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BURMA RELATED NEWS - March 04,
2003.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Thailand
Likely To Take Chance On Legalizing Casinos
AFP - US will not
blacklist Saudi Arabia over religious freedom: senior official
AFP - Drugs flow
into Thailand slowing: army
Reuters - Opium
output on rise in Golden Triangle -Thai army
Bkk Post - Monk's
followers repair road
Bkk Post -
Editorial - New confirmation of dangers of drugs
Asian Tribune -
American - Myanmar Drug Survey: Together We Can Win the War on
Drugs
Asian Tribune -
Hundreds of suspected families flee Thailand into Shan State in Burma.
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Tuesday March 4,
9:44 AM
Thailand Likely To Take Chance On Legalizing
Casinos
BANGKOK (AP)--The odds appear good that Thailand will act
this year to legalize casino gambling, a move supporters hope will fatten
government coffers and opponents fear will empty the pockets of the poor.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says more study is needed
before action should be taken. But he and other top officials, including the
national police chief, have already said they believe legalization is desirable.
In Asia, only Macau has a major gaming industry, though several
other countries have limited facilities, often closed to their own nationals.
But in the past year, Taiwan has revived consideration of a
long-standing plan to allow casino resorts on an outlying island.
The government of the Indian state of Haryana is moving to allow a
casino, which would become the country's first onshore gaming establishment. A
shipboard casino has operated out of Goa since 2001.
Singapore has
turned down calls from the tourism sector for legalization, but the issue is
making its way onto Japan's political agenda.
"The Asian market is
very attractive for the larger casino companies because of the high propensity
to gamble among Asian populations, and the present undersupply of casinos in the
region," says William Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of
Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Gambling is hugely popular at every level of Thai society, even
though legal organized gambling is strictly limited to the national lottery and
two race tracks in the capital.
In Bangkok alone, almost one-third
of the population plays the more flexible underground lottery, according to a
recent survey by the Thai Farmers Research Center. It estimated the capital's
residents gamble about 8 billion baht ($1=THB42.585) a month.
Other Thai gamblers take their stakes abroad. Once solely the
privilege of jet-setters, in recent years it has come to involve nothing more
than a five-minute walk across the border to any of the dozens of casinos set up
in neighboring Cambodia and Myanmar.
Advocates of legalization say
it will redirect some of the vast amounts of money now flowing into the black
economy - or abroad - into government coffers and legitimate local business
instead.
Experts agree.
"It's
better to have a well-regulated and appropriately taxed legal industry than an
illegal one, and it's better that domestic gamblers should stay at home to lose
their money rather than going abroad," says Professor Peter Collins, director of
the Center for the Study of Gambling at Salford University in Manchester,
England.
Legalized gambling will take business away from illegal
operations, its supporters claim, curbing opportunities for corruption such as
widespread protection payoffs to police.
Opponents of legalization
worry about social costs, such as addiction and bankruptcy, especially among
lower-income people. The Thai Farmers Research Center found gambling
expenditures accounted for 10%-18% of gamblers' income, and one in four people
surveyed had gambling debts.
There's also a question of whether
sufficient oversight can be exercised to keep out undesirable people and
activities, such as money laundering.
"Legalizing casinos might
foster underground organizations aimed at extorting money from gamblers," said
the Thai Farmer's Research Center, affiliated with the Thai Farmers Bank
(H.TFB). "The more income generated by casinos, the more these organizations
would expand until they would be beyond control.
"Moreover,
casinos could well become a cover for other illegal businesses, especially
prostitution...All in all, the gambling industry would became the catalyst for a
full-blown illegal industry."
As if to justify those fears,
Thailand's first legal casino is likely to be opened in Pattaya, a resort
notable for its roaring sex trade and serving as a home away from home for
gangsters from South Asia, Russia and further afield.
According to
Pattaya's main political power broker, Somchai Khunpleum - a man once dubbed the
area's "Godfather" by the Thai press - the plan to put a casino in Pattaya is
already a done deal.
Somchai, better known as Kamnan Poh, has
staked his reputation on bringing a casino to the area 110 kilometers southeast
of Bangkok and has even begun negotiating to have one of Bangkok's two race
courses relocated there.
He has said the casino will initially be
hosted in a leased portion of the resort's giant Ambassador City Jomtien hotel,
and that so far, prospective investors from Las Vegas, Singapore, Australia and
Hong Kong, as well as Thailand, have expressed interest. After a trial period, a
full-service casino resort would be established near town.
Tourism
Minister Sonthaya Khunpleum, who happens to be Kamnan Poh's son, is also
encouraging the idea.
Proposals to legalize casinos have been on
the Thai political agenda for decades, only to wither on the vine, primarily
because of gambling's association with the unsavory elements of Thai society.
But the prime minister, who took office two years ago, seems
determined to push the idea as far as it will go. He benefits from holding a
solid majority in Parliament.
In October, he met with J. Terrence
Lanni, chairman of the major U.S casino group MGM Mirage (MGG).
MGM Mirage spokesman Alan M. Feldman told The Associated Press the
company believes "Thailand has the potential to become a dynamic center for
gaming entertainment."
"The legalization of gaming would...provide
Thailand with a unique opportunity to stimulate investment and growth," he said.
Participation by an established major gaming company or foreign
government enterprise could determine the success of a Thai enterprise, since
regulation and the will to impose it are linked.
"Who the
investors are is critical to the integrity (or lack of it) in the established
casino," says Nevada's Eadington.
According to Fred Gushin of
Spectrum Gaming Group, a New Jersey-based international gaming consultancy,
companies such as MGM Mirage "will bring with them aggressive internal
compliance programs."
This isn't because of any innate honesty on
the part of such companies, but because if any of their operations worldwide are
tainted, their lucrative U.S. gambling licenses could be pulled by the strict
regulators there.
Local owners and operators, by contrast, could
be more susceptible to political and criminal pressures.
"Thailand
has tremendous opportunities for the worldwide gaming industry, and it will
initially be up to government policy to create an environment in which
international investment can take place," says Gushin.
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US will not blacklist Saudi Arabia over religious freedom:
senior official
WASHINGTON, March 3 (AFP) - Rejecting calls to punish Saudi Arabia for
its harsh laws banning most non-Muslim worship, Secretary of State Colin Powell
has decided against designating the kingdom a "country of particular concern"
with respect to religious freedom, a senior US official said Monday.
Although Powell's decision, expected this week, is sure to
infuriate both human rights activists and conservative Christians who support US
President George W. Bush, the official stressed that Saudi Arabia would not be
given a clean bill of health.
"We're not going to list them, but
we are going to press them on this," the official told AFP on condition of
anonymity. "We think there is an opportunity to push really hard this year."
That opportunity will arise from the fact that Saudi Arabia came
"very close" to being slapped with the designation and had already been warned
that it is almost certain to be so tagged next year unless it eases its strict
religious laws, the official said.
"We expect to have some
leverage with the Saudis and other near-miss countries to do things to stay off
next year's list," the official said. "We've already started talking to them
about this."
The official said Powell's designation of "countries
of particular concern" could be released as early as Tuesday, and that the
nations named as such would be the same as last year: China, Myanmar, Iran,
Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.
The designation can carry punitive
sanctions and rights groups, US lawmakers and the religious right have been
clamoring for Saudi Arabia to be included among the worst offenders.
In October, a government advisory panel recommended that Saudi
Arabia, along with India, Laos, Pakistan, Turkemenistan and Vietnam be added to
the list of "countries of particular concern" for severe violations of religious
freedom.
"We hope to see actions commensurate with the severity of
these abuses," said Felice Gaer, chairwoman of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom, at the time the recommendation was submitted to
Powell.
Newsweek magazine, which first reported Powell's decision
on its website over the weekend, quoted Gaer as saying she was "appalled and
disappointed" but "not surprised" that Saudi Arabia would not make the list this
year.
Lawmakers and religious conservatives have been increasingly
vocal about their displeasure with Saudi Arabia and the magazine said White
House aides had described religious freedom there as "a high-priority item for
evangelical Christians."
But Powell and the administration decided
that it would be counter-productive to criticize the Saudis on the issue now and
that such a move "might interfere with broader US interests in the region,"
Newsweek said.
Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Gulf, has not
escaped US criticism for its religious policies in the past.
Last
year, it, along with Iran and Iraq, were listed in the State Department's annual
report on international religious freedom as nations in which there is "state
hostility toward minority or non-approved religions."
"These
governments implement policies designed to intimidate certain groups, cause
their adherents to convert to another faith or cause their members to flee," the
report said.
That report bluntly identified Saudi Arabia as a
country that is totally void of religious freedom.
"Freedom of
religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia," it said, noting Riyadh's refusal to
recognize any religion other than Islam and its bar on any public demonstration
of a non-Muslim religion.
The report noted that the Saudi Arabia
generally limited its recognition of Islam to the Sunni branch of Wahhabism, and
"suppressed" other interpretations of the religion.
Although the
Saudi government had given indications it was willing to allow non-Muslims to
worship in private, US officials said the pledge had never been codified or
clarified that non-Muslims continued to suffer harassment, including assaults
and the confiscation of religious material.
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Drugs flow into Thailand slowing: army
BANGKOK, March 4 (AFP) - Thailand's army claimed Tuesday that the
flow of methamphetamines into the country was slowing as a result of intensified
border operations, but said it had not arrested any kingpins in the government's
self-declared drugs war.
"Our measures to stop the incoming of
methamphetamines into our country have been quite effective," General Veerachai
Iamsa-ad, secretary-general of the army's Internal Security Operations Command,
told reporters.
"Operations inside the country have been very
intense and we expect that the traffickers and criminals are now waiting and
seeing," he said, describing instances of abandoned bags of pills along the
border as evidence that stricter measures were working.
Yet the
army admitted it had netted no big fish in its operations.
"During
Febuary, there were no arrests of major traffickers but the army believes the
drugs traffickers will halt or stop their operations for a while," he added.
The defence ministry estimated last November that up to a billion
methamphetamine pills would be trafficked this year into Thailand from
neighbouring countries, particularly Myanmar, up from the 700 million pills
believed to have entered in 2002.
But the army, which intensified
its drugs supression operations from February 1 as part of Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's three-month crackdown, says inflows are no longer in line
with that figure.
"After the crackdown started at the beginning of
last month the result is the opposite to that estimate," Veerachai said.
When asked how many pills were awaiting transport into Thailand
from across the border, Veerachai said: "We don't know the figure yet, but we
can assure that the influx to Thailand is less because we are seizing fewer
methamphetamines."
Over February, the army seized over 430,000
pills during its border operations.
Veerachai also warned that the
army's sweeps could last longer than three months.
"Once the
three-month period has passed there's no telling if the intensity will keep on.
If the threat of amphetamines has not decreased I expect the prime minister will
order us to carry on," he said.
Thailand's controversial drugs
crackdown has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people -- the vast
majority of whom are alleged to be drugs gang members killed by other
traffickers trying to protect themselves.
Police have admitted to
31 of the killings.
The army said its operations had resulted in
four deaths, including one soldier.
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Opium output on rise in Golden Triangle -Thai
army
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK, March 4 (Reuters) - Production of opium in Southeast Asia's
notorious Golden Triangle will rise this year, a Thai army general said on
Tuesday, despite Thailand's bloody war on drug-trafficking that has touched off
rights concerns.
Lieutenant General Udomchai Ongkasing, commander
of the Third Army patrolling 17 northern Thai provinces, told reporters the
supply of opium along the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos would rise by
around 10 percent this year, due to expected efforts to clamp down on growing in
Afghanistan.
``With more suppression in Afghanistan this year,
syndicated drugs gangs are shifting their investment to the Golden Triangle,''
Udomchai said.
The United Nations International Narcotics Control
Board said in a report last month that Afghanistan had regained its position as
top producer of opium used for heroin, making some 3,500 tonnes in 2002, 100
tonnes more than in 2001.
The U.N. said despite a significant
decline in illicit opium poppy production in Southeast Asia, the region remains
the second largest source, with about 1,000 tonnes of opium produced in the
Golden Triangle region last year.
Thailand last month launched a
brutal war on drug traffickers and dealers which has claimed hundreds of lives
since it began and drawn widespread international criticism.
Police have said about 500 people have died in drug-related
killings since February 1, while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who kicked
off the campaign, has put the toll at more than 1,000.
Police say
they have killed more than 30 dealers and traffickers in shootouts, while the
rest have been victims of gangs seeking to silence informants. Thousands of
suspected dealers and traffickers have been arrested.
The U.N.'s
special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, last week
called on the Thai government to investigate alleged police abuses and ensure
security officials acted in line with international human rights standards.
Thai army generals said on Tuesday they expected the number of
methamphetamines flooding the country from secret labs in the Golden Triangle
this year to fall as a result of the crackdown.
``I think the
amount of methamphetamines flooding Thailand this year will be below 700 million
pills, the level produced last year, because of our intensifying campaign,''
Udomchai said.
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Bangkok Post - Tuesday 04 March 2003
SELF-HELP
ON THE HIGHWAYS
Monk's followers repair road
Supamart Kasem
Thousands of
followers of a senior Burmese monk in the Karen state have helped him repair a
124-km road in Myawaddy town opposite Tak's Mae Sot
district.
Repairs on the road started after local people grew tired
of waiting for Burma and Thailand to agree on the work. Thailand proposed a soft
loan years ago, but nothing came of it.
Residents have had to
travel along a damaged road for years. Phra Tamaya, 92, abbot of Tamaya temple
in Myawaddy town, sought donations for the repairs.
The monk
commands wide respect, and residents from several Burmese border villages sent
family members to help.
Phra Pan Ta Naw, 45, secretary to the
abbot, said Phra Tamaya wanted to repair two sections of A-1 highway covering
150 kilometres from the temple to Myawaddy town. The damaged section was narrow
and posed safety risks.
Several years ago, Thailand proposed a
300-million-baht soft loan to repair the road from Myawaddy to Pa-an, the
capital of the Karen state. However, the agreement had made little progress,
said the monk's secretary.
``Phra Tamaya sought donations from
Thais and Burmese residents along the border. Repairs to the 124km-damaged
section from the temple to Tingkanyinaung village wrapped up this year after
three years of work. The repairs cost about 9.5 million baht,'' said Phra Pan Ta
Naw. The 26-km second section runs from Tinkanyinaung village to Myawaddy. Of
that, 18 kilometres has been repaired by the temple and laymen. The last section
would be finished by April before the rainy season started, said the abbot's
secretary.
After repairs to the first section were completed,
residents living along the highway asked the monk to build roads close to their
villages. They have offered to donate money and equipment.
Thailand
also plans a 18-kilometre road in Myawaddy. A delegation from the Foreign
Affairs Ministry and Highways Department left for Burma last week to discuss the
80 million baht project. The route will be surveyed this month.
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Bangkok Post - Tuesday 04 March
2003
Editorial - New confirmation of dangers of drugs
United Nations officials sometimes get carried
away but the value of the world body cannot be doubted. The extremes were well
shown last week. A UN official in Europe launched a scathingly high-pitched and
entirely unofficial criticism of the Thai government's drug campaign. The form
of the verbal assault assured it would receive short shrift from Thai
authorities. On the other hand, the annual report of the UN International
Narcotics Control Board was low-key and thoughtful. Its well-documented,
strongly-researched conclusions are extremely useful in the continuing war on
drugs.
There is no longer much doubt that officials in the
three-month drug campaign have abused their power. Even Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra seems finally to be concerned at the death toll. That hardly accounts
for the sudden statement by Asma Jahangir of the Office of the UN Humans Rights
Commissioner, condemning an ``excessive use of force resulting in extrajudicial
executions'' and demanding an inquiry.
On the face of it, she
brought attention to a serious problem. But as Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai pointed out, form also matters. Such protests go through
governments, not the internet. They also do not come in the form of demands _
especially, not from the United Nations. The UN is made up of all its members,
not an independent force. Mr Surakiart and Mr Thaksin were right to explain
Thailand is a sovereign nation.
The substance of the charges
remains, however. Thailand's own human rights office, as well as hundreds of
concerned groups and citizens have called on the government to examine its
deadly war on drugs carefully. It remains to be seen just how seriously Mr
Thaksin will take the calls from fellow citizens.
Still, the UN
itself confirms the war on drugs is the right war for the right reasons,
whatever the debate over tactics and police abuses. The annual INCB report was
not as sensational as the abrupt outburst from Geneva, but was more interesting.
The group said in Thailand, more than any other country, speed kills. The
country has become the world's largest customer for
methamphetamines.
The UN report also says Burma has taken no known
steps against methamphetamine makers, smugglers or traffickers. The INCB reports
the Rangoon dictators seem determined to reduce opium and heroin trafficking.
But the United Nations report confirms what the Thai army has been reporting
despite government censorship: that the Wa allies of Rangoon are sending more
speed tablets than ever flooding into Thailand and China.
The
appeasers and legalisers receive short shrift in the INCB report. Legalising
drugs, a trend creeping into Europe and Australia for example, sends wrong
signals to young people. Australia is capitulating to drug traffickers by
legalising heroin injection rooms. And the United Nations claims that
governments should be telling citizens the truth _ that recreational drug use is
precisely what has caused the terrible problems of abuse, in Thailand and around
the world.
Southeast Asia is host to 70% of the methamphetamine
trade worldwide. That is saying a lot, because speed problems occur on every
continent, and are growing in the affluent European countries and America.
The one-month Thai campaign against drugs has serious flaws. But
the government is on the right track. An aggressive campaign against traffickers
and drug peddlers is a necessary part of any programme that hopes to overcome
the influence of drug trafficking and reverse the corrosive abuse of drugs by
our young people.
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-04
American - Myanmar Drug Survey: Together We Can Win the War on
Drugs
Another step forward in the international war
on drugs is taking place in Myanmar, where a joint Myanmar-U.S. Opium Yield
Survey began on February 24. The survey, which runs through March 3, will
provide vital, timely information on poppy production, and allow observers to
evaluate ongoing crop substitution programs.
The survey team,
comprised of twelve American and seven Myanmar officials, will collect poppy
samples from twelve separate areas in Myanmar's Shan State.
The
team will also visit at least ten areas where a wide variety of crop
substitution programs are underway. These programs, which are designed to
provide alternative sources of income to poppy farmers, include a coffee
plantation in Lwe-sam-son, a wolfram factory in Long-htan, and highland terrace
farms being developed in northern Shan State near Lashio.
Myanmar's
commitment to the war against narcotics is absolute. The drop in opium
production in Myanmar, according to U.S. figures, has been dramatic. From
approximately 2000 metric tons in 1997, opium production has been slashed to
just over 600 metric tons in 2002, and the figures are expected to decline even
further.
Moreover, crop substitution programs have been implemented
steadily over the past decade, and the Government has built roads, increased
electricity, and developed markets in order to provide alternate sources of
income for poppy growers.
In addition, the Government has
implemented stringent money laundering laws, prohibited the import of precursor
chemicals for synthetic drugs, trained more officers in anti-narcotics
techniques, prosecuted corrupt officials, and increased our involvement with
international anti-narcotics efforts.
Unfortunately, cooperation
with the United States has been limited to opium surveys, and this cooperation
should be increased. Both our countries have a mutual interest in stopping drug
production, and we both share an obligation to the international community to
work together. Working together is a "win-win" situation.
The
Government of Myanmar therefore urges the United States to join us more fully in
the war against narcotics. By working together, we can win the war on drugs. But
if we fail to work together, the drug traffickers gain the
advantage.
- Myanmar Information Committee, Yangon - 02 March 2003
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-04
Hundreds of suspected families flee Thailand into Shan State in
Burma.
Chiang Mai, March 04: According to report
released by Shan Herald News Agency (SHAN), an independent Shan media group,
Bngkok's all-out war on drugs that was launched on 1 February had driven
hundreds of ethnic Chinese and Wa families into exile in Burma's Shan State,
according to local sources across the Chiangmai border.
The reports
further adds: "If (Prime Minister) Thaksin (Shinawatra) continues with his
crackdown, Burma will be having its own problem of dealing with illegal
immigrants from Thailand", joked one source from Nakawngmu, 40 km north of the
Chiangmai border in Mongton Township. About a million migrants from Burma are
believed to be illegally residing in Thailand.
Nakawngmu, a booming
town since 1996, the year warlord Khun Sa surrendered to Rangoon, is playing
host to 104 ethnic Chinese families who took off since the end of January,
according to a local source, quoting an ethnic Chinese elder.
Many
others had also resettled in Mae Nim, near Monghsat, 120 km northwest of
Nakawngmu, where there is a large ethnic Chinese community.
The Wa
families from Thailand, on the other hand, were being relocated in Hwe Aw, 10 km
further south, where the 171st Brigade of the United Wa State Army is
headquartered.
Mongton is known for its vast areas of poppy fields
and numerous heroin refineries where methamphetamines prepared in northern Shan
State are compressed into tablets.
Latest report released by SHAN
has identified 21 of them in the township.
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