border clashes between rival ethnic armies accused of involvement in the drugs trade. Although the spat has since been healed, new niggles have emerged after the Thai army said it expected one billion speed pills to be smuggled across the border next year from drug labs in Burma. The Thai government is also having problems repatriating nearly one million illegal Burmese workers. Burma has repeatedly denied allegations that it is engaged in the drugs trade, which United States and Thai drugs workers believe is controlled by ethnic armies allied to Rangoon. Gen Chavalit said no date had been set for the meeting with Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, who is Burma's chief of military intelligence. Meanwhile, the Third Army commander has played down claims about the one billion speed pills from Burma, made most recently by deputy army commander Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong. Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasingh believed the drug situation next year would be no more critical than previous years. Cooperation against drugs would also be discussed at a regional border committee meeting on Dec 26-28 in Burma's Moulmein town, he said. Drug plants along the border and ethnic minority rebels could be among the topics discussed. _ Bangkok Post, AFP ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Nation
Burmese denied bail Published on Dec 12, 2002 Police in Mae Hong Son yesterday denied bail to 22 Burmese detained on charges of illegal entry despite some of them having identification cards issued by Thai security agencies. Mae Hong Son province police commissioner Maj General Thong-in Harnprachonserk said he suspected the group was carrying out anti-Burmese activities in the area, but offered no details. Thong-in has ordered Captain Worachit Nithiprasarn, the officer who arrested the Burmese, to urgently find a translator to help with the case. The Burmese were arrested following what the police said was a tip-off from a "good Samaritan" that led to the raid of a rented house in the province. National security agencies occasionally raid homes of Burmese dissidents and activists in Thailand. in what appears to be attempts to show the military junta in Rangoon that Thailand is not being used as a staging ground for anti-Burmese activities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thai trade exhibition opens in
Myanmar
YANGON, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A Thai trade exhibition opened at the Yangon Trade Center here Thursday, sponsored by the Department of Export Promotion of the Thai Commerce Ministry. The four-day Thailand Exhibition' 2002, the sixth of its kind and the second in this year, is aimed at strengthening the trade relation as well as fostering the spirit of goodwill and cooperation between Myanmar and Thailand. Participated by about 113 companies, the exhibition is believed to provide a unique opportunity for Myanmar traders to develop profitable business links by meeting with prominent manufacturers and exporters of Thailand and to explore a wide array of products and services. The exhibits cover auto parts and accessories, chemical products, children products, construction material and hardware, cosmetics, electronic products, beverage and packaging, furniture, garments and textile, fashion accessories and household products. The first Thai trade exhibition in Myanmar was held in December 1998 and the fifth, which was also the last event, took place in May this year. The Thai commerce ministry, finding that the Thai trade exhibitions served as a symbol of growing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, decided to hold two exhibitions annually commencing from this year. Official statistics show that Myanmar's bilateral trade with Thailand amounted to 579.66 million dollars in the first half of 2002, accounting for 23.45 percent of the country's total foreign trade and standing as the highest volume among that with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during the period. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thailand, Myanmar to hold
meeting on drugs suppression
BANGKOK, Dec. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Thailand and Myanmar will hold a bilateral meeting on cooperation in narcotics suppression on December 13-14, Thai News Agency said Thursday. A source at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) was quoted as saying that the meeting will be held in the northern province of Chiang Mai with ONCB Secretary-General Kitti Limchaicharoen and Myanmar Police Chief Khin Yi being co-chairmen. The meeting, the seventh of its kind, is the follow-up of the previous one hosted by Myanmar on February 13-16 this year. The bilateral meeting on narcotics suppression cooperation was jointly initiated by ONCB and Myanmar's Central Committee for Drugs Abuse Control and agencies concerned. It serves as a venue where officials concerned in the drugs suppression of the two sides can discuss ways to coordinate efforts to deal with the narcotics problem. The two sides would also exchange information on current drugs situation and boost their cooperation through the meeting, which is held twice a year by Thailand and Myanmar in rotation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |