Burma Related News-May 9, 2000.

The Nation - May 9, 2000.

Drug suspects in Burma team anger officials

SENIOR government officials and several foreign delegates to the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Chiang Mai said yesterday they were "shocked" to learn that at least two major Burmese drug suspects were included in the Burmese delegation to the international gathering.

Thai officials from at least three government agencies said they had not been aware of the entry into Thailand of U Aik Htun, vice chairman of the Asia Wealth Bank, and U Kyaw Win, chairman of the Myanmar May Flower Bank.

But Thai assistants at the official registration desk at the Westin Riverside Hotel, the ADB meeting venue, confirmed that the two had arrived and collected their name badges.

Both Aik Htun, an ethnic Shan, and Kyaw Win, an ethnic Chinese, are on a watchlist of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, a well-informed Western source said.

Asia Wealth Bank belongs to the Asia World Company, a conglomerate set up in 1992 by Lo Hsing-han, a well-known opium kingpin in the early 1970s and the predecessor of Khun Sa.

According to a 1998 report in the monthly Jane's Intelligence Review, Kyaw Win's business success is linked to his association with a powerful Thai logging tycoon whose timber business has "attracted the attention of Western narcotics-intelligence officials".

In 1989 Kyaw Win and the Thai businessman cooperated in a logging venture in a border area controlled by Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army. The success of the timber venture necessitated an understanding between Khun Sa, Kyaw Win and the Thai tycoon, the report added.

The three men were also said to be well connected to the then Burmese Eastern Region Commander Lt-General Maung Aye, who is now the army chief and a leading Burmese junta leader.

When contacted yesterday by The Nation to comment on the presence of the two Burmese drug suspects as "guests" of the ADB at the Chiang Mai meeting, an official of the ADB said "No comment."

Some ADB participants said they were "very shocked" to learn of the presence of the two drug suspects at their meeting. The ADB usually extends invitations to private bankers from its 58 member countries to attend the annual gathering.

The three-day ADB meeting, which ended yesterday, was attended by some 3,000 government finance ministers, senior officials, bankers and representatives from international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

It is not yet known whom the two Burmese met during their stay in Chiang Mai. Thai officials said they were not aware of the background of the two and that the Thai government had not been involved in arranging the guest lists.

"It [the invitation] was the ADB's matter. But we [Thailand] will now make sure that they will not be let into the country again," said one senior official.

The participation of Aik Htun and Kyaw Win at the ADB meeting provoked outrage from several political activists on Burma affairs. "It is outrageous that the ADB would see fit to invite persons so closely associated with drug trafficking in Burma," said one activist.

"One wonders how the ADB will benefit from being associated with traffickers. One hopes it is not connected with the ADB's capital-replenishment plan," he added.

One Western official with a United Nations agency said it was not only a matter of Aik Htun and Kyaw Win being drug suspects, but "their banks are part of the entrepreneurs involved in drug activities and money laundering".

The Nation

WIRE:05/09/2000 05:18:00 ET
Vietnam's premier in Thailand, to visit Ho's house

BANGKOK, May 9 (Reuters) - Vietnam's prime minister Phan Van Khai began a visit to Thailand on Tuesday, which will include a pilgrimage to a remote village where his country's revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh took refuge from the colonial French.
He is the third Vietnamese premier to make an official visit to Thailand since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1976, after the end of the Vietnam War.

He was due to hold talks with Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai later on Tuesday.

The two countries, both members of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), are set to sign agreements on visa exemptions for tourists and on sports cooperation as well as a memorandum of understanding on expanding trade and investment cooperation, a Thai government statement said.

Khai is scheduled to have an audience with Thai constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej at his summer palace on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he is scheduled to visit the village of Ban Najoke in the rural northeast where communist Vietnam's founding father Ho took refuge during his battle for independence, which was eventually achieved in 1954.

He travels on to military-ruled Myanmar on Friday.

Khai's Thai trip will coincide with a working visit by Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Wahid will travel to Hua Hin on Tuesday for an audience with King Bhumibol then back to Bangkok to meet Chuan on Wednesday.

The Star-Tuesday, May 9, 2000
Bernas beats rice firms to Myanmar deal
By Loong Meng Yee

YANGON: Padibernas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) has beaten rice companies from several other countries to win the role of helping Myanmar modernise its rice industry.

Bernas's recent RM3.8mil capital goods-for-food deal with Myanmar marked the entry of locally-manufactured machinery into the rice industry there.

With the signing of the agreement in Yangon on April 2, Malaysia would see, for the first time, the locally-manufactured rice milling machinery, wet polishers, semi-autopackers and spare parts being used by Myanmar to improve its rice for export to the international market.

It took Bernas almost a year to seal the deal. Bernas is committed to executing the agreement because it wants to push Malaysian-made machinery overseas.

The agreement also saw Myanmar as a potential international trader in rice. The country needed support in terms of better machinery to upgrade its rice mills and reprocessing plants, which Malaysia could provide.

A Bernas officer said rice companies from other countries even tried to cut into the deal during the year-long negotiation.

"However, Myanmar decided on Bernas despite the cheaper offers from other countries because they sensed our commitment.

"Once Bernas signed a deal, we wanted to see it through. It was not just about money. Myanmar is an economy in transition, one needs to be sincere and have the will to stay,'' said the Bernas officer at the recent signing here with Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading (MAPT).

In return for the capital goods, the MAPT would supply rice, onions, garlic, spice, oil seeds, pulses, beans and other food items to Bernas.

Bernas group managing director Mohd Ibrahim Mohd Nor signed the agreement with MAPT managing director Ming Hla Aung.

Present to witness the signing were Myanmar Commerce Minister Brig-Gen Pyi Sozie and Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz.

In his speech, Brig-Gen Pyi urged greater trade relations between Asean countries for mutual benefit.

"The relationship between Myanmar and Malaysia has been characterised by close friendship, mutual goodwill and co-operation in every possible areas throughout the years. We established diplomatic relations in March 1958,'' he said.

Pyi added that Myanmar was even prepared to accommodate Malaysia's request for more cattle and urged the latter to consider taking rice from it.

The Nation - May 9, 2000.

Laos seeks to host Asean, EU meeting

THAILAND supports Laos' bid to host the October Asean-EU Ministerial Meeting (AEMM), which has been suspended since 1997 over the question of Burmese participation.

Laotian Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad raised the issue during last week's meeting with Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan in Vientiane.

Thailand, the coordinator for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union, supports Laos' proposal and is willing to share its experience in hosting such meetings, Surin said.

Laos, an association member since 1997, informed the Asean Standing Committee of its intention last week, and the proposal was generally supported by member countries, said director-general of the Asean Affairs Department Pradap Pibulsonggram, adding thatthe association needed to consult the 15 EU members.

Senior officials from the groups will meet next month in Lisbon to discuss their future cooperation programme and sound out Vientiane's bid to host the AEMM.

If successful, Laos will assume Thailand's role as Asean-EU coordinator after its three-year term expires in July, during the annual Asean foreign ministers' meeting in Bangkok.

Laos and Asean newcomer Cambodia will sign 1980's joint cooperation agreement with the EU at the July meeting, enabling them to share the same benefits as other members in Asean-EU cooperation programmes.

However, the July 28 signing will exclude Burma because of strong objection from the EU, which first wants to see progress in the country's political reform and human rights.

Earlier reports said the meeting would be held back to back with the third Asia-Europe Meeting in Seoul, but the AEMM cannot be held in a non-member country, a senior Asean official said.

BY SA-NGUAN KHUMRONGROJ

The Nation

Tuesday, May 9 2:10 PM SGT

Myanmar rebels show video of battle with government troops

Rebels in Myanmar have smuggled video footage of a fierce battle with government troops across the border with Thailand.

The dramatic footage shows the destruction of a village in Kayah State.

The clash is said to have taken place last February between troops and rebels of the Karenni National Progressive Party.

The rebels said they captured a number of soldiers during the fighting and claim to have executed them not long after these images were filmed.

The KNPP say twenty homes were burnt down in the clash.

A mobile medical unit operating with the rebels came upon the action and filmed what happened.

However due to the remoteness of the location, the pictures have only just been obtained.

Members of the group have been battling Yangon for greater autonomy since Myanmar won its independence from Britain.

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Tuesday, May 9 6:34 PM SGT

Vietnam's PM Begins Three-Nation Tour In Thailand

BANGKOK (AP)--Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai arrived in Bangkok Tuesday for talks with Thai Premier Chuan Leekpai, on the first leg of a three-nation tour that will also take in Myanmar and Laos.

The three-day visit to Thailand will give Khai the chance to beat the drum for investment in Vietnam, hit badly by the Asian economic crisis, when he meets with Thai businessmen and bankers and addresses an investment seminar.

Khai was greeted at Bangkok's Royal Thai Air Force Base by Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan and Deputy Prime Minister Bhichai Rattakul.

The two prime ministers are set to meet later Tuesday and witness signing of visa exemption and sports cooperation agreements.

The exemption accord, hoped to boost tourism, is similar to one Vietnam already has with the Philippines. It will allow citizens to travel for a month in the other country without a visa.

Signing has been delayed because of Thai concerns that Vietnamese visitors may overstay. Thailand has asked Vietnam stringently check their nationals before letting them travel, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported Wednesday.

Vietnam, still one of Asia's poorest nations, has been steadily building regional ties since it was admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1995.

Visting Thailand, Myanmar, Laos

This is Khai's first official visit to Thailand, Myanmar and Laos - all ASEAN members - since taking office in 1997.

Thailand was on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War, and in its aftermath was viewed as a bastion facing the bamboo curtain of communist Indochina.

But in a sign that Cold War animosity has been buried, Khai will on Thursday travel to the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom, 380 miles northeast of Bangkok, to visit a village where modern Vietnam's founder Ho Chi Minh once sought sanctuary.

Ho sheltered at Na Jok village in the province 70 years ago, during Vietnam's struggle for independence from France. A small museum has been set up where he used to live.

Khai, visiting Thailand just three days after the funeral in Hanoi of longtime Vietnamese premier Pham Van Dong, will also meet with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej and tour a royal-sponsored agricultural project in northern Chiang Mai province on Thursday.

The Vietnamese premier will fly directly to Yangon on Friday for a three-day visit, including talks with Myanmar leaders including chairman of the ruling military council Gen. Than Shwe, who is also prime minister. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

Khai departs next Monday for Laos, Vietnam's communist neighbor, where he will meet with Laotian Prime Minister Sisavat Keobounphanh. Khai returns to Vietnam next Wednesday.

Tuesday, May 9 4:32 PM SGT

China naval strength major concern for East Asia: defense analyst

SINGAPORE, May 9 (AFP) -

China's "increasing obsession" with Taiwan is leading to an increase in its naval capabilities and this overshadows all other regional security concerns, a senior defense analyst said.

"China's increasing obsession over Taiwan is casting a growing shadow over the whole of East Asia," said Captain Richard Sharpe in his foreword to defense journal Jane's forthcoming publication of Jane's Fighting Ships

He noted the "harder edge" of China's threats against Taiwan in the run-up to its presidential elections in March, "effectively threatening America with "extreme long-range strikes" should it seek to intervene to defend Taiwan from an attack by the mainland."

His foreword was made available Tuesday by Jane's.

There was little reason to doubt China's ability to carry out an amphibious invasion of Taiwan or assert its naval superiority by blocking Taiwan's ports, he said.

"Neither action would be possible in the event of the US becoming militarily involved, but those who still question China's naval capability should take a hard look," at its four different submarine building programs and massive inventory of surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles of all types, he said.

There was also China's growing amphibious lift capability and its large stocks of intelligent mines, Sharpe added.

China's capacity to transport by sea is now assessed at 11,000 troops and 250 main battle tanks.

"This is increasing each year and in the narrow Straits of Taiwan the turnaround time for amphibious ships and craft would be very short," he said, adding that, "anti-submarine warfare would quickly become a major priority for Taiwan."

Another area where China would continue to exert its maritime military influence was in a dispute with five other nations claiming the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

"Further enforcement of Chinese claims seems inevitable in the future," he said, noting China has developed seven permanent military outposts on the islands, which are also claimed, at least in part, by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The last major row was in 1988 when China sank three Vietnamese vessels.

A regional security forum under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) offered opportunities for cooperation in defense, he said.

"But even if the political will and leadership existed, the ethnic crisis in East Timor revealed the inability of Southeast Asia's armed forces rapidly to deploy and command a multinational force, even for peacekeeping," Sharpe said.

The Australian military led the peacekeeping effort in East Timor that followed last year's violence in the wake of the territory's vote for independence.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sunday, 7 May, 2000

Nihon Keizai Newspaper

More foreign workers leave the country

Japanese big companies react to worsened economy

(6, May, Yangon, Uehara Masashi)

Japanese big companies including Toyota Cars, Ajinomoto, and All Nippon Airlines will withdraw their Japanese employees from Myanmar. It is due to domestic economic depression and unclear policy administrations by the military regime. Myanmarese economy is worsening under the influences of American economic sanction and the Asian currency crisis. There are more than seventy Japanese companies and four hundred Japanese workers including their families in Myanmar at the moment. Reduction of these companies?f activities may affect the investment conditions in Myanmar.

In mid-May Toyota will withdraw Japanese workers, who have been working in the branch office opened in January 1998, and continue their business by sending them to Myanmar on short term basis. The company will not close its branch but maintain it with local stuff. This measure will be taken because their imports have not been permitted despite that they already have a license to import. On the other hand, special imports through the government offices?f import allocation, has been increasing. Toyota holds nearly seventy percent of the country?fs car shares. Maintenance on used cars and supplies of parts will be continued with the assistance of Toyota Trading Company.

Ajinomoto had to stop operating its factory for packing glutamic acid soda (traded with the name, ?eAjinomoto?f) last August. Since resumption is unlikely, it will soon withdraw its one and only Japanese employee. It will not disown its position as a corporate body and will leave its factory as it is. The company commenced production in February 1998 with the formal permission from the government. The Ministry of Health?fs campaign to address bad influences of ?eAjinomoto?f on health followed soon after, and the materials for production could not pass customs.

All Nippon Airlines discontinued direct flights between Osaka and Yangon in the end of March. The number of stuff in its Yangon branch will be reduced to a quarter and all the Japanese employees will return to Japan. The company had started the direct flights in July 1997, expecting the expansion of Japanese business in Myanmar and the increase of the Japanese tourists, but came to face an accumulated deficit of two billion yen. It will retain business only with local stuff for a while.

Foreign investment in Myanmar peaked in 1996 but has been declining since then because of continuing American economic sanction, American human rights groups?f boycott against goods produced by foreign companies in Myanmar, and the sharp decrease in investment from neighbouring countries after the Asian currency crisis.