Philippine leader to attend UN meet in Bangkok: officials
MANILA, Feb 9 (AFP) -Philippines President Joseph Estrada is to attend the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Thailand next weekend, his spokesman said Wednesday.
Presidential spokesman Fernando Barican said Estrada would leave on Friday and return Monday. Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon had said just hours earlier that Estrada would skip the conference.
Diplomatic sources, who asked not to be named, said they had to convince Estrada about the importance of attending the meeting in Bangkok.
"As an aspiring leader of ASEAN, the absence of the president is not advisable," a senior diplomat said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In a press briefing, Barican said: "The president made that decision (to attend) today after talking with Secretary Siazon, particularly because it's over the weekend."
He said Estrada did not want to miss a meeting between ASEAN leaders and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on the fringes of the UNCTAD conference.
ASEAN leaders are also to hold a side summit on Saturday as well as meet separately with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the foreign department here said.
With Estrada attending, only Myanmar leader General Than Shwe would be absent, Siazon said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Barican said the meeting with Obuchi was important "because Japan is hosting the G8 meeting in July." The Group of 8, or G8, refers to the world's seven richest nations plus nuclear military power Russia.
"Prime Minister Obuchi wants to talk to all the leaders of the ASEAN so that he can present the concerns and interests of the ASEAN states at that meeting in July," he added.
The Filipino leader has already scheduled seven foreign trips this year, including one to the United States and four international meetings.
The European Union has not requested an official inquiry into the killings of the 10 God's Army rebels, Akapol Sorasuchart, the government spokesman, said yesterday.
Jose da Costa Soarez, ambassador of Portugal, which holds the rotating EU presidency, was commenting on the deaths in the Ratchaburi hospital siege in a personal capacity, said Mr Akapol.
The spokesman said the Foreign Ministry had contacted the ambassador, who had said a report of his comments on the Jan 24-25 siege was inaccurate.
While Mr Soarez had been quoted correctly, he was expressing a personal opinion and not that of the EU. The envoy had said the killings warranted a formal investigation to clear doubts that could be damaging to Thailand.
Mr Soarez reiterated, however, that an inquiry would help clear up lingering suspicion of foul play.
"Doubts about the legality [of the ending of the siege] are harmful to the good name of Thailand," Mr Soarez told AFP. "If they [the Thais] believe that there are the rumours, the rumours should be clarified by an inquiry."The spokesman said the ministry had been reporting developments to Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, who was concerned about the issue.
Mr Akapol said the foreign media sometimes based its coverage on local press reports. The government had repeatedly said the report of a rebel being tied and shot in the head was incorrect. "The government would like to repeat once again that the operation at the hospital was based on a decision-making process and principles of suppression against terrorism practised worldwide," he said. "The action did not go beyond the standards of security but with concern for the safety of the hostages and the commandos.
"Security procedures went on after the operation including the autopsy and search for weapons for fear that there might be bombs placed under the bodies," the spokesman said.
To make the matter clear, the prime minister asked the ministry, the police and the military to explain the operation in detail to the local and foreign media.
Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said: "We have explained repeatedly what happened and presented all the information. I am confident that this won't have any affect on relations with the European Union."At the Supreme Command, Maj-Gen Banchorn Chavalsilp, deputy director of the Directorate of Civil Affairs, said the commandos acted within the law.
The rebels included three former Burmese students and the rest members of God's Army, the Karen splinter faction, he said.
Maj-Gen Banchorn denied Thai gunners had shelled Karen positions. Any shelling was intended to push from Thai soil armed Karen intruders. Instead, he said, four Thai troops had been killed and 10 wounded in land mine explosions while safeguarding the border in Suan Phueng district, Ratchaburi, he added.
Bangkok Post - Feb 9, 2000.
Inbrief
Shelling alert
Mae Hong Son-Local people and Karen refugees have
been warned not to travel closer to the border to avoid being hit by stray
shells. Governor Pote Uthana of Mae Hong Son issued the warning amid reports that
Burma has reinforced its troops opposite Nam Pieng Din pass in tambon Papong,
Muang district. More Thai troops have been deployed along the border, and sources said local
Burmese authorities have asked the Thai military to release six Burmese soldiers
captured after they crossed Nam Pieng Din pass last week, ostensibly to secure
food supplies. Phuket-Immigration police yesterday rounded up
102 Mon and Karen people alleged to have entered the island resort
illegally. Pol Maj-Gen Thepparat Rattanavanich, the immigration assistant chief, said
the arrest was part of crackdowns against illegal aliens suspected of helping
supply food and weapons to minority rebels fighting Burmese troops. Some of the aliens arrested used to be soldiers, he said.Illegals rounded up
Chiang
Rai Anti-narcotics agencies from Thailand, Laos and
Burma met yesterday in a four-day meeting here to discuss joint programmes in
their fight against narcotics trafficking along their common border. About 50 representatives from the three countries attended the first day of
the meeting at a Chiang Rai hotel. Sorasit Sangprasit, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control
Board, said the three countries agreed to jointly suppress illicit drugs in the
so-called Golden Triangle. Opium, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine have reportedly been rampantly
traded along the border. Sources said Pol Lt-Col Myo Tun, deputy chief of Burma's narcotics control
office and Pol Col Inkham Inthamalee, deputy secretary-general of Laos'
narcotics control agency represented their countries at the meeting. Other participants included Brian Duncan, adviser to the UN International
Drug Control Programme, Chiang Rai Governor Samroeng Bunyoprakorn and senior
provincial officials. Meanwhile, PM's Office Minister Jurin Laksanavisit arranged a Feb 12 meeting
with chemical firms based in the North to work out measures to control the
smuggling of precursor chemicals. Sources said a large quantity of chemicals had been smuggled from Thailand to
feed narcotics producing factories along the Thai-Burmese border. Last year, 18
tonnes of precursor chemicals were seized in northern border areas alone. The
chemicals could be used to produce as many as 360 million metham-phetamine
tablets. Temsak
Traisophon The smuggling of drugs from Burma has intensified
despite serious suppression efforts, according to reports from the Interior
Ministry and the Royal Thai Police Office. An Interior Ministry source said the reports spoke of mounting drug problems
despite rigorous efforts to fight the scourge. According to the police report, methamphetamines smuggled in from abroad,
especially Burma, remained a major problem. As demand for drugs remained high, drug trade networks have increased in
number and shifted to using more complicated production and smuggling methods,
thereby penetrating the market with new formula drugs. The report by the office of the interior permanent secretary said drug
production in Burma was increasing and the narcotics were being smuggled into
Thailand via many routes including those along the border with Laos. Meanwhile, the production of amphetamines in Bangkok and provinces has
continued unabated. BBC-Tuesday, 8 February, 2000,
16:46 GMT
Crackdown fails to halt inflow of
drugs
Refugees smuggled to
Pakistan
By Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta
A report commissioned by the United Nation's special rapporteur on women
says large-scale trafficking of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Pakistan
has taken place over the past decade.
Images Asia, a non-governmental
organisation based in Thailand, says that at least 200,000 Rohingyas are in
Pakistan now, most of whom migrated illegally from Bangladesh in the 1990s.
The report has found that Rohingya women are working in brothels in the
southern Pakistani province of Sindh.
Thousands of Rohingyas have
crossed into Bangladesh from neighbouring Burma over the past decade, fleeing
what they say is persecution by the Burmese authorities.
But the report
says that desperate conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh and the fear of
being repatriated to Burma have forced many Rohingyas to make the difficult
journey to Pakistan.
Debts
The chief researcher of the
report, Chris Lewa, told the BBC many Rohingyas travelled to the coastal
province of Sindh because they found jobs easily in the fishing industry.
But Ms Lewa added that often refugees have to pay back enormous amounts
of money to the touts who arrange the journey to Pakistan, binding many into a
cycle of debt.
The report says that as a result, many Rohingyas are
forced to take up prostitution and some women have also been sold to local
feudal landlords as concubines.
The report also points out that Rohingya
prostitutes are extremely likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases
because they have little knowledge of contraception and are fearful of
contacting local health authorities for fear of being caught by the police.