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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - January - 08, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Thailand Makes Huge Drugs
Seizure in Andaman Sea
Reuters - Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy
over dam row
AFP - Bangladesh-Myanmar border troops
exchange fire
AFP - UN envoy to Myanmar holds second
meeting with Suu Kyi
AFP - Indian PM woos Vietnam with nuclear,
IT cooperation
AP - Thailand Nets $23.25M Drug
Haul
The
International Herald Tribune - Bangladesh and Burma Feud
The Dawn - Tension on BD-Myanmar border
BBC - UN envoy meets Burma opposition
leader
The Nation - Three arrested over drug
haul
Bkk Post - Army asks KNU to help catch
guerrillas
Monday January 8 4:33 AM ET
Thailand Makes Huge Drugs Seizure in Andaman Sea BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand
said on Monday it made its biggest drugs seizure for several years when
officials boarded two fishing boats in the Andaman Sea and found heroin and
methamphetamine worth over one billion baht ($23.3 million).
One of the Thai boats was carrying 100 kg (220 pounds) of heroin and more
than four million tablets of methamphetamine, known in its crystaline form as
``Ice,'' Thai officials said.
``The boat was carrying the drug from a neighboring country and was on the
way to Singapore,'' Jurin Laksanavisit, a minister overseeing drug suppression
efforts, told a news conference at a navy base in southern Thailand.
Jurin did not say from which ``neighboring country'' the drugs had come,
but a Thai navy statement said the crew, four Thais and 22 Myanmar nationals,
were arrested on Sunday near the Surin group of islands along the Thai-Myanmar
maritime border.
Thailand, once notorious for being one of the world's largest suppliers of
heroin, now faces a serious problem with methamphetamine.
The government has said the methamphetamine problem is so serious that it
threatens national security.
The Thai authorities said the seizure confirmed their assumption that drug
producers in the Golden Triangle region, the hilly area where Thailand, Laos and
Myanmar meet, have begun to transport their products by sea.
``This arrest confirms our theory that they have changed their
transportation route from land to sea,'' Jurin told reporters.
Bangkok has repeatedly blamed ethnic minority militia groups in Myanmar for
producing methamphetamine with the support of the military government in Yangon.
The groups have long been blamed for producing most of the region's
heroin.
The accusation is supported by international drugs agencies, which monitor
trafficking in the region.
Yangon's ruling generals deny the charge, saying they are actively fighting
drugs production and smuggling.
The government in Myanmar, the world's second largest producer of opium and
its derivative heroin, has urged its Asian neighbors to help it fight the drugs
trade.
It has also urged Thailand to stop using drugs as a political weapon, and
accused Thai newspapers of frustrating some of its anti-drugs efforts.
WIRE
Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy over dam row DHAKA, Jan 8 (Reuters) -
Bangladesh has summoned Myanmar"s ambassador to convey to him concern about a
Myanmar plan to build a dam on the Naf river, which forms part of the two
countries" common border, a government official said on Monday. A senior
Bangladeshi official said despite the tension over the dam plan, he hoped the
dispute could be settled peacefully and would not damage ties.
"We are aware of the tense situation along the border, but I hope it will
be resolved peacefully through bilateral discussion and not hamper diplomatic
relations," State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Abul Hasan Chowdhury, told
Reuters. Myanmar Ambassador Tint Lwin was summoned to the foreign ministry to
hear Bangladesh"s concerns about the dam, said another senior foreign ministry
official who declined to be identified.
Myanmar began building the dam on Tuesday at Totardia, some 100 km (62
miles) southeast of the Bangladesh town of Cox"s Bazar, said Lieutenant-Colonel
Rafiqur Rahman, an officer with Bangladesh"s paramilitary border force, the
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). "The dam, if built, might flood or cause erosion in our
territory and damage valuable shrimp cultivation projects," he told Reuters in
Cox"s Bazar on Sunday.
Rahman said the two sides had discussed the issue on Sunday but Myanmar
authorities were determined to go ahead with the project. Another paramilitary
officer said on Monday construction of the dam would violate a 1962 agreement
between Dhaka and Yangon not to build any dams to obstruct or divert the flow of
the Naf. Authorities in Myanmar could not immediately be reached for comment.
BANGLADESH "WILL RESIST"
A BDR officer in Dhaka said on Monday said the dam plan would be resisted.
"We will resist the building of the dam on the Naf river. We cannot allow this
to go ahead," said the officer who asked not to be named. He said more than
1,000 BDR soldiers were deployed along the Naf river border where they were
facing some 2,000 Myanmar troops.
"We are keeping a close watch and will act as may be necessary," the
officer said. There are usually just a few hundred soldiers stationed on both
sides of the border at the Naf river, security officials said. The BDR has
nearly 40,000 soldiers. The two countries" border forces fought a brief battle
in 1967 over a similar attempt by Myanmar, then known as Burma, to build a dam
on the Naf.
Bangladesh and Myanmar share a 320 km-long (200 miles) common border.
Bangladesh government officials said Dhaka and Yangon have maintained sound
diplomatic relations in recent years despite an influx of Muslim refugees from
Myanmar in the 1990s and the smuggling of rice and other commodities along their
border.
Bangladesh, however, blames Myanmar for laying landmines along the border,
apparently aimed at Muslim separatist rebels. The mines have killed and maimed
many Bangladeshis who venture into border jungle to collect firewood.
Monday, January 8 7:48 PM SGT
Bangladesh-Myanmar border troops exchange fire CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Jan 8 (AFP) - Bangladeshi troops Monday exchanged
fire with Myanmar forces at a frontier position where both sides reinforced
troops after Yangon began construction of an illegal embankment on its side,
officials said.
"Yes, our guards had fired several warning shots to stop the construction
and in reply to one to two rounds fired from Myanmar's side," Bangladesh Rifles
(BDR) Colonel Mohammad Rafique Rahman told AFP, adding the Myanmar side appeared
to have suspended the work after the exchange of fire.
But he said tension on both sides of the frontier area in southeastern
Bangladesh remained high.
Rahman confirmed that his BDR troops fired up to 25 warning shots at about
12:15 pm (06:15 GMT) from a frontier post near the border town of Teknaf,
opposite Myanmar's Tutardip area across the narrow Naaf river that divides the
two countries. It was in response to earlier shots by Myanmar forces, he
said.
Monday's shooting followed official confirmation that Bangladesh had
reinforced its troops along the border after Myanmar reportedly constructed an
illegal embankment on its side of the Naaf river, officials said.
Chittagong BDR official Major Shafi earlier said border troops fired 20 to
25 shots to convey Bangladesh's protest at the construction and that the first
shots had been fired from across the border.
He said there had been a lull after the mid-day exchanges and that the BDR
had been put on continued alert in the area.
A senior BDR official in Dhaka earlier admitted there had been some troop
movement on the southeastern frontier in response to the Myanmar action, but
said the reinforcement was just part of a "routine alert."
The officer, who declined to be named, said Dhaka was looking into the
matter and would be seeking a diplomatic solution.
Newspapers here Monday reported that hundreds of troops had been mobilised
on both sides of the border as tensions rose after Myanmar allegedly built a
dyke across from Teknaf.
The BDR claimed the dam was in violation of a 1966 border river agreement
between the two countries.
According a report in the Ittefaq daily, some 100 Myanmar labourers, backed
by armed Nasaka frontier troops, completed a two-mile stretch (1.25 kilometers)
of a six mile, eight-foot high dyke.
Bangladesh said it had not been told about the construction.
Officials at Dhaka's Myanmar embassy were not available for comment.
Border skirmishes between the two neighbours are not uncommon as Myanmar
rebels from the separatist Rohingya Solidarity Organisation regularly seek
refuge in Bangladesh.
In November, however, Dhaka blamed Myanmar for the death of a 13-year old
Bangladeshi boy who was killed in a mine blast along the frontier.
Bangladesh accuses Yangon of planting hundreds of landmines along the
border, defying international law, under the pretext of curbing insurgency and
smuggling.
Monday, January 8 7:18 PM SGT
UN envoy to Myanmar holds second meeting with Suu Kyi YANGON, Jan 8 (AFP) - UN envoy
Razali Ismail Monday met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the second
time in three days, as he worked to achieve an historic dialogue between
Myanmar's junta and opposition.
Sources in Yangon said the Malaysian diplomat spent more than two hours
Monday with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has been under house
arrest since September 22. They also met at length on Saturday.
No details of the meeting were available, but it was expected to focus on
Razali's mission to achieve national reconciliation in Myanmar and break a
decade-long impasse between the two sides.
Also Monday he held a conference with the ambassadors of European Union
nations, as well as the head of the United States mission here.
Later he lunched with diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and the ambassadors of Japan, China and South Korea -- a
grouping known as ASEAN plus three.
On Sunday he took a rest day, playing golf at the exclusive Panhlaing golf
course across the Yangon river from the capital.
Any results from the trip are not likely to be known until Razali reports
to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who appointed him to the job in April.
Many observers believe that Razali's efforts in three visits to Myanmar
since then may be beginning to achieve some results.
But with the junta characteristically tight-lipped and the opposition
leader and several senior NLD members under house arrest since September, the
speculation cannot be confirmed.
Diplomatic sources say even if Razali doesn't manage a breakthrough, he may
at least kick-start a reconciliation process with enough momentum to develop
under its own steam.
They are cautiously optimistic the skilful and experienced diplomat, who
has seemingly won the confidence of both sides, may find success where envoys
before him failed.
Monday, January 8 10:41 PM SGT
Indian PM woos Vietnam with nuclear, IT cooperation HANOI, Jan 8 (AFP) - Indian
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee promised Vietnam increased assistance with
nuclear research and information technology Monday as he moved to enlist the
support of New Delhi's closest southeast Asian ally to boost its ties with the
region.
Promising to further extend India's technological cooperation programme in
Vietnam in the years to come, Vajpayee pledged an additional two million dollars
in Indian aid for IT training as well as equipment to build a new nuclear
science laboratory.
"India stands ready to share its expertise in information technology in
which it has come to be regarded as a world leader," he said as he announced the
new aid package.
India wanted to modernize the close relations forged by independence
leaders Ho Chi Minh and Jawaharlal Nehru so that they would "retain their
relevance in a globalising world and a technological age," Vajpayee said.
"A new dimension has been added to these relations and they have been given
a new relevance by our cooperation in fields of atomic energy, oil and
technology."
Earlier Vajpayee joined Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in
witnessing the signing of an agreement renewing New Delhi's nuclear cooperation
with Hanoi for a third year.
Vietnam maintains an aging US-built research reactor in the central
highland town of Dalat but wants to develop a nuclear energy programme by
2015.
Around 25 Vietnamese scientists have already received training at Indian
nuclear plants under the cooperation programme, the director for international
relations of the Indian atomic energy commission, A.K. Anand, said.
Vajpayee also held out the prospect of increased economic cooperation
saying that he was looking forward to witnessing a string of important deals at
an Indo-Vietnamese business forum Tuesday.
"Vietnam is moving fast in its economic reforms and presents many
attractive opportunities for Indian investors," he said.
The Indian prime minister berated the current level of bilateral trade,
which stood at just 200 million dollars last year, saying it was "totally
incommensurate with the potential."
"It is not difficult to reach a figure of 500 million or more," he said,
adding that India was considering bulk imports of crude oil, phosphates and
forestry products from Vietnam.
Vajpayee thanked Vietnamese leaders for their strong support for Indian
foreign policy objectives, particularly a permanent seat on the United Nations
Security Council.
He said he hoped Vietnam would also use its influence in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, in which it currently holds the rotating
presidency.
ASEAN launched a new joint forum with China, Japan and South Korea last
year. India remains however a "full dialogue partner," a situation New Delhi is
keen to change.
Vajpayee said New Delhi was already working to boost its relations with
ASEAN through the ASEAN Regional Forum as well as the Ganges-Mekong Linkage
Group, a six member grouping it launched with ASEAN members, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, in November.
"We would like to see these linkages flourish in the future in the
interests of our collective security and prosperity," he said.
Vajpayee's visit here caps a flurry of visits between the two countries
over the past year -- President Tran Duc Luong visited New Delhi last month
after visits here by Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh in November and
Defence Minister George Fernandes in March.
Vajpayee confirmed reports that New Delhi and Hanoi were holding joint
training in jungle warfare to improve the effectiveness of the Indian army in
combatting secessionist groups in the northeast but insisted that it was their
only area of military cooperation.
"This is an ongoing programme, part of miltary training that has been going
on since very long, and there is no other cooperation in the military field," he
said.
Vajpayee was due to hold talks with Defence Minister Pham Van Tra Tuesday
as well as Vietnam's top leader Le Kha Phieu.
He is due to travel on to another ASEAN country, Indonesia, Wednesday for
the first visit there by an Indian leader in 14 years.
Monday, January 8 6:38 PM SGT
Thailand Nets $23.25M Drug Haul BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Naval
officials raided two trawlers in the Andaman Sea and seized heroin and
amphetamine pills worth $23.25 million in one of the biggest drug hauls in
Thailand, officials said Monday.
Twenty-two Myanmar and two Thai crew members were arrested during the raid
Sunday off Surin Island 400 miles south of Bangkok, said navy spokesman Wiroj
Navejsuthiporn.
He said 220 pounds of high-grade heroin and 4 million amphetamine pills
were found stashed inside rice bins in the two Thai-registered boats. The figure
could rise when the trawlers are brought ashore and officials open 10 more bins,
Wiroj said.
``This is one of the biggest raids in recent years,'' he said.
Wiroj said the boats were coming from Myanmar toward Thailand, and were
intercepted after authorities received a tip-off.
Myanmar is the world's second-largest source of heroin after Afghanistan
and also has become a leading production center for amphetamines, a synthetic
stimulant. Most of the drugs are trafficked through China and Thailand to third
country destinations.
The International Herald Tribune
Bangladesh and Burma Feud Reuters, Monday, January 8, 2001 COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh Bangladesh and Burma have sent troop reinforcements
to a border region after talks failed to resolve a dispute over Burmese efforts
to build a dam near southeastern Bangladesh, Bangladeshi security officials said
Sunday.
. An officer in the Bangladeshi border force said: "They have deployed over 2,000 paramilitary troops on their side while we have posted some 1,000 along the border. We are also taking precautionary and defensive measures. The dam, if built, might flood or cause erosion in our territory and damage valuable shrimp cultivation projects." . The officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rafiqur Rahman, said Burma began building the dam on the Naaf River on Tuesday at Totardia, 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Cox's Bazaar. The two countries' border forces fought a brief battle in 1967 over a similar attempt at building a dam in the Naaf by Burma. The Dawn
Tension on BD-Myanmar border COX'S BAZAR, Jan 7: Bangladesh and Myanmar have sent troop reinforcements
to a tense border region as talks aimed at resolving a row over the construction
of a dam ended in failure, Bangladeshi security officials said on Sunday.
"They (Myanmar) have deployed over 2,000 paramilitary troops on their side
while we have posted some 1,000 along the border," said a Bangladeshi official.
"We are also taking precautionary and defensive measures," he added.
Usually a few hundred of soldiers are stationed on either side of the
border at the Naf river which divides the countries, other security officials
said.
"We are keeping watch at the development," said one border official, who
asked not to be named.
Rahman said Myanmar had rejected a Bangladeshi request not to build the
controversial dam on the Naf river near the resort town of Cox's Bazar.
The two countries' border forces fought a brief battle in 1967 over a
similar attempt at building a dam in the Naf by Myanmar.
"A protest lodged by Bangladesh over building the dam in the Naf river has
been defied by Myanmar," he said.
"The Myanmar side at the meeting said Yangon authorities were determined to
go ahead with the planned dam.
"We have requested for a higher level meeting between the two countries,"
he told Reuters without elaborating.
He added that Myanmar had begun building the dam on Tuesday at Totardia,
some 100kms southeast of Cox's Bazaar.
"The dam, if built, might flood or cause erosion in our territory and
damage valuable shrimp cultivation projects," he said.
The 320-km common border between the two countries has remained generally
peaceful since 1967, except for isolated incidents of cross-border shooting
involving Myanmar rebels who often take refuge in Bangladesh.
Government officials said Myanmar and Bangladesh maintained "sound
diplomatic relations" despite an influx of refugees from Myanmar and the
unabated smuggling of rice and other commodities.
Bangladesh, however, blames Myanmar for laying landmines along the border,
apparently aimed at Muslim separatist rebels.
The mines have killed and maimed many Bangladeshis who venture into the
jungle in no man's land to collect firewood.-Reuters
BBC - Monday, 8 January, 2001, 11:54
GMT
UN envoy meets Burma opposition leader The United Nations special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, has held a second
meeting with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house
arrest.
Mr Ismail -- who is trying to start a dialogue between the military rulers
and the opposition -- made no comment after the two-hour meeting, but
correspondents say there are expectations that after three visits, Mr Ismail's
efforts may be beginning to achieve some results.
During his visit, he also held talks with representatives of the military
government. More details of the talks are expected to be made public after Mr
Ismail has briefed the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.
The Nation - January 09,
2001.
Three arrested over drug haul SUNDAY's record haul of 114 kilograms of heroin and 7.5 million amphetamine
pills in Thai waters off Phang Nga province has led to the arrest of at least
three people, an official at the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) said
yesterday.
Peera Kanchanapong said Suchart Krajaejan, Chairat sae Tan and Prateep
(surname unavailable) were apprehended for their alleged involvement in
trafficking the confiscated drugs.
"Chairat and Prateep bankrolled the deal with Burmese traffickers," the
official said, adding that the NSB had seized their assets, including cars and
the contents of their bank accounts.
Suchart was being held responsible for the offence as he was the owner of
two trawlers found carrying the drugs, which had an estimated street value of
about Bt1 billion, Peera said.
Acting on a tip-off, the NSB sought the cooperation of the Royal Thai Navy,
which on Sunday deployed two cruisers and an aircraft to arrest the alleged drug
traffickers.
According to Peera, the shipment was loaded in Burma. The heroin-loaded
trawler was destined for a foreign country, while the other, carrying the
amphetamines, was bound for Thailand.
The Navy officials raided the two boats near the Surin Islands. All crew on
board, including 22 Burmese, were detained, but initial investigations
established that all of them - except the two captains, Pravej Noomee and Raksit
Winijkul - were innocent.
"The Burmese crews will soon be deported," Peera said.
He also disclosed that the NSB had been trailing the gang's movements for a
long time, and had learnt that it had already arranged a number of drug
transfers through the same waters.
Bangkok Post - January 08,
2001.
Army asks KNU to help catch guerrillas The army has asked the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union to help track down
guerrillas of the Karen God's Army who killed six Thais in Suan Phung district
of Ratchaburi on Dec 30.
A source in the Surasri Task Force said the army was seeking co-operation
not only from the Burmese military but also the KNU, in its hunt for the 15
Karen raiders who looted a shop in Ban Wai Noy Nai border village and gunned
down six people.
The KNU has been asked not to help or shelter these assailants, believed to
have escaped to Kanchanaburi and then across the border into a KNU-held
area.
The source said some 200 God's Army guerrillas led by Shwe Pye had earlier
defected to the KNU. |