AFP -
Deputy PM says Wa drug lord put bounty on Thaksin's head
AFP - Euro MPs demand revival
of peace talks in Myanmar
AP - Philippines won't face
sanctions on money laundering
Dow Jones - Thai PM Hands EGAT
Dominant Role In Energy Sector
The Nation - PM backs damming
of Salween
The Hindu - Burmese dissident
worried
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Friday March 14, 4:03 PM
Deputy PM says Wa drug lord put bounty on Thaksin's
head
BANGKOK, March 14
(AFP) A powerful ethnic Wa drug lord
in Myanmar has
ponied up nearly two million dollars to have Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra killed.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh said there was "reliable" intelligence that Bao Youxiang, commander
of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) aligned with Yangon,
was responsible for putting a bounty on Thaksin's head recently.
"I have obtained a report
which is likely reliable and confirmed," Chavalit told reporters at Government
House.
"Everybody knows these (drug)
gangs have influence and money and are ready to spend that money to get rid of
anyone who hampers their ways," he said.
Chavalit was responding to
queries about a report in Thai-language newspaper Matichon, which cited a police
report as saying the UWSA's Bao Youxiang and Wei Hsueh-kang, a Chinese Wa with
Thai citizenship who fled to Myanmar, issued the death order because of billions
of baht in losses from the war on drugs.
The billionaire premier
himself has said drug gang members put the price on his head at 80 million baht
(1.87 million dollars) after his administration declared a brutal war on drugs
that has seen trafficking slow to a trickle since the campaign was launched
February 1.
The government has dismissed
opposition claims that the bounty was fabricated or a diversionary tactic to
draw attention away from the alarming toll of nearly 1,500 drug-related deaths
since the crackdown began.
Chavalit, the deputy premier
responsible for security, said drug kingpins posted the brazen bounty out of
frustration that the drugs war was leading to severe losses in their
trade.
The UWSA, reportedly described
by Washington as the world's
largest armed narcotics producer, is believed to be the region's largest
producer and supplier of methamphetamines.
The UWSA was particularly
suspect because of its wide network of operation along the Myanmar-Thailand
border. Thai narcotics officials blame the outfit for producing hundreds of
millions of methamphetamine tablets sold in
Thailand last
year.
Thaksin's security detail has
been beefed up considerably, with the leader traveling in a bullet-proof van and
sniffer dogs searching Government House for explosives.
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Thursday
March 13, 13:43 PM
Euro MPs demand revival of peace talks in Myanmar
STRASBOURG, March 13 (AFP) - The European Parliament Thursday demanded
the military government of Myanmar revive peace talks with opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi.
"MEPs urge the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) to revive the process of dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi in order
to resolve the severe problems Burma is currently facing, including the banking
crisis," said a joint resolution.
Peace negotiations between the
SPDC, the military junta's formal name, and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning
opposition leader have long been stalled.
The European
Parliament's resolution took note of Myanmar's dire economy, hampered by both
international sanctions and gross mismanagement. There has seen a rush on the
country's private banks in recent weeks.
The resolution also
called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Shan
Nationalities' League for Democracy Secretary-General Sai Nyunt Lwin.
The MEPs further demanded an end to forced labour, with
unrestricted access to all parts of Myanmar by the UN's International Labour
Organisation.
"The House strongly urges the SPDC to stop the
systematic use of rape against ethnic women as a weapon of repression...," the
resolution added.
It pressed the European Commission, the EU's
executive arm, "to ensure that support for humanitarian aid is done without
political interference by the military, and that international NGOs
(non-governmental organisations) are involved".
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Philippines won't face sanctions on money laundering
Thu Mar 13,12:51 PM ET
PARIS
(AP)- The Philippines won't face
sanctions for its lax money-laundering laws following the country's enactment of
legislation to address the issue, the Financial Action Task Force said Thursday.
"The new legislation addresses the main legal deficiencies in the
Philippine anti-money laundering regime," said the task force, which is part of
the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The task force agreed last month to give the Philippines until
March 15 to implement tougher legislation against money laundering.
Though escaping sanctions, the Philippines "will remain on the
list of 'noncooperative countries and territories' until it has implemented
effectively its new anti-money laundering legislation," the task force said in a
statement.
Eleven nations are currently on the task force's
blacklist for failing to fight money laundering: Cook Islands, Egypt, Grenada,
Guatemala, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Philippines, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, and Ukraine.
Russia was removed from the blacklist in
October.
The task force, which includes 29 countries, is to meet
June 18-20 in Berlin.
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Friday
March 14, 6:45 PM
Thai PM Hands EGAT Dominant Role In Energy
Sector
By Tom Fox and Irene Kwek Of DOW JONES
NEWSWIRES
BANGKOK (Dow
Jones)--Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has given the
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand the green light for its plans to
dominate the national electricity sector and build a big regional presence,
scrapping plans to split the agency up in a liberalization of the sector.
Up until Thaksin's comments Thursday, the government hadn't
officially taken sides while studying EGAT proposals as an alternative to
liberalization plans developed by the former National Energy Policy Office,
which would have split the agency into several units and opened up the playing
field.
Industry sources told Dow Jones Newswires Friday that the
premier has now clearly named EGAT the winner, after renaming NEPO and
downgrading its status in a bureaucratic reorganization last October, and
shunting aside the architect of its proposals, Piyasvasti Amranand. He
subsequently left the government.
Thaksin said EGAT will remain as
a single entity rather than being split into power generation, hydropower and
transmission units, and it won't be required to sell its 45% stake Ratchaburi
Electricity Generating PCL (H.REG) or its 25.4% stake in Electricity Generating
PCL (H.EGA).
Foreign firms will still be allowed to invest in
individual power plants, but EGAT will retain control of the national grid,
while it remains the dominant supplier.
"In terms of competition,
EGAT is going to be a very strong entity. They will have very strong bargaining
power. They will be the biggest and they will still have control of the market
(through the national grid)" a Thai industry source said.
Thaksin
does want to sell a partial stake in EGAT, hopefully to list the former state
regulatory agency by the end of the year, but the government will retain a stake
of more than 50%.
With so much of the sector master plan
apparently scrapped, it isn't clear when or whether a new regulatory agency
might be created.
But as in the telecommunications sector, Thaksin
is more concerned with turning state agencies into state companies big enough to
prevent foreign domination of the Thai market and to compete with foreign giants
abroad, than with setting up new regulatory bodies which might slow down the
process.
Thaksin told reporters Thursday that by retaining a
majority stake in EGAT "the government will still control prices of electricity
and we can prevent a takeover by foreigners."
EGAT officials have
said that at the very least, they expect their proposals to enable the agency to
become a major corporate player in the Mekong sub-region, comprising southern
China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Thaksin said
majority ownership in EGAT was a national security issue. EGAT will act as a
strategic center for energy production for all of Southeast Asia, he said.
Listed Agencies Are Still State Agents
The industry
source said that along with the goal of creating regional or international
heavyweights in key sectors like energy, control of retail prices is another key
concern for the government.
The former state petroleum authority
has already been partially-privatized and listed as PTT PCL (H.PTX), but it
regularly complies with government price control programs, absorbing some losses
itself, and helping to organize implementation of government subsidy programs.
The industry source said the current administration wants to
retain control of energy prices because if higher prices hurt economic growth,
it could interfere with funding of populist policies. The government is betting
heavily on stimulus programs which can only be paid for if gross domestic
product keeps growing at least 3% a year, Merrill Lynch said in a recent report.
"The degree of liberalization has been toned down. We hoped to
have a lot more companies, which would be better for consumers, but instead we
have less competition and one dominant firm," the industry source said.
But even with electricity production capacity far in excess of
demand, this government or a future government will eventually have to
liberalize the sector further.
"This could be temporary. Sooner or
later, there are going to be complaints from foreign investors, and the
government will have to listen to accommodate new investment from the private
sector, which will mostly be foreigners," the source said.
Meanwhile, a government source said rules defining how much power
independent power producers can sell directly to users, or whether they will
have to continue selling all the electricity they produce to EGAT in order to
access the national grid, will likely be unveiled next week.
The
structure is expected to be based on EGAT's proposal, which limits on direct
supply to users by big power producers, with most power still sold to the grid,
instead of the free market in supply to users over the national grid earlier
proposed by NEPO.
"After the structure is decided on, we need to
revise the energy act as soon as possible, and after that we will list the
(EGAT) stock in the stock market," the government source said.
Representatives of foreign investors weren't immediately available
for comment on the developments.
Former NEPO chief Piyasvasti, now
head of the Energy & Environment Foundation, a private research institute,
declined to comment on the government's policies, saying that the details seemed
to change day to day.
NEPO has been renamed the Energy Policy
& Planning Office, but EGAT has taken over its turf.
Thaksin
said EGAT will be the main entity responsible for making decisions on future
investment in the electricity sector, taking into account the benefit to the
country and its people.
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The Nation
HYDRO PROJECT: PM backs damming of
Salween
Watcharaphong
Thongrung
Published on Mar 14, 2003
Acknowledges environmentalists 'won't be happy'
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday gave the first public
indication of government support for the proposed hydroelectric dams on the
Salween River, saying they had to go ahead despite widespread
opposition.
Although the dams raise concerns about adverse
environmental and social impact, they are essential elements of the plan by
eight Asean members to develop the Asian Power Grid, Thaksin
said.
Non-governmental organisations and Burmese dissidents have
criticised the dam projects, saying they affect 10 million people representing
13 ethnic groups living along the river, and some have already been forcibly
relocated.
The mighty Salween originates high in the Tibetan
mountains, flows through China's Yunnan province into Burma and forms the Thai
border before emptying into the Andaman Sea 2,800 kilometres
later.
"Environmental activists might not be happy, but the
projects will help reduce electricity charges, as hydropower plants have no fuel
costs," the premier said during a visit to the Electricity Generating Authority
of Thailand (Egat) headquarters.
Egat sees the need for two
5,000-megawatt dams on the Salween where it runs along the Thai-Burmese border
in Mae Hong Son province, and three more dams on the Burmese side, governor
Sittiphorn Rattanophas said, citing studies by Japanese power giant J
Power.
Egat will invest Bt370 billion in the two border projects,
while a Thai-Burmese government joint venture will be established to oversee
them, the governor said.
Thailand will have first rights to
purchase power from the dams when they go online by 2012 with the capacity to
supply a total of 20,000 megawatts, he said.
Egat will propose the
Salween project to a meeting of Asean power utilities scheduled for April 20-25,
before submitting it to the Cabinet for approval, he said.
"Now
that we've got the nod from our government, we're ready to negotiate with
Burmese power authorities to start work on it as soon as possible," he
said.
The question of environmental and social impacts of the dams
will require further study as well as open discussion between Thailand and
Burma, the premier said.
Since negotiations could take time and
Burmese domestic politics could be a complicating factor, it is hard to project
a completion date for the project, he said.
The two dam projects on
the Thai-Burmese border are expected to attract the heaviest opposition from
environmentalists and human rights activists, as they will affect communities
and conservation areas on both sides of the border.
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The
Hindu
Burmese dissident worried
By Amit Baruah
NEW DELHI March 13. He's now 33 years old. Back in
November 1990, Soe Myint and a friend ``hijacked'' a plane using soap cases and
brought it from Bangkok to Calcutta, as it was known then.
Speaking to presspersons at the Indian Women's Press Corps today,
Soe Myint, now editor of Mizzima News, a news agency which maintains an active
website on Burmese (Myanmar) news and analyses, comes across as articulate and
informed.
For nearly 12 years after the ``non-violent hijacking''
of the Thai Airways aircraft, Soe Myint lived and worked in New Delhi, part of
the time being spent at the residence of the Defence Minister, George Fernandes.
Since April 2002, when he was re-arrested in the hijacking case, Soe Myint is a
worried man.
The Burmese dissident, who has no qualms in admitting
what he did and is ready to face punishment, is looking for reasons about why he
has been arrested for an old case. The trial begins in Kolkata on April 3 and
there is every possibility that he may be sentenced to life imprisonment for the
``political act'' of bringing attention to the cause of democracy in
neighbouring Myanmar (Burma).
Though arrested after addressing a
press conference at the Calcutta airport along with his friend (who now lives
abroad and is not named in the chargesheet), Soe Myint believed for many years
that the case against him was dead. Released on bail three months after the
hijacking, Soe Myint met the then West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, at the
Writers' Building. The West Bengal Government called upon the Centre to withdraw
the case. So, why has the case suddenly come to life? ``We were desperate to
focus international attention on the Burmese cause,'' he stated, adding that the
Government of India was ``very active in supporting the pro-democracy movement''
at the time.
Soe Myint feels that his journalistic activities may
have caused the active pursuit of the hijacking case. ``I was arrested a week
after the then External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, visited Burma.''
India-Myanmar relations ? since the time he landed in India ? have been on the
upswing and New Delhi does not want to do anything that might jeopardise its
relations with the military Government, he points out.
He stressed
that he had interviewed the vice-chairman of the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), Maung Aye, and the Myanmar Foreign Minister, U Win Aung, when
they visited the capital. He is clear that Burma has to move towards
reconciliation in a spirit of compromise and is optimistic about the prospects
of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the military Government working
together. To a barrage of questions from curious presspersons, Soe Myint said
unambiguously: ``I am proud of what I did. I did it for a political cause.'' In
any case, he claimed it was not a ``hijacking'' but a drama. None of his
co-passengers filed a complaint in the case.
Many of them were
sympathetic to their cause. One Japanese passenger on board even explained to
some other passengers in Japanese what the hijacking was all about. He's asked
what Mr. Fernandes thinks about the Burmese cause today. ``He (the Defence
Minister) came to my book release recently,'' Soe Myint said. ``Personally, he
still supports the pro-democracy movement.''
Mr.
Fernandes has promised to speak to the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, about the
case, but Soe Myint is waiting to see what happens next. Will he be sentenced to
life imprisonment for a clearly political act? Or will he be allowed to live
with his Burmese wife and carry out journalistic activities in India?
Soe Myint, who was studying international relations in Yangon and
was preparing for a career in the foreign service, speaks almost as if the case
involves somebody else and not him.
But, still, a withdrawal of
the charges against him would be welcome as he prepares to leave for Kolkata for
the trial.
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