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Reuters- Myanmar attacks Thai
attitude to drugs problem Asia Gateway-Rally to Denounce Democracy Party Reportedly by Authorities Bkk Post - Wa and Shan poised for battle The Nation - Opinion-Canada's Wal-Mart deals with Burmese drug lord The Nation - Letters - No Burmese connection would be just fine WIRE:07/11/2000 06:54:00
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Myanmar attacks Thai attitude to drugs problem YANGON, July 11 (Reuters) - A state-run Myanmar newspaper on Tuesday said Thailand was worsening its own drugs problem by harbouring insurgents and should work together with Myanmar to combat the problem rather than trading accusations. A commentary in the Myanma Alin newspaper said Thailand was harbouring rebel groups which financed their activities by drug trafficking. Official papers in Myanmar are seen as official mouthpieces of the military government. "Don"t accept the insurgents from other countries, who are pretending to be "freedom fighters" or "democracy activists"," the newspaper said. "You will have to experience various troubles as long as you consider them refugees or friends." The Thai army said last month that drug production and trafficking from Myanmar was increasing rapidly and posed a serious threat to Thailand and other countries in the region. Speaking on a tour of Thailand"s Golden Triangle region, on the borders of Myanmar and Laos, Thai military officials said the mass relocation of ethnic minorities within Myanmar over the last year had fuelled a massive increase in drugs production. Myanmar is the world"s second largest producer of opium and its derivative heroin, as well as a major source of amphetamines. It says it it is tackling the problem. "Narcotic drug problems have now become such a common issue that we need to solve them by co-operating in good faith," the paper said, telling Thailand not to "echo the malicious accusations of the colonialists." Asia Gateway Rally to Denounce Democracy Party Reportedly by Authorities July 13, 2000 Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 8th July Dear listeners. It has been learned that Maj-Gen Sit Maung [commander of Coastal Region Command and chairman of Tenasserim Division Peace and Development Council] arrived in Kawthaung in Tenasserim Division on 4th July and held talks on matters relating to the dissolution of the NLD [National League for Democracy], prevention of subversive activities, and prevention of drug abuse control and illicit trafficking. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] correspondent Myint Maung Maung filed this report. [Myint Maung Maung] The meeting was held at 1300 [local time] on 4th July. At the meeting, Maj-Gen Sit Maung gave detailed instructions to acquire obligatory service from private coastal passenger vessels and road transport enterprise vehicles to transport villagers from along the coast and villages respectively so that the attendance at the rally to be held in Kawthaung to denounce the NLD would exceed the target of over 10,000 people. He also urged regional security officials to coordinate and work closely with ward administrative personnel and Kyant Phut [derogatory term for Union Solidarity and Development Association] members and form watchdog groups to monitor monasteries, schools and Kawthaung-Ranong [Thailand] border crossings in order to prevent anti-government subversive activities in Kawthaung District. Furthermore, illicit drug trafficking activities have been rising in Tenessarim Division since late 1999 in inland border areas as well as offshore. Up to June this year in Kawthaung Township the police have arrested people involved in 11 drug-related cases; the army, three cases; the navy, one case; and seven cases were by tip-offs from locals. At the meeting, Maj-Gen Sit Maung reportedly said the increase rather than decrease in drug trafficking shows lack of responsibility on the part of responsible personnel. The Rangoon Post Bangkok Post - July 13, 2000. BORDER Wa and Shan poised for battle Task force secures strategic position in anticipation of fight Troops of the Pha Muang task force are securing Doi Thuay mountain, on the border of Chiang Dao district, Chiang Mai, where a fight is impending between two Burmese ethnic groups, the United Wa State Army and the Shan State Army. Sources from the task force said ethnic troops reinforcing theirpositions have intruded intoThailand as they move along a winding trail that cuts back and forthacross the border on Doi Thuayridge. "The trail has been used by the UWSA, the SSA and Thai people seeking forest products. It also serves drug smugglers. However, Pha Muang troops have secured the area," a source said. The UWSA and the SSA previously used the BP1 road, linking with Ban Kew Pha Wok border pass in Chiang Dao district, to demarcate their respective territories. However, UWSA troops have moved into the SSA's area south of the road lately, claiming the Burmese government ordered them to upgrade a border road in the SSA's area. The Shan army objected. The SSA, which separated from Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, has about 2,000 soldiers, the sources said. The UWSA is stronger and is sending soldiers into Shan territory from an area opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district.The Wa troops are heading to Ho Mong, the former strongholdof former drug kingpin Khun Sa, opposite Muang district of Mae Hong Son province. Another source said the attempted theft of about 20,000 M-16rifle rounds destined for anti-Rangoon rebels from the Police Ordnance Division late last month signalled preparations for an imminent clash between the UWSA and theSSA. The Doi Thuay mountain was a battlefield of the UWSA andthe MTA years ago as the twofought to expand influenceand a route to smuggle drugs into Thailand. The Nation - July 13,
2000.
Opinion-Canada's Wal-Mart deals with
Burmese drug lord
THE Canadian arm of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, has been caught
out buying clothes from a garment factory owned by infamous Burmese drug
trafficker Lo Hsing-han.
A report by the US National Labour Committee released late last month said
Wal-Mart Canada received a shipment of garments last December from Ever Green
(Myanmar) Overseas Co Ltd, a company owned by Lo Hsing-han's Asia World Company,
in spite of an official policy of not sourcing clothes from Burma.
The consignment was just one of at least six from Burma that the retailer
took delivery of between June 1999 and the end of the year. Canadian Department
of Industry statistics show Wal-Mart Canada to have been one of that country's
three biggest importers of Burma-made garments, which are now the cash-strapped
Asian nation's biggest and fastest growing legal export.
That Wal-Mart, a company so prudish it refuses to stock emergency
contraceptive pills or sell CDs containing lyrics or artwork it considers
"objectional", has dealt with a drug trafficker might come as a surprise.
But Phil Robertson, the Thailand country director of the Solidarity Centre,
an American NGO concerned with labour issues, was less than amazed to learn the
superstore chain was sourcing from Burma.
"Perhaps it's not surprising that a company with one of the worst labour
relations records in North America is sourcing garments from a
military-controlled country with one of the worst labour rights records in the
world," he said, noting Wal-Mart's aggressive anti-union stance in America and
the prohibition of organised labour in Burma.
NLC Director Charles Kernaghan said: "The sweatshops in Burma used by many
American apparel makers are joint ventures with companies owned by the
repressive military regime. They pay some of the lowest wages we've seen
anywhere in the world."
An Economist Intelligence Unit report in July 1998 claimed: "Myanmar's
(Burma's) textile workers earn some of the world's lowest wages: US$8 per month
(for 45-hour workweeks), or about four US cents per hour."
US garment imports from the pariah state are expected to top US$340 million
this year and buyers have included leading retailing and fashion labels: Adidas,
Bugle Boy, Jordache and Nautica.
"This just goes to show the dark side of globalisation where multinationals
source from the cheapest producer available, no matter how horrible the working
conditions or how repressive the country that the factory is located in,"
claimed Robertson.
Sixty-six year-old Lo Hsing-han was born in opium-rich Kokang district in
northern Shan State, Burma. He now controls the country's largest business
conglomerate, Asia World Company, and serves as an advisor on ethnic affairs to
the junta with whom he maintains close relations.
Lo started out as an opium-trafficking insurgent in the 1950s. In 1963 he
switched sides and led a Rangoon-sanctioned Ka Kwe Ye militia with 2,000
soldiers that financed itself by running drugs to Thailand and Laos. In 1972, US
senior narcotics advisor Nelson Gross described him as an "international bandit
and responsible for a growing proportion of Asia's and America's drug-caused
miseries".
In 1973, under international political pressure to improve its drug
interdiction record, Rangoon disbanded the Ka Kwe Ye militias. Lo Hsing-han
jumped sides again, forming an alliance with the anti-government Shan State
Army. But in July of that year, Thai authorities arrested and deported him to
Burma where he was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment for "rebellion
against the state".
Lo was released under an amnesty in 1980 and his much diminished army,
stranded opposite the Thai border village of Mae Aw, was permitted back, allowed
to keep its guns and to set up a new camp called Salween village, 25 kilometres
south-east of Lashio city, Shan State. Lo was back in business.
When the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) imploded in March 1989, Lo
Hsing-han played a key role in cease-fire negotiations between Kokang-based
mutineers and Rangoon. The same year he registered his first company, Kokang
Export/Import Company Ltd. Other shareholders were former CPB personnel. More
companies were registered later including the flagship, Asia World Co Ltd in
1992, managed by his son, Steven Law (aka Htun Myint Naing). Among other assets,
it runs two garment factories, Ever Green and Charles Micheal. Lo claims he is
no longer in the narcotics business. "I don't care whether the whole world says
I'm the King of the Golden Triangle. I challenge anyone to prove it. If they
can, I'll give them a reward of at least US$5,000," he was quoted in a Newsweek
article two years ago. Others are not convinced.
"We're very suspicious of him," said a Rangoon-based diplomat. So much so
that in 1996 Steven Law was refused a visa to the United States on suspicion of
drug trafficking.
There are questions surrounding Lo's "legitimate" business interests. Asia
World Company operates a plastic bag factory in Rangoon for which it imports the
solvent acetic anhydride, also used to refine opium into heroin.
"It's impossible that they could be making plastic bags cheaper than they
could import them (for)," claimed a diplomat formerly based in Rangoon.
Sources in Lashio also confirmed recently that Lo Hsing-han's private army
at Salween village was still operational with at least 500 troops. "Why does a
legitimate businessman need a militia and a liberated zone?" asked an
incredulous anti-narcotics official.
BY BRUCE HAWKE
...........................................................
Freelance journalist BRUCE HAWKE has been covering illicit drug
trafficking in the Golden Triangle.
The Nation - July 13,
2000.
Letters - No Burmese connection would be
just fine
WEERAYUT Chokchaimadon seems to be very concerned about how the political parties will respond to foreign affairs after the election ("Let political parties be plain about their foreign policy", The Nation, July 10). What I noticed was that he is contradicting himself. First he goes on to
tell us about how we are inundated with drugs and then he says: "How would the
next government respond if Burma closed its borders and waters without any
regard to the damage caused to Thai business?"
For the Thais to live happily, and of course in peace, what we need is no
connections with Burma. They have hurt us enough already and if they close the
borders, it will be very good for us. That is because we are not doing anything
to them and in future if anyone is to blame, it will be the Burmese and not us
because they are the ones taking the action and not us.
Weerayut, I'm really sorry for being impolite, but don't you think we have
done a lot for other nations already? And the next government should do
something for our benefit, that is for the benefit of Thailand, rather spending
more of their time on foreign affairs. Please get a night's sleep and think
about it once again, you may want to change your mind.
Shveta Kukrejavia |