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BURMA RELATED NEWS
- April 24, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABC online - Burmese
militray critical of Thai army over massacre
AP - Myanmar Urges India To Settle
Boundary Dispute
AFP - Six Asian nations to attend
two-yearly drugs meet in Myanmar
AP - China Joins India, Korea, Others In Asia
Trade Grouping
AP - Myanmar Seeks Compensation From Thailand For Rebel Attack AP - UN: AIDS Cases In Asia Could Exceed
Africa Without Action
AFP - Two premiers exchanged views on
military-ruled Myanmar
Reuters - Myanmar kyat falls to record low
of 680 per dollar
Reuters - Malaysian building site swoop
nets 429 illegals
The Nation - Drug
rebels can expect free rein
Bkk Post - Drug
fugitive alters his face
Bkk Post - Five
suspects face charges in the court
Bkk Post - Bid to block shipment to
Tachilek
Bkk Post - Editorial -
The Burma convoy and accountability
Xinhuanet - Myanmar To Host Ministerial
Meeting on Drug Control
Xinhuanet - Tourists Visiting Myanmar
Decrease in 2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABC online - April 24,
2001.
Burmese militray critical of Thai army
over massacre
The Burmese military has criticized the Thai army for turning a blind eye
to ethnic Karen rebels who entered the Thailand's western border town of Mae
Sot, killing and wounding Burmese civilians in the adjacent town of
Myawadi.
Burmese commander, Colonel Soe Win, who co-chairs a regional border
committee between the two nations, sent a written protest to his Thai
counterpart demanding Thailand assume responsibility for the casualties and
damage incurred.
Burma says four Burmese civilians were killed by shrapnel and five others
were wounded, according to the Thai army sources.
The ethnic rebel Karen National Union admits that his guerrillas were
deployed to attack Myawadi, but denied their intrusion on Thai soil in order to
advance on the Burmese military base.
The KNU also said Burmese government troops have been cooperating with the
pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the ethnic Wa minority to
manufacture drugs for export to Thailand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday April 23, 11:42 PM
Myanmar Urges India To Settle Boundary
Dispute
GAUHATI, India (AP)--Myanmar's
military regime favors settlement of its boundary dispute with India through
joint surveys to avoid any confrontation, news reports said Monday.
"We shall open the door for joint surveys to resolve the boundary dispute
with India", Lt. Col. San Shwe, a Myanmar administrator, told visiting Indian
journalists on Sunday in Tamu, a Myanmar town across India's Manipur state.
Myanmar's suggestion came less than a week after a bloody confrontation
between the borders guards of India and Bangladesh left 16 Indian soldiers and
two Bangladeshi soldiers dead.
San Shwe's interview was published by The Northeast Daily, an English
newspaper from Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, on Monday.
He is the chairman of the District Peace and Development Council of Tamu in
Myanmar's Sagaing division.
A month-long joint survey by the Indian and Myanmar officials had ended
inconclusively in February.
The India-Myanmar land border stretches nearly 1,640 kilometers
(1,018-mile) in India's remote northeast. Molcham and Satang, two small villages
in Manipur state, and some other areas have remained disputed for four decades.
India often accuses the Myanmar troops of intruding into its territory,
attacking police stations, destroying paddy crops and ransacking villages.
Myanmar too accuses the Indians of violating their border. "The Indian
nationals near Moreh in Manipur have encroached our land and constructed a Hindu
temple," Major Muang Aye, a senior army officer, told the Indian journalists.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh visited Myanmar in February, taking
the land route through the border state of Manipur.
Apart from discussing the border dispute, Singh sought Myanmar's
cooperation in dealing with the menace of cross-border terrorism and drug
trafficking.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 6:30 PM
Six Asian nations to attend two-yearly
drugs meet in Myanmar
YANGON, April 24 (AFP) -
Ministers from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam will gather
in Yangon next month for a UN-sponsored meeting on regional efforts to stamp out
the drug trade, officials said Tuesday.
The six nations signed an agreement in 1995 to work together to fight
narcotics trafficking by reducing demand, boosting law enforcement and
encouraging crop substitution.
Their home affairs ministers meet every two years to discuss the progress
of cross-border drug control projects and to approve new strategies devised by
the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP).
The UNDCP said China was sending its Vice-Minister of Public Security Bai
Jing Fu to the meeting, which will be hosted by Myanmar's Lieutenant-General
Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of the ruling junta.
Other confirmed delegates are Thailand's minister attached to the prime
minister's office Thamarak Issarangkun Na Ayutthaya and Cambodia's
Secretary-General of the National Authority for Combating Drugs Em Sam An.
Vietnam and Laos have yet to confirm who will be attending.
The ministers will meet on May 11, after a two-day gathering of senior
officials which is to be hosted by Myanmar's Home Affairs Minister Colonel Tin
Hlaing. The senior officials hold annual talks, and last year met in
Cambodia.
A series of bilateral sessions are also slated, including talks between
Myanmar and Thailand, and Myanmar and China.
The region's narcotics crisis is a hot diplomatic topic at the moment, and
the focus of a flurry of visits between Thailand, Myanmar and China, which
produced an agreement for closer tripartite collaboration on the issue.
Massive drugs production within Myanmar's borders, which is feeding a
serious addiction crisis in Thailand, caused a serious rift between the two
neighbours earlier this year.
A bloody skirmish between their national armies was sparked by rival ethnic
armies operating along the border who are both accused of involvement in the
heroin and methamphetamines trade.
UNDCP officials said that during next month's meeting they will present two
new anti-narcotics projects -- on cross-border law enforcement cooperation; and
drug control advocacy and capacity strengthening in East Asia.
The second project "aims to present a common strategy for raising awareness
about the danger of drugs in the region and (to help) governments produce public
information materials and campaigns," an official said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 8:17 PM
China Joins India, Korea, Others In Asia Trade
Grouping
BANGKOK (AP)--China has joined five other Asian countries
including India and South Korea in a trade preference agreement, agreeing to
reduce tariffs on 634 products, a U.N. statement said Tuesday.
The little-known Bangkok Agreement, one of Asia's
oldest regional trading agreements, covers products including various food
items, leather products and garments.
Other parties to the agreement, which was established
in 1975 to reduce duties and tariffs, are Laos, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Thailand and the Philippines were among the original signatories to the
agreement but never ratified it.
China submitted its ratification at the current session
of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific that began
in Bangkok Monday, an ESCAP statement said.
It said China has agreed to cut import duties on 634
products by 10% to 84%. The other members have, however, consented to tariff
cuts on more than 1,400 products.
Zhang Yesui, China's assistant minister for foreign
affairs, hoped China's accession would "bring fresh vitality to the Bangkok
Agreement so that it will play a greater role in promoting regional economic and
trade cooperation," the U.N. statement said.
Ravi Ratnayake, chief of trade policy at ESCAP, said
other countries including Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar and Nepal had expressed an
interest in joining. China's accession was expected to encourage more countries
to join, he said.
The Bangkok Agreement still covers a relatively small
range of products, but it has the potential to cover the Asia and the Pacific.
Its six members have a combined population of 2.5 billion, Ratnayake
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 5:12 PM
Myanmar Seeks Compensation From Thailand
For Rebel Attack
MAE SOT, Thailand (AP)--Myanmar
has demanded compensation from Thailand for an armed attack by anti-Myanmar
ethnic rebels at the border that killed four Myanmar civilians, officials said
Tuesday.
But they said Thailand wasn't involved in the attack and wouldn't give any
compensation. Thailand hasn't given a formal reply to Myanmar.
Myanmar claimed the rebel Karen National Union troops had crossed from
Thailand to make the dawn attack on Sunday, said a local official quoting an
official Myanmar letter.
The official said Myanmar held Thailand responsible for the attack and
asked for compensation. He declined to say how much.
Myanmar often accuses Thailand of giving sanctuary and military assistance
to anti-government rebels.
The latest accusation was made in the official letter written by Lt. Col.
Soe Win, the Myanmar chairman of a local bilateral border committee, and sent
Monday to his Thai counterpart, Col. Chainarong Thanaroon.
The letter said KNU forces used small and heavy weapons in the assault on
houses and warehouses in the Myanmar border town of Myawaddy, killing four
civilians and injuring five, the official said, speaking on customary condition
of anonymity.
Myawaddy is linked to the Thai town of Mae Sot by the Thai-Myanmar
Friendship Bridge, 370 kilometers (230 miles) northwest of Bangkok.
In its version of the incident, the Karen National Union said Sunday it had
attacked a small hilltop camp of the rival Democratic Buddhist Karen Army, a
pro-Myanmar army, killing one DBKA soldier and injuring four.
The KNU claimed the camp was used as a transit point for trafficking
methamphetamine drugs to Thailand.
A stray mortar shell landed in Thailand during the fighting but no Thais
were injured. However, two Myanmar civilians received treatment in Mae Sot
hospital.
The KNU has been fighting for autonomy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for
five decades. It wages a resistance war against the Myanmar military regime
along the Thai-Myanmar border.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 1:07 AM
UN: AIDS Cases In Asia Could Exceed
Africa Without Action
BANGKOK (AP)--Asia could
outstrip chronically hit Africa in HIV/AIDS infections in the coming decade
unless urgent action is taken to stop the spread, a U.N. official said Monday.
"There are clear warning sings that the epidemic could escalate in many
countries if urgent action is not taken," Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive
director of UNAIDS, told a special session of the U.N. Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific on AIDS in Bangkok.
In 2000, more than 900,000 people were infected and 490,000 killed by
HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region, Cravero said. About 3.9 million people were
infected and 2.4 million died in Africa.
Globally, 36.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, about 70% of them
in sub-Saharan Africa and about 18% in Asia and the Pacific.
But Cravero said that in the coming decade the epidemic could start
increasing faster in Asia - home to half the world's population - than in
Africa.
Infection rates were stabilizing in three or four African countries,
although it wasn't clear whether this was due to prevention campaigns or
populations reaching a saturation point in infections, she said.
"South Asia is already a hot bed of infection, the fastest growing epidemic
outside sub-Saharan Africa, with an infection rate of 5%," Cravero told
delegates.
Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and parts of India already had epidemics that
had spread beyond high risk groups like sex workers and intravenous drug users
to the general population, she said.
Speaking at the special session, former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda
called for greater cooperation between Asia and Africa in fighting the disease.
"We must not allow mother Asia and mother Africa to be raped by HIV/AIDS,"
said Kaunda, whose son died of AIDS in 1986. Between 25% and 30% of Zambia's
adult population are infected.
Kaunda, who ruled Zambia for 27 years until 1991 and is now a strong
advocate of AIDS awareness, proposed a "south-south" dialogue that would help
lessen the stigma of the disease.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 5:57 PM
Thai premier gets red-carpet Malaysia
welcome on first foreign tour
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, April 24 (AFP) - Thailand agreed Tuesday to push
ahead with a stalled gas pipeline venture, officials said following "warm" talks
between Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Malaysian counterpart
Mahathir Mohamad.
Thaksin, heading a high-powered 71-member delegation, was greeted by a
military honour guard when he arrived at the administrative capital of Putrajaya
to start his first overseas visit since taking office in January.
After talks between the two premiers and delegations from both sides,
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Thailand was committed to the
pipeline.
The pipeline will transport gas from the Malaysia-Thailand Joint
Development Area along their maritime border. It has been stalled by strong
opposition from Thai environmental groups.
Syed Hamid said the Thais had promised to try to resolve the problems
within three months.
"Our understanding is that the project will go ahead ... they are not going
to stop the project," he told reporters.
The project is a joint venture between Malaysia's state energy firm
Petronas and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand.
Syed Hamid said Malaysia wants work to start as soon as possible since
costs were accumulating daily and most were borne by Petronas.
He said border security issues were not raised during the delegation
meeting but it was unclear if Thaksin and Mahathir discussed them.
Thaksin said Monday the border issue would be raised after two bombings
rocked Thailand's southern provinces near Malaysia earlier this month.
Thailand's Special Branch had indicated it will seek Malaysia's help in
finding the Muslim separatists believed responsible for the attacks, which left
one child dead and nearly 50 people injured.
Talks, which Syed Hamid described as "very very friendly and warm," also
covered a variety of economic issues.
Syed Hamid said Malaysia agreed to lift its ban on Thai beef imports which
was imposed following a "mad cow" disease scare.
It would consider a request to raise import of Thai rice after imports fell
by 90 percent to about 30,000 tonnes annually.
Deep-sea fishermen from the two countries are encouraged to form joint
ventures but catches must be processed in Malaysian ports. Joint ventures in
manufacturing rubber by-products would be considered.
Both leaders agreed to intensify trade but Malaysia was cautious on a Thai
request to keep several border checkpoints open longer.
Syed Hamid said Malaysia asked its neighbour to cut "prohibitive" tariffs
on Malaysian palmoil and raise its quota. The Thais said this needed further
discussions.
The two sides agreed to ease transit rules for Thai truckers taking
perishables to Singapore and for Malaysian truckers passing through Thailand en
route to Indochina.
The foreign minister said the two premiers exchanged views on
military-ruled Myanmar, and Mahathir told Thaksin that Malaysia's "philosophy is
to prosper thy neighbour."
They also discussed regional economic issues and proposed global financial
reforms.
Thaksin was accompanied by one of his deputy premiers, Pitak
Intharavittayanan; Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai; Commerce Minister
Adisai Bhotharamik; Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak; Interior Minister
Purachai Piemsomboon; and Deputy Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa.
He later visited Putrajaya's sister city of Cyberjaya, the heart of
Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor -- a zone for information technology firms
stretching south from Kuala Lumpur to the international airport.
Thaksin leaves for Vietnam Wednesday morning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 7:58 PM
Myanmar kyat falls to record
low
YANGON, April 24 (Reuters) -
Myanmar's kyat currency fell to a record low of 680 per dollar on the black
market in late trade on Tuesday compared with 603 on Friday amid reports of
"panic selling", dealers said.
Black market dealers reported heavy demand for dollars and said the fall in
the currency may have been induced by reports of low export revenue and rising
inflation.
"It's very hard to say exactly what is making the demand
(for dollars) grow," said one local businessman. "We hear some private
companies are buying dollars."
A black market dealer told Reuters he had not detected any measures by the
Myanmar authorities to halt the kyat's slide. Myanmar officials were not
immediately unavailable for comment.
The Myanmar government has increased salaries of civil servants by five to
eight times since April last year to help them cope with spiralling prices but
its action has further fuelled inflation estimated at around 20 percent a
year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday April 24, 6:59 PM
Malaysian building site swoop nets 429
illegals
KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Reuters) - Malaysian police arrested 429
illegal immigrants, mostly Indonesians, at a construction site near Kuala Lumpur
on Tuesday, the national Bernama news agency said.
Malaysia is battling to contain a growing number of economic migrants from
other countries in the region, and particularly Indonesia, which is a short
sea-crossing away.
The illegals, who were working at the site 40 km south of the capital,
would be held at a detention centre before being deported, said police.
More than 400 of those nabbed were Indonesians. Nationals from Myanmar,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and India were also detained.
Police have increased raids on worksites in recent months.
The detainees have more than doubled the usual population at detention
centres to 14,000, an immigration official told local media last month.
Nearly 100,000 illegal immigrants were deported in 2000, added immigration
department secretary-general Aseh Che Mat.
About two million foreigners work at low-paying jobs in Malaysia, nearly
half of them illegally.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - April 24,
2001.
Drug rebels can expect free
rein
The government can expect little help from Beijing or Rangoon in stopping
the Wa army's drug trafficking, Don Pathan reports in the last part of a
two-part series.
For years, the Chinese government has vowed to cooperate with Thailand and
Burma to tackle drug trafficking problems.
However, Beijing has yet to say or show in real terms what it means. This
is not to say that the Chinese people are not affected by the problem. In fact,
a great deal of the Wa's heroin is smuggled through Yunnan, while more and more
Chinese people there are becoming addicts at an alarming rate.
But China's low-key approach towards the Wa's illicit activities is
understandable given their historic links. The Communist Party of China was the
main backer of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma (CPB). The bulk of the
CPB's foot soldiers at the time were made up of troops from the Wa faction. And
when the CPB fractured along ethnic lines, the Wa leadership, who formed the
UWSA shortly afterwards, maintained their strong links with the Communist
Chinese.
Moreover, said one senior Third Army official, the Wa's presence along the
Thai border is growing by the day. Their troop strength in the area has
increased from just over 3,000 to more than 10,000 in the past year. The officer
also confirmed a recent report by Jane's Defence Weekly, stating that the UWSA
had acquired an improved portable surface-to-air missile (SAM) capability from
the Chinese.
"The system marks a significant improvement over the older Soviet-designed
SA-7, which the UWSA had earlier acquired from Cambodian black market sources
through Thailand," Jane's said. Among its other attributes, according to the
report, the recently acquired SAM can engage aircraft head-on.
Besides the historical link, Beijing's passiveness towards the Wa's illicit
activities has more to do with China's quest to become a superpower. As an
emerging superpower, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security expert at
Chulalongkorn University, China is not in a position to pick a fight with
countries that can enhance its strategic interest.
Panitan pointed to the massive infrastructure linking southern China to the
Indian Ocean through Burma. And with the country being a "closed" society, he
said, China, unlike Thailand, does not have to contend with the problem of
political support from the general public. "China has over one billion people.
Given its shear size, the Wa's activities do not constitute a national one."
Unlike Thailand, China does not see the Wa's narcotic trafficking as an
international issue, Panitan said.
Thailand's relations with Burma, on the other hand, are largely based on
mistrust fuelled by territorial disputes and accusations of interference. Burma
has accused Thailand of supporting Shan rebels, but Thai officials say Rangoon
has pitted the Wa against the Thais by allowing them to resettled along the Thai
border.
So what is the Thai government to do?
For the time being, Bangkok will continue with its anti-Wa rhetoric and the
push to make Rangoon accountable to the Wa's activities. Though Thaksin has
vowed to bring the issue up with Beijing and the Burmese junta, few believe he
will have much success.
"Thailand is too weak to put pressure on Burma, much less China," Panitan
said. "(The Thai government) will be going to the negotiating table against a
group of warriors, from top to bottom, whose positions are consolidated and
members unified at the top."
Like other authoritarian countries, Burma's national interest is its utmost
important issue when it come to any negotiation, he said.
For the junta, issues pertaining to Rangoon-UWSA ties are a matter of life
and death - literally. Foreign Minister Win Aung has made it quite clear that
his government will not turn back the clock and go back to the day of insurgency
and rebellious ethnic armies roaming Burma's frontier. In other words, Thailand
needs to stop pointing its finger to Rangoon just because too many Thai youths
have a bad habit.
Besides, admitted a number of Thai army officers along the border, Rangoon
is not in the position to pick a fight with the Wa. The implications would be
too high and it would set a bad precedent with other groups who have come under
the country's "legal fold", they said.
For the time being, the concern over narcotics among the leadership in
Rangoon, experts say, will continue to take a backseat to stability and national
reconciliation. Rangoon's policy of negotiating ceasefires with ethnic insurgent
groups has been one of its main success stories, and there is no indication that
the junta would want to change that.
Besides, Rangoon stands to gain tremendously from the Wa's illicit
activities. According to a recent report by the US State Department on
narcotics, "there is reason to believe that money laundering in Burma and the
return of narcotics profits laundered elsewhere are significant factors in the
overall Burmese economy, although the extent is difficult to measure
accurately".
The country's under-regulated banking system and the absence of effective
money laundering legislation, according to the report, have created an
environment conducive to the use of drug-related proceeds in legitimate
commerce.
Given the fact that Thai-Burmese ties are at a low after cross-border
shelling over two months ago between the two armies, any meaningful
counter-narcotic efforts are likely to remain on the back burner for the time
being.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - April 24,
2001.
Drug fugitive alters his
face
Major drug fugitive Surachai Ngernthongfoo is believed to have had a
face-lift and returned to Thailand from Burma, a deputy commander of the
Narcotics Suppression Bureau said.
Pol Maj-Gen Inthadej Pornpeerapan said the fugitive, also known as Bang
Ron, had his face altered through plastic surgery to evade the police.
After his operation, he left the protection of the United Wa State Army in
Pang Sang and moved to the outskirts of Bangkok. Police are on the lookout, the
senior officer said.
An army source said Thai authorities tried to get more information about
Surachai's whereabouts fromtheir Burmese counterparts and the Wa army, both of
whom denied he was in Burma.
The methamphetamine kingpin fled Thailand in 1998 after a gunfight with
police in Nong Chok. Three men were arrested with 750,000 speed pills and one
was killed. The other man, believed to be Surachai, managed to escape and
disappeared.
A number of police officers were arrested on suspicion of giving support to
Bang Ron's drug gang.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - April 24,
2001.
Five suspects face charges in the
court
Five people were yesterday charged with possessing a large amount of
methamphetamine pills and heroin with intent to sell.
Prosecutors filed the charges with the Criminal Court against two Thais,
two Chinese Haw and a Burmese citizen.
The suspects were identified as Wan In-taeng, 61, from Chiang Mai; Amnuay
Meesri, 44, from Phitsanulok; Srisai sae Wong or Prayoon sae Wian, 29, and
Chamnong Leeja or Sutthisak sae Lee, 20, both Chinese Haw; and Lue sae Lhee, 19,
a Burmese.
They were nabbed on Jan 29 in Muang district, Nonthaburi, when they tried
to sell drugs to undercover anti-narcotics police. The authorities seized
100,000 speed pills and 2kg of heroin.
Police said Srisai and Chamnong confessed to the charges while the others
denied involvement. But the two later changed their minds and said they were
innocent.
The court accepted the case and set the first hearing for May 28.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - April 24,
2001.
Bid to block shipment to
Tachilek
Burmese power project opposed Subin Khuenkaew and Yuwadee Tunyasiri
People in Chiang Rai have vowed to use any means, including violence, to
block any further attempt to deliver power generators and construction materials
to a coal-fired power plant project in Burma's Tachilek border town.
A large convoy carrying power generators and construction materials from
China was stopped by the Third Army on Friday before it crossed the border in
Mae Sai to Tachilek.
The shipment was halted at the crossing by regional commander Lieutenant
General Wattanachai Chaimuenwong on orders from Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, whose administration launched a "war on drugs" last month. Lt-Gen
Wattanachai fears the generators will be used to power drug-making
factories.
A war of words between Bangkok and Rangoon over who is responsible for
Thailand being flooded with amphetamines has seen tensions rise between the two
countries.
An angry demonstration followed the attempted shipment on Saturday by some
2,000 Mae Sai residents who feared the power plant would pollute their
environment, forcing the convoy to return to Bangkok.
Pang Polajai, secretary-general of the Rak Mae Sai club, yesterday said his
group and local leaders would meet today to plan strategies to block any future
attempt to send the cargo across the border to Tachilek.
"We fear the government may later order [Third Army commander] Lt-Gen
Wattanachai [Chaimuenwong] to allow the cargo through Mae Sai," he said.
Mr Pang said people from Mae Sai and Mae Chan districts would also join
today's meeting in Mae Sai.
The meeting would come up with a "tough" resolution because local people
feared their environment could be polluted in the near future by emissions from
the coal-fired power plant being built just across the border, he said.
"If the government allows the cargo to return to Mae Sai, I can bet it
won't have a chance to cross the border or even another chance to return to
Bangkok. Mae Sai and Mae Chan villagers are ready to fight to the end because
they know well what the power plant will bring," he warned.
Mr Pang also criticised Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's comments
linking the power plant project with the Wa's methamphetamine production in
Burma.
The power plant is believed to be partly owned by the United Wa State Army.
Mr Thaksin said after the convoy was halted that it was unlikely such goods
would be allowed to cross the border since it would help strengthen the
Wa.
Yesterday, Mr Thaksin also said the power plant in Tachilek, once
completed, could lead to an increase in the production of methamphetamines
destined for Thailand.
Mr Pang said the premier's comments had clouded the real issue "We are not
protesting against drugs but against the coal-fired power plant that will
pollute our environment."
Mr Pang also claimed the prime minister might be trying to buy time for
Burma. The government would likely permit the cargo to be delivered to Tachilek
once Burmese authorities insisted the power plant belonged to the Rangoon
government, he said.
PM's Office Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayuthaya said the problem
over the cargo would likely be be raised for discussion during Foreign Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai's May 1-2 visit to Rangoon, if the issue was not already
settled before that.
Meanwhile, the Customs Department chief said yesterday that the 44
containers carrying the generators and construction material for Burma were
being kept at a bonded warehouse on Bang Na-Trat highway.
The containers were not opened for examination because his department did
not think there were any illegal goods inside the containers, Manit Withayatem
said.
However, the department would allow other state agencies to open the
containers and check the goods if such actions were deemed necessary, Mr Manit
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - April 24,
2001.
Editorial - The Burma convoy and
accountability
Thai authorities acted both legally and correctly in halting the convoy to
Tachilek last week. Indeed, the more information about the shipment that
dribbles out, the more it seems it should be rejected outright. Thai authorities
should give Burma a chance to explain why Thailand should help to ship the
power-generating equipment. If the explanation is weak, Thailand must consider
destroying or sending back the equipment.
Initial evidence indicates that the convoy carries equipment to build an
electricity generating plant in northern Burma. Rangoon decided to ship the
containers through Samut Prakan and Thailand as the fastest way to get to the
region. Exactly why Burma refused to move the equipment through Rangoon port to
its northern area is unknown.
The electricity may-or may not-help expand the region's largest
drug-producing centre. Mong Yawn city, centre of the United Wa State Army, is a
new town that is still power hungry. If the proposed power plant is for Mong
Yawn, it is arguably a direct threat to Thai security and should be destroyed
just like any drug precursors or unauthorised guns.
Thailand cannot help-and cannot be seen to be helping-any aid destined for
Mong Yawn and the UWSA. The city is the nerve centre for the production and
trafficking of drugs into, and through, Thailand.
Almost certainly not by coincidence, Rangoon's captive media publicised
pitiful crackdowns on drugs at the weekend-as the fate of the convoy was under
discussion. Authorities in Mandalay seized almost 300,000 speed tablets from a
local trafficker. A court in Lashio last month sentenced five men to 20 years in
prison for trying to sell speed. These are hardly worth bragging about.
As always, the Burmese silence shows the junta's arrogance. But it also
feeds rumours. At the weekend, there were unconfirmed reports that Thai customs
officers had found methamphetamine-making chemicals on the convoy. By refusing
to make a public statement to justify its power plant, Burma gives the
impression it always gives: Rangoon will do what it wants, no matter what impact
it has on neighbours or its own people.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra quickly realised the environmental
problems involved. Samrerng Bonyopakorn, the current Chiang Rai governor, used
to serve in Lampang. He is well aware of the opposition to unregulated
lignite-fired power plants, having helped to negotiate a settlement with
residents around Mae Moh. Thailand must closely examine how a lignite facility
abutting the frontier will affect the environment, residents and the Chiang Rai
tourist industry.
Then there is the entire background of petty Burmese bloody-mindedness. In
October of 1999, Burmese rebels stormed and seized the Rangoon embassy on
Sathorn road. Thai officials resolved the problem without a casualty. But this
did not meet Burma's standards. So the dictatorship unilaterally ended all joint
fishing licences with private Thai companies. Rangoon still refuses to discuss
the honouring of those contracts, either with Bangkok or the fishermen it tried
to ruin.
Thai border authorities correctly refused to open the Mae Sai border gate
to let the convoy pass. Thailand has urged Burma for several months to open the
frontier for normal trade. It has refused. Burma has shown no urgent reason to
open the gates for one convoy. It cannot demand privileges for big shots.
Tit-for-tat retaliation is not an acceptable reason to halt the convoy at
the border. But there are several vital reasons why it should not proceed. By
available evidence, Burma intends to continue construction of facilities that
pose direct risks to Thailand. The convoy should be parked under close guard in
Bangkok until this sorry episode is completely, and publicly, sorted out.
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Myanmar To Host Ministerial
Meeting on Drug Control
2001.04.24 11:55:34 YANGON, April 24 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar is making preparation to host the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of
Six MOU (memorandum of understanding) Countries on Drug Control in the
Sub-Region from May 7 to 11 in cooperation with the U.N. Drug Control
Program ( UNDCP), according to the Myanmar Ministry of Home Affairs
Tuesday.
The six countries, that initiated a MOU on control of illicit drug
trafficking and abuse in the sub-region in New York in October 1993,
comprise China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ministerial meeting will be preceded by a senior officials' meeting and
high-level bilateral meetings between Myanmar and Thailand, between
Myanmar and China, between Cambodia and Vietnam and between Cambodia and
Thailand.
According to the ministry, delegates attending the MOU meeting will
witness Myanmar's 15th annual ceremony of destruction of seized narcotic
drugs in Yangon and visit the country's opium producing areas of Kokang
and Wa in northern Shan state.
The last three ministerial meetings of the six MOU countries were
alternatively held in Beijing in 1995, in Bangkok in 1997 and in Vientiane in
1999.
Meanwhile, a sub-regional drug control program of the six MOU
countries on reducing illicit drug use in the highlands of East Asia was
implemented at six villages in Muse and Bhamo regions in northern
Myanmar's Shan and Kachin states respectively from 1997 to 2000, using
1.52 million U.S. dollars provided by Britain and the UNDCP, involving the
contribution of Japan.
More similar programs are expected to be implemented in other Myanmar
villages with the contribution of donor countries.
According to official statistics, in 2000, Myanmar seized 2.28 tons
of narcotic drugs including 1.52 tons of opium, 158.68 kilos of heroin and
590 kilos of marijuana as well as 26.6 million tablets of stimulant
drugs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tourists Visiting Myanmar Decrease
in 2000
2001.04.24 09:27:17 YANGON, April 24 (Xinhuanet) --
The number of tourists visiting Myanmar came to 234,900 in 2000, falling
by 9.3 percent from 1999, according to the latest figures published by the
country's Central Statistical Organization.
Of the tourists, 49 percent entered the country by land through border
points.
Up to now, there were 492 different hotels and motels with 13, 984 rooms.
Of them, 21 are foreign-invested, four are joint ventures, 439 are
private-run and 28 state-operated.
There has also been 521 licensed tour companies in Myanmar including
508 private ones, 12 joint ventures and one foreign company.
According to the data published by the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and
Tourism, there are 3,768 registered tour guides. Of them, English language
guides account for the majority with 2,644 in number, while Japanese
language guides take 486, Chinese language guides 222 and French language
guides 189.
Due to the impact of the Asian financial crisis, Myanmar's tourism
business is seen as very poor with most of its hotel rooms remaining
vacant.
The country's recent target for tourism is to draw 500,000 tourists
annually.
Since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in 1988, such contracted
investment in the sector of hotels and tourism has reached 1.054 billion
U.S. dollars in 42 projects.
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