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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - January - 24, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xinhuaet - Myanmar Rohingya Separatist Leaders
Remanded in Bangladesh
The Times of India - Myanmar junta laughs
off rumours of top-level split
The Nation - Shan patch it up as Wa move
in Bkk Post - Wife of Khun Sa faces charges
in the US
Myanmar Rohingya Separatist
Leaders Remanded in Bangladesh
2001.01.24 18:06:21 DHAKA, January 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A court in Bangladesh's southeast Cox's
Bazar region put two Rohingya separatists leaders arrested in Chittagong
on Sunday night on ten-day police remand for interrogation, said reports
reached here Wednesday.
Police also sealed two houses in Chittagong, suspected to have been
used by the Rohingya guerrillas fighting for establishing a separate state
in Arakan Province of Myanmar.
The move followed arrest of the chief of military staff of the
guerrillas and his aide. Police also recovered foreign currencies and
important documents, photographs, including one of Salimullah, chief of staff of
the Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), with Libyan leader Moammar
Gaddafi.
Meanwhile, police have launched a hunt for other Rohingya militant
leaders, who had supposedly operated from Chandgaon base in Chittagong for
several years.
According to police, ARNO is an alliance of extremist fundamentalist
groups of Myanmar, including of Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), National
United Party of Arakan (NUPA), fighting for the independence of Arakan
from Myanmar.
Police said Sunday's raid followed an operation launched on August 29
last year by a joint team of police, Bangladesh border guard and
magistrate to trace a hideout atop the 700-foot Jumusia hill at Cox's
Bazar.
In that operation, two Rohingya militants, including the camp
commander Abu Yasir, were arrested along with uniforms and some important
documents while others fled.
In course of investigation, Palit, a police officer, said he found
out that the militant leaders were running arms trade from their bases in
Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, to raise funds for the Arakan liberation
movement.
The reports said the Rohingya militants have set up training camps in
deep forest along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border at Bandarban point.
Myanmar often charges Bangladesh of aiding the Rohingya guerrillas.
Dhaka, however, rejects the charge.
In 1991, alleged repressions by Myanmar authorities on the Rohingya
Muslims drove nearly 100,000 families to take refuge in Bangladesh's
Cox's Bazar. Later, Yangon took back most of the Rohingya refugees in
phases after intervention of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
The Times of India - January 24, 2001.
Myanmar junta laughs off rumours of
top-level split
YANGON: Myanmar's junta Tuesday dismissed rumours of a top-level split in the military regime, saying they were an invention of the foreign press and the diplomatic community in Yangon. "It's all just wishful thinking on their part," junta number-three Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt said in an interview with the Myanmar Times weekly. "We in the military have a tradition of respect from one rank to the next ... we have a regard for each other. We have no problems," he said, laughing off the suggestions. For several years rumours have persisted of an impending power struggle between Khin Nyunt, powerful chief of military intelligence, and the regime's number-two Maung Aye, who is in charge of the army. Maung Aye, considered the more hawkish of the pair, is tipped to take over when Senior General Than Shwe steps down as head of the regime. Khin Nyunt's recent move to make direct contacts with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was interpreted by some analysts as a strategy to cement his place within the military government. The UN announced earlier this month that the talks between the two could pave the way for an historic dialogue between the junta and the opposition that would break a decade-long impasse between the warring sides. (AFP)
Asia Times Online - January 24, 2001.
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia eyes own network of gas pipelines By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE - This month's launch of a 640-kilometer submarine pipeline
supplying Indonesian natural gas to Singapore may well fuel ambitious plans for
a regional network of pipelines serving consumers from Indonesia to China.
If and when this comes to fruition, it would not just be natural-gas rich
countries like Indonesia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam that will make a windfall
from these resources. Southeast Asia too as a whole would benefit from having
its own pollution-free energy source - an attractive prospect given the recent
volatility in oil prices that has not spared the region's countries.
On January 15, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Indonesian
President Abdurrahman Wahid pressed the buttons to start the flow of natural gas
from the fields of Indonesia's west Natuna in South China Sea to Singapore. Gas
began flowing through a submarine pipeline under a 22-year agreement worth more
than US$9 billion. The project, completed six months ahead of schedule, has
encouraged Indonesia to look at more ambitious plans to build a region-wide web
of gas pipelines.
''It was an ambitious undertaking because of the Asian financial crisis.
But despite the regional uncertainties, both sides committed enormous resources
to construct the pipeline,'' Goh said in his brief address at the opening
ceremony. ''As immediate neighbors with complementary strengths, we can bring
greater prosperity to our two peoples by working closely together,'' he added.
''We have achieved something we can be proud of,'' chipped in Wahid, who
only during his visit here two months ago blasted Singapore for its
money-grabbing attitude toward its neighbors. He had also hinted he would work
with Malaysia to limit the water supply coming to the water-starved island
republic. But Wahid was surprisingly subdued during his visit here this month,
considering he should have been exultant over his struggling country's success
in delivering an international contract six months ahead of schedule.
This is a sure confidence booster for a recovering economy like Indonesia,
whose gas sales to Singapore will bring in $1 million a day for its
cash-strapped economy over the next two decades.
''It's all positive,'' an upbeat Indonesia's Mines and Energy Minister
Purnomo Yusgiantoro said. ''With our gas supply, if we cannot market it as LNG
(liquefied natural gas), then we can sell it as raw gas to Singapore, Malaysia
and Thailand.''
''We can have a Southeast Asian gas pipeline,'' added Purnomo.
Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of LNG, produced in fields
considered to be remote too export by pipeline. Indonesia currently ships LNG to
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but Singapore's interest in the gas pipelines has
increased the likelihood of a free market in gas supplies by pipelines in the
region.
Indeed, Goh said last week that the two countries are at an advanced stage
of negotiations on a second gas project to bring gas from Sumatra, in
Indonesia's west, to Singapore via another pipeline.
This second project will generate another $7 billion worth of revenues for
Indonesia over the next 20 years.
At present, there is already an extensive gas pipeline network linking
Thailand to fields in the Gulf of Thailand. Burma also supplies gas to Thailand
via a pipeline, while Vietnam is gearing up to bring natural gas by pipeline
from fields in the South China Sea to industrial users in southern Vietnam.
Malaysia is also negotiating with Indonesia to import gas from the same fields
(from where Singapore gets its supplies) via a submarine pipeline across to the
southern tip of the Malaysian mainland.
Malaysia also has gas supplies of its own and some jointly owned with
Thailand, which they are planning to bring through a pipeline to feed industries
in north of the country.
Asia now accounts for 30 percent of the world's energy consumption, and
this is going to increase rapidly as its economies continue to recover from the
financial crisis. Having its own supply of natural gas will help the region
balance its energy bills, much of which are spent on imported oil.
Looking even further, Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo
sees the newly-opened pipeline becoming a part of an integrated Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) gas grid. ''The trans-Asean gas pipeline will be
a major infrastructure project for Southeast Asia,'' Yeo said. ''It will develop
untapped gas fields and maximize the use of natural gas resources in the
region.''
The Singapore projects and plans to sell natural gas to Malaysia is part of
Indonesia's commitment to build a gas network among Asean countries, says Iin
Arifin, director for management of production-sharing contracts of Indonesia's
state-owned oil company Pertamina. The joint venture between Singapore's
government-linked SembCorp Gas and Pertamina will help fuel two of Singapore's
three power generation plants and some petrochemical plants here.
Already, Singapore is taking the lead in eyeing a clean energy future for
Asean countries, beginning with its own experiment with clear vehicle fuel. It
hopes to launch a project before the end of the year, under which 30 state-owned
buses will be fuelled by compressed natural gas. A gas-filled station will be
set up as well.
If this trial is successful, Singapore plans to fit most of its public
buses and commercial vehicles such as lorries and taxis with this natural gas
systems, instead of having them use air- polluting diesel fuel.
Such a development someday could revolutionize public transport in the
region, and give commuters in Southeast Asian cities relief from inhaling
polluted, lead-filled air.
The Nation - January 24,
2001.
Shan patch it up as Wa move in TWO major Shan rebel groups fighting the Burmese military government are
patching up their differences amid growing concern that their disunity could
hamper their efforts to counter an intrusion by ethnic Wa, rebel sources said.
According to a report from the Shan Herald Agency for News released
yesterday, representative from the Shan Democratic Union (SDU) and the
Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) have met this past week to discuss the
situation.
"The meeting came at a time when Wa troops and resettlers are swarming into
a border area once under the control of the Shan State Army, the RCSS's armed
wing," the agency said.
The Shan State Army, which is under the command of Col Yawd Serk, said the
Wa's resettlement scheme was being carried out by a pro-Rangoon armed rebel
group, the United Wa State Army.
Their move was causing concern as many of these settlers were beginning to
encroach on territory under Shan control, the agency said.
The Shan rebels control a stretch of mountainous area along the northern
Thai-Burmese border, opposite Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces.
The Wa launched their resettlement scheme last year, claiming that the
moved was aimed at curbing opium cultivation.
The presence of the Wa on the border, on the other hand, has irked a number
of Thai security agencies who see them as a drug army responsible for millions
of methamphetamines tablets, also known as "yaa baa", flooding into the country.
Both the SDU and RCSS claim to support the Shan National League for
Democracy, the Shan party that won the most seats in the Shan State in the 1990
elections.
The Nation
Bangkok Post - January 24,
2001.
DRUGS
Wife of Khun Sa faces charges in the US
Prosectors are awaiting a request from the US to extradite one of Khun Sa's
minor wives to stand trial on drug charges.
Peng Hui Lan, 54, and five others were arrested at a hotel on Sukhumvit
road on Friday for possessing 1.4kg of heroin. They are also wanted in the US in
connection with a shipment of 57kg of heroin to New York.
Chullasing Wasantasing, director for international affairs, said the US had
not yet contacted the Office of the Attorney-General's international affairs
bureau about extraditing Mrs Peng.
Anti-drug police must put in a report to prosecutors who will then ask the
Criminal Court to order the suspect detained. They would carry on gathering
evidence before filing a lawsuit seeking extradition within 60 days, he
said.
The US government submits its extradition request through diplomatic
channels. An extradition request for Yang Wan Hsuan, or Lao Tai, former
secretary to Khun Sa, is also
awaited. |