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BURMA RELATED NEWS - May 24,
2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Villagers Protest Against Myanmar Shelling
Of Thai Proj
AP - 27 Hurt, Homes Destroyed In Southwest China
Earthquake
AFP - Myanmar agrees to ILO probe of measures
against forced labor
Reuters - Asian and European foreign ministers
eye closer ties
The Dawn - 10 die in Myanmar
communal clashes
WP - U.N. Envoy
to Burma Plans New Round of Discussions
The Nation - Burma insults former
King
Bkk Post - Tough talking on drugs, weak stomach
on border
Bkk Post - Chinese
visit next month sets stage for drugs talks effort
Bkk Post - Royal project site shelled by Red
Wa
Bkk Post - Postbag - Resistance revives spirit
of May '92
SCMP - ILO back on slave labour
warpath
UN newservice - Annan to send envoy to Myanmar
to help facilitate reconciliation process
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Cooperatives to Take
Part in Kunming Trade Fair
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 24, 2:48 PMVillagers Protest Against Myanmar
Shelling Of Thai Proj
BANGKOK (AP)--Villagers
shouting anti-Myanmar slogans demonstrated in northern Thailand Thursday to
protest against shelling by Myanmar troops that narrowly missed a royal villa.
About 3,000 villagers from various communities gathered outside the town
hall in Fang in Chiang Mai province, waving national flags and banners and
shouting anti-Myanmar insults through loudspeakers.
They demanded that the government take tougher action against Myanmar
troops.
Border tensions between Myanmar and Thailand have escalated into a series
of skirmishes in recent months, plunging their relations to the lowest level in
years.
The Thai military lodged an official protest on Wednesday, saying Myanmar
gunners, in a "deliberate act of provocation," fired mortar shells into the Doi
Angkhang royal development project in Chiang Mai province on Tuesday.
"Myanmar troops fired mortars on a highly respected place like the compound
of the royal project. It is unacceptable to Thai people," protest leader Phanit
Kamolrattan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Fang.
He claimed that Myanmar troops have fired more than 10,000 shells into
Thailand during the past month. "I think it is time for Gen. Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh as defense minister to do something or resign," Phanit said.
The Thai army said Myanmar forces intentionally fired at least five mortar
rounds, one of which landed less than 100 meters from a royal villa on the
grounds of the project. No injuries were reported but Thai gunners retaliated
with warning shots, the army said.
The Doi Angkhang project is one of numerous development efforts by the
highly popular Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej to improve rural incomes and get
hilltribe people to grow coffee, vegetables and other crops instead of
opium.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 24, 1:38 PM
27 Hurt, Homes Destroyed In Southwest
China Earthquake
BEIJING (AP)--An earthquake
with a magnitude of 5.8 collapsed 185 houses and injured 27 people in southwest
China early Thursday morning, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.
The quake struck Ninglang county in Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar,
Laos and Vietnam, at 5:10 a.m. (2110 GMT Wednesday, or 5:10 p.m. EDT), Xinhua
said. Ninglang's inhabitants include members of China's Yi ethnic minority, it
said.
Xinhua said more than 600 livestock animals were missing and total economic losses were estimated at 120 million yuan ($1=CNY8.2771). Local government officials were directing rescue work, it said.
A spokesman for China's earthquake bureau said it was seeking more
information about casualties. Ninglang lies near the tourism center of Lijiang,
1,000 kilometers aouthwest of Beijing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 24, 4:15 PM
Myanmar agrees to ILO probe of
measures against forced labor
GENEVA, May 24 (AFP) - Myanmar, under fire from abroad over charges of forced labour, will allow the International Labor Organisation (ILO) to make an independent probe into government efforts to end the abuse, an ILO official said. It was earlier reported from Bangkok that an ILO team had made an
unpublicised visit to Myanmar last week to negotiate an accord with the ruling
junta on eradicating forced labor.
ILO team leader Francis Maupain, outlining the accord, told AFP here the
object of this month's mission had been to discuss modalities of an ILO
assessment of measures announced by the Yangon government following an earlier
ILO visit in October.
"The Burmese authorities have agreed to discuss the modalities of this
objective evaluation," he said.
The International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU), linking more than
221 labour unions in 148 countries, said last year that nearly one million
people were subjected to forced labour in Myanmar, particularly in building
roads, railways and military installations.
The army has been singled out as a main offender due to its practice of
using villagers, often from ethnic minorities, as porters.
Last November, the Geneva-based ILO called on its members -- workers and
employers' groups, and countries -- to review ties with Myanmar and take steps
to ensure these ties did not support forced labour.
Maupain said an ILO team would return to Myanmar, probably in late summer
when it would be easiest to travel around the country.
Asked about the atmosphere of the Yangon talks this month, the official
said: "It's never easy, but we do have agreement."
Following the ILO visit to Myanamar in October, the Burmese interior
minister issued an order banning forced labour. This was later backed up by a
military directive in November.
But the ILO considered the measures indaequate and impossible to verify,
and invited members to reconsider relations with Yangon.
The junta retorted that it would cease to cooperate with the ILO, in an
apparent declaration that the monitoring mission would not be allowed to
return.
Sources in Yangon said earlier the ILO team had been permitted to visit on
May 17 to 19.
"An ILO technical team came last week to Yangon," a senior spokesman for
the military government confirmed in a statement. "I cannot elaborate on the
content and results at this stage."
The renewed contact with the ILO is another sign that a political shift is
under way in Myanmar, where top junta leaders have been meeting with opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi in secret for the past eight months.
If it can convince the ILO and foreign governments that it is making
headway on the issue of forced labor and taking steps towards democratic
reforms, the junta may be able to start peeling back sanctions and start
developing the creaking economy.
A report on the agreement reached this month in Yangon will next month go
before an ILO general assembly in Geneva.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday May 24, 2:00 PM
Asian and European foreign ministers eye
closer ties
By Paul Eckert BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign
ministers from Europe and Asia open talks in Beijing on Thursday with both sides
vowing to strengthen political ties between regions whose economies account for
almost half of the world's gross domestic product.
Host China, its relations with the United States strained by disputes over
security and Taiwan, made it clear it hopes the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) would
further its goal of forging a multipolar world in which U.S. influence is
diluted.
Cross-continental cooperation under the five-year-old ASEM process would
"help establish a rational international and political order", Foreign Minister
Tang Jiaxuan said in a statement on the eve of the two-day talks.
"Cooperation between Asia and Europe has reflected the strategic need of
the two continents to rely on each other politically and economically," Tang
said.
Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External Affairs, said regular
ASEM meetings were "an important step on the road to a much closer
relationship".
RESTART TRADE TALKS
Patten told Reuters the EU expected discussions among the 26 ASEM members
to cover regional issues, such as North Korea and the Balkans, and that Brussels
would push for a fresh round of multilateral trade talks under the World Trade
Organisation.
"We're pressing very hard for that, and with a broad and sensible and
sensitive agenda, we'll be putting that case at the ASEM meetings as well," he
said in an interview.
Patten, who was also to hold bilateral EU-China talks in Beijing focusing
on completing China's WTO accession, expressed concern about the consequence of
a failure to restart multilateral talks after the debacle in Seattle in 1999.
"There'll be more trade agreements between individual blocs and individual
countries. Who's going to lose most from that? The poor countries, the
developing countries," he said.
Tang said last week in Thailand that China wanted ASEM ministers to focus
on economic and social issues and not become a forum for human rights and
political disputes.
But on Wednesday he said ASEM topics should include global issues including
the "maintenance of global strategic stability" -- a reference to the U.S.
proposal to build an anti-missile shield, which China strongly opposes.
NOT A SIDESHOW
China seeks allies in its campaign against the missile shield plans, but
Patten said the EU was not vying with the United States for influence in Asia.
"I don't think that Europe should regard its relationship with Asia as
being some sort of competitive sideshow to the U.S. relationship with Asia," he
said.
Patten cited as a constructive example the EU foray into Korean diplomacy,
when he and other Brussels officials visited North and South Korea earlier this
month during a lull in U.S. contacts with the Communist government in Pyongyang.
"We weren't trying to cut a figure larger than we can play in the region
and we weren't trying to elbow anyone else off the stage," he said.
The trip produced a pledge from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to maintain
his missile test moratorium and resulted in a decision by the EU to establish
diplomatic ties with North Korea.
On Thursday, ASEM foreign ministers were to hold rounds of bilateral talks,
including a potentially testy one between China and Japan, at odds over Japanese
history schoolbooks and other issues related to World War Two events.
ASEM groups the 15 EU members and the European Commission with China, Japan
and South Korea and seven of the 10 members of the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar became ASEAN members after the ASEM process
began and the Europeans have been reluctant to let them in because of their
human rights records.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Dawn
10 die in Myanmar communal
clashes
YANGON, May 23: Fighting between Muslim and Buddhist residents broke out in
Taungdwingyi town in upper Myanmar, the latest in a spate of religious clashes
that have reportedly left at least 10 people dead, eyewitnesses and diplomatic
sources said on Wednesday.
Clashes between the predominantly Buddhist population of Taungdwingyi, 450
kilometres north of Yangon, and a Muslim group were reported by eyewitnesses on
Tuesday night.
It was unclear whether anyone was killed in the latest clash, but similar
attacks on Muslims in the townships of Taungoo, Yadashe and Nyaunglebin, all in
upper Myanmar, have left at least 10 people dead, according to diplomatic
sources.
"We've heard reports of 10 to 30 people killed and up to 40 homes
destroyed," said a Western diplomat in Yangon. "It was a pretty big rampage by
the Young Buddhist Monks."
The clash in Taungoo was sparked on May 16, when Muslim youths allegedly
taunted Buddhist nuns who were making their rounds in the city with begging
bowls, according to sources in Yangon.
Enraged Buddhists attacked the Muslims, who fled into a mosque with the
Buddhists in hot pursuit. Sources said that the city was wracked by religious
clashes for two days, leaving at least 20 people dead, including two Buddhist
monks and a Muslim religious leader.
Myanmar's military junta has placed Taungoo under a night curfew, and
deployed troops to other towns to prevent similar clashes.
Myanmar's state religion is Buddhism, but the ruling junta claims to allow
religious freedom and allows its many minority groups to practise their religion
of choice, including Islam, Christianity, Brahmanism, ancestor worship and
animism.
Rumors abounded in Yangon about who was behind the clashes. "The rumor
behind the rumor is that regional military commanders have been organizing the
attacks on Muslims to get people's minds off their economic hardships," said a
diplomat.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council had yet to issue an official
statement on the clashes. Similar clashes, pitting Buddhists against Muslims,
occurred in Sittwe, on Myanmar's western coast near the border with Bangladesh,
in February.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Washington Post
U.N. Envoy to Burma Plans New Round of
Discussions
Thursday, May 24, 2001; Page A32
RANGOON, Burma, May 23 -- The U.N. envoy to Burma who helped broker
historic talks between the military government and opposition will visit the
country next week, officials said, as fears grow that the dialogue has
stalled.
Razali Ismail will visit from June 1 to 4, the Burmese foreign ministry
said Tuesday. Diplomats said he would meet senior government leaders as well as
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined to her house since
September.
Razali announced this year that Burma's ruling generals had been holding a
secret dialogue with Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, which
won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.
The news raised hopes that the political stalemate that has gripped Burma,
also known as Myanmar, for more than a decade could finally be broken. But
foreign diplomats in Rangoon, the capital, say they believe the dialogue has
stalled in recent months.
Razali, a veteran Malaysian diplomat, last visited in January, and said
then his next visit was planned for March. His failure to visit then has fueled
speculation that the talks were blocked.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation - May 24,
2001.
NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: Burma insults
former King
Sa-nguan Khumrungroj
Burma's state-run New Light of Myanmar on Monday attacked a Thai King who
ruled Siam in the mid-19th century, distorting a Thai academic's work to accuse
the monarch of wrongdoing.
Due to legal implications, The Nation is unable to quote verbatim from the
article titled "Never been enslaved, but real slave", which appeared in Monday's
edition of New Light of Myanmar. It was penned by Ma Tin Win, of Burma's
Institute of Education.
Quoting at length the research by Thai historian Rong Syamananda as a
pretext to |heap criticism on this particular king, Tin Win chose to interpret
Rong's scholarly and respected work - which detailed Siam's negotiations with
Britain on August 16, 1855 - in ways that appear designed to serve Bur-ma's
ongoing propaganda campaign against Thailand.
Tin Win also compared the differences between Burma's and Siam's response
to colonial pressures. She concluded that Burma was smarter in dealing with
Britain because Burma refused to give extra-territorial jurisdiction to Britain
following its defeat in the first Anglo-Burmese war.
The New Light of Myanmar is the official mouthpiece of the Burmese junta
leaders, known as the State Council of Peace and Development.
In response to this serious allegation, and others made on Saturday and
Sunday by the same mouthpiece, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai yesterday
instructed Thai ambassador Oum Maolanond to lodge an oral protest to U Thaung
Tun, Burmese Director General of the Political Department of the Foreign
Ministry, according to the ministry's spokesman, Norachit Singhaseni.
The spokesman said that these articles were not conducive to Thai-Burmese
relations. "It will inevitably cause damage to bilateral ties. The Royal
Institute is the most revered institute in Thailand. To engage the Royal members
in such a way is unfitting and will not help boost ties," Norachit said.
This is not the first time the New Light of Myanmar has attacked a Thai
monarch. In the past few months, it has criticised Thailand and Kings in general
without naming names, as it did in the past few days.
During the previous government, the strongest protest by top leaders and
summons of Burmese envoys were common.
On May 19 last year, the junta's mouthpiece threatened to expose Thai
officials engaged in drug-trafficking "including those of Royal blood". In
response, former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan confronted Gen Khint Nyunt on
June 6 at Don Muang Airport.
Thailand raised this issue again at the Asean Summit last November in
Singapore. Former deputy foreign minister MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra also summoned
previous Burmese ambassador U Hla Maung when Burmese troops violated Thai
territory.
Thai-Burmese relations have undergone severe tests under the Thaksin
government. Border clashes and other forms of agitation have been frequent along
the 2,401-km border. Since coming to power, Thai leaders including the prime
minister, Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Foreign Minster
Surakiart Sathirathai have expressed a desire to visit Burma. Surakiart did go
recently, but failed to achieve any tangible results.
Thaksin also said he would visit Burma to improve ties. Yet no Burmese
leaders have visited Thailand. Burmese Foreign Minister U Win Aung said he would
pay a return visit to Thailand but has so far given no timeframe for such a
trip.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May 24,
2001.
Tough talking on drugs, weak
stomach on border
Military stand-offs detracting from drugs effort, despite Thaksin's extravagant promises Anuraj Manibhandu and Achara Ashayagachat
The government would not accept the stalemate on the Thai-Burmese border as
a barometer of its performance in foreign affairs.
The dispute persists, however, and has not been helped by conflicting
messages from ministers.
While the government talks tough on drugs, it appears to lose its nerve
when Burma violates its sovereignty. Such confusion may not be doing either
cause much good.
In the government's defence, Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathiarathai says
border skirmishes and exchanges of invective were around long before he and his
colleagues took office.
The disputes were at a local, not government level, he said, without
mentioning Foreign Ministry protests against Burma's incursion into Thai
territory at Hua Lone Hill on May 7.
Rangoon has ignored the protest, and an earlier one after its push into Ban
Pang Noon in early February, and keeps its border at Tachilek closed.
Few would challenge the government if Thai Rak Thai Party leader Thaksin
Shinawatra had not boasted about his ability to sweet-talk the generals into
changing their ways even before he was installed as prime minister.
During a post-election visit to the Bangkok Post on January 29, he said the
government would persuade Burma that democracy was a good thing. He said Burmese
leaders had wanted to talk with him for a long time but he had been in no
position to make it happen.
Ten days later, as he was installed as prime minister on Feb 9, Burmese
troops thrust into Ban Pang Noon.
On Feb 12, Mr Thaksin said he would go to Rangoon with Defence Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. Several conflicting statements later, on May 15, Mr
Surakiart said the prime minister would postpone the trip until Burmese Foreign
Minister Win Aung visited Bangkok.
The government's first mistake was its vow to use personal relations to
mend ties with Burma, says Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate foreign
affairs committee.
The border stand-off had thrown into sharp relief the defence minister's
tiffs with the army, especially its Third Region in the North.
Gen Chavalit, known for an accommodating stance towards the junta since his
controversial repatriation of Burmese students in 1988, did not endear himself
to the troops by suggesting that Hua Lone hill was not worth the effort.
Chaiyachoke Chullasiriwongse, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn
University, said he was worried about the differences. Co-ordination was
lacking, he said.
While the foreign minister was in Rangoon trying to mend ties, he said army
radio broadcast an interview with a Shan leader which Rangoon probably took as
evidence of Thai support for the Shan, whose fighters are embroiled in the
border conflict along with the Red Wa, which the junta backs.
M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, former deputy foreign minister, said
conflicting remarks by the minister and Third Army Region commander Lt-Gen
Wattanachai Chaimuenwong had caused "disarray".
The Democrat-led government had never condemned the junta in Rangoon, and
Thai-Burmese relations had deteriorated "right after the workshop" in Chiang Rai
presented Mong Yawn as a drugs production centre.
Surapong Jayanama, former East Asian Affairs department head for the
ministry, said Burma was a military state with a militarist mindset. The
government should convince Burma to co-operate by applying "a strong gesture,
not by appeasement", he said.
"Unity in our society is important. We have to show a more collective
stand," he said. Diplomacy with Burma could only be effective with the public
support inherent in a democratic system and military back-up.
The government's failure to break the border stalemate could be explained
by the higher priority it sets on fighting drugs-though one could argue that
drugs and the border amount to one and the same thing.
Mr Surakiart said the border was not unimportant, but the biggest issue in
Thai-Burmese relations was drugs.
The government could also argue that most of the shared 2,400km border has
been left undemarcated for years.
But critics could say that no other government has been confronted with
such a long border stand-off, which even beats the rifts on the border with
Cambodia during the civil war there 20 years ago.
Burma, which has procrastinated on the demarcation issue, seems to be
testing the government's resolve. A joint boundary committee is effectively on
ice. The issue peaked during talks in China, the United States and Burma, just
three of the 14 countries the minister says he has visited in three
months.
To claim real success, Mr Kraisak said, the minister must secure Burma's
signature on a drug-fight memorandum of understanding that has been in the
pipeline for years.
Drawing China into the drugs fight with Thailand and Burma was another good
move, he said.
Zhu Rongji, the Chinese premier, and Mr Thaksin over the weekend agreed to
include Laos as a fourth participant, and to involve heads of government, not
just foreign ministers. China offered to host the meeting of prime ministers in
Kunming. Laos' inclusion came as a surprise but Mr Surakiart said he had
broached the matter with his Lao counterpart, Somsavat Lengsavad, during a visit
to Vientiane.
Mr Kraisak also believed Japan, a major provider of humanitarian aid to
Burma, should be included in a collective drive against drugs. Beyond drugs, the
government's foreign dealings have followed its economic and business
orientation.
Mr Thaksin has yet to deliver on his promise to help Thai fishermen, half
of whom went out of business after Burma closed its waters in October 1999 when
its embassy in Bangkok was seized by exiles. He is also under pressure from
Malaysia to get the gas pipeline going, although Mr Surakiart said talk of rapid
progress in three months was Malaysia's interpretation of a turn of
phrase.
But the prime minister has made much of deals he made with Mr Zhu,
including pledges to buy Thai rice and rubber, and consider tariff breaks for
dried lamyai.
The return favour China seems to expect is worrying. Mr Zhu repeated
China's wish to invest $1 billion in paper production from eucalyptus trees to
be planted in Thailand. Will this government yield where the Chuan Leekpai
government resisted on such an environmentally sensitive issue? Citing headway
with neighbours and a diplomatic drive supportive of the government's bid for
economic recovery, Mr Surakiart argues his mission is succeeding.
If third-party diplomatic pressure (from China or Japan, for example)
succeeds in bringing Burma around to the drugs fight cause, well and good.
But the confusing messages the government sends on border incursions and
drugs can only be to Burma's advantage. People could be forgiven for questioning
its sincerity.
Meanwhile, Rangoon gives with one hand while it takes with theother.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May 24,
2001.
Chinese visit next month sets stage for
drugs talks effort
The Chinese security minister will be in Bangkok next month to set the
stage for four-nation talks on drugs.
China is hosting the meeting of prime ministers in Kunming between
Thailand, China, Burma and Laos.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the Bangkok Post in a special
interview that talks would focus on joint suppression of precursor chemicals and
exchanges of intelligence.
It was agreed during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji's visit to Thailand
last week that bilateral anti-drug co-operation should be expanded to cover
Burma and Laos.
Thailand is having problems with Burma at its border.
Mong Yawn, a township in Burma controlled by the Red Wa tribal minorities,
is a major production centre for methamphetamines being sold in Thailand.
Mr Thaksin said his government supported friendly relations with Burma. He
believed the countries would be able to settle differences given good personal
relations between their leaders.
It was "illusion" that made them hostile towards each other, he said.
"We should sit down and talk and agree to let bygones be bygones," Mr
Thaksin said.
The prime minister was confident he could straighten things out with Burma
over the drug issue without making anyone angry.
Mr Thaksin said that according to protocol his official trip to Rangoon
could be arranged after the Burmese foreign minister paid a visit to
Thailand.
He said he was not too worried about reported rifts over military strategy
between Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Third Army commander
Wattanachai Chaimuenwong and would help iron out differences before travelling
to Burma.
Gen Chavalit preferred to deal with problems with Burma in a friendly
manner but Lt Gen Wattanachai believed Thailand should take a tough
stance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May 24,
2001.
Royal project site shelled by Red
Wa
Burma sends troops, too, sparking protest Wassana Nanuam and Subin Khuenkaew
Thailand has protested to Burma after the Red Wa on Tuesday shelled a royal
project site on Doi Angkhang in Chiang Mai's Fang district.
About 30,000 people will today rally in front of the district office to
condemn the shelling.
Thai soldiers from Pha Muang Task Force fired 12 warning shots after six
mortar shells from Burma fell on plum plantations under the Doi Angkhang
project, about 2km from the border.
Deputy Defence Minister Gen Yuthasak Sasiprapa said Thailand had sent a
letter to Rangoon via the Thai-Burmese Border Committee.
Thailand wanted Burma to take action after the Red Wa intentionally fired
on an important area in Thai territory, he said.
Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont and Third Army commander Lt-Gen
Wattanachai Chaimuenwong had told Their Majesties the King and the Queen about
the incident.
Gen Yuthasak said security would be stepped up in troubled areas while
Thailand was waiting for Rangoon's answer about an urgent Township Border
Committee meeting to tackle border problems.
Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Thailand and Burma should
act urgently to clear up border disputes.
In Chiang Mai, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment's special task force reported that
some 180 Burmese and Red Wa troops were stationed on Doi Si Khiew, north of Mae
Mor village in Mae Fa Luang district in Chiang Rai.
Col Chucheep Srisamaboon, director of the Third Army's directorate of civil
affairs, said the Third Army was trying to find out what Burma wanted in
attacking the royal project site and sending troops.
Fang district chief Krisda Boonrat said local officials believed the
shelling was premeditated. The shells all landed on plum plantations, about 5m
far from each other.
The district called a meeting of royal project workers and headmen of Khum,
Ban Luang and Pang Ma villages to prepare to evacuate villagers if
necessary.
Deputy interior permanent secretary Palakorn Suwannarat and a team of Her
Majesty the Queen's secretaries and aides yesterday inspected the site.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - May 24,
200.
Postbag - Resistance revives spirit of
May '92
Sathorn Observer Congratulations on the well-thought-out editorial of May 18 in which you
lay out clearly the scheme of the military and internal security types to expand
their powers at the expense of the rights guaranteed to the Thai people under
the constitution of 1997. I couldn't help thinking that the newly proposed
people and state security protection command sounds very similar to another
verbal whitewash from a neighbouring country-the State Peace and Development
Council of Burma. At first I found this surprising, but then I noticed that it
is that old friend of the Burmese generals, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who is
involved in this latest effort from Thai security circles.
Fortunately, it appears that Thai civil society groups will make it rough
sledding for this latest effort to undermine Thai constitutional democracy.
Close to the ninth anniversary of the martyrs of the May 1992 events, this
resistance to the dictatorial People and State Security Protection Bill is an
appropriate tribute to those Thais in the past who sacrificed all for human
rights and freedom.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- South China Morning Post
Thursday, May 24, 2001
BURMA - ILO back on slave labour
warpath
AGENCIES in Rangoon and Bangkok An International Labour Organisation (ILO) team made an unpublicised visit
to Burma last week to negotiate an accord on the eradication of forced labour
with the ruling junta.
The four-man technical team was led by Francis Maupain of France, who ran a
similar mission to Rangoon last October to assess the junta's efforts to stamp
out the entrenched practice of slave labour, an ILO representative said.
The following month the ILO's governing body made an unprecedented decision
to call on its members to review their ties with Burma - a move aimed at
tightening sanctions that have helped cripple the country's economy.
Bitterly disappointed, the junta shot back by declaring it would "cease to
co-operate" with the ILO, in an apparent declaration that the monitoring mission
would not be allowed to return.
But sources in Rangoon said the team had been permitted to visit from
Thursday to Saturday last week to negotiate the text of an accord under which
the military junta would separately monitor the eradication of forced labour in
the country.
An ILO official in Bangkok said the mission was likely to return to Rangoon
within a few months to implement guidelines developed last week.
The renewed contact with the ILO is another sign that a political shift may
be under way in Burma, where top junta leaders have been meeting opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi in secret for the past eight months.
The ILO visit came ahead of next week's return to Burma of Razali Ismail,
the UN envoy who helped broker talks between the junta and Ms Aung San Suu
Kyi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- UN Newservice
Annan to send envoy to Myanmar to help
facilitate reconciliation process
23 May – An envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will visit
Myanmar next week to help facilitate the process of democratization and national
reconciliation there, a UN spokesman said today in New York.
Razali Ismail, Mr. Annan's Special Envoy for Myanmar, will hold discussions
with Government officials and representatives of the National League for
Democracy, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr. Razali's mission, from 1 to 4 June, will be his fourth official trip to
Myanmar. It follows a visit last month by Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, who reported cautious
optimism after attending three days of talks with Government and opposition
party leaders.
Returning from that trip at the beginning of April, Mr. Pinheiro said that
the Myanmar authorities had spoken with him about the possibility of having
democratization, a civilian government and the guarantee of basic freedoms in
the country. Mr. Pinheiro stressed that he was working to support Mr. Razali's
efforts in trying to facilitate a dialogue between the Government and the
opposition with the involvement of national minorities.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Cooperatives to Take Part
in Kunming Trade Fair
2001.05.24 10:04:47 YANGON, May 24 (Xinhuanet) --
Twenty-seven Myanmar cooperatives will take part in the Kunming Trade Fair
2001 scheduled to be held in China's southwestern city of Kunming from June 6 to
10, according to the Myanmar Ministry of Cooperatives Thursday.
The Myanmar cooperatives, with a 110-member-strong delegation, will
open 19 booths at the fair to display their products such as gems,
traditional handicrafts, lacquerware, wood-work, gold embroidery and
sculptures.
There is so far a total of 18,159 cooperative societies in Myanmar
which were formed since the country promulgated its Cooperatives Law in
1992 in line with its market-oriented economic system.
The cooperatives in Myanmar contributes 2.1 percent to the country's
national gross domestic product.
According to official statistics, Myanmar's foreign trade, including
the border trade, totaled 4.086 billion U.S. dollars in 2000, of which
imports were valued at 2.567 billion, while exports amounted to 1.519
billion.
Myanmar's main foreign trading partners are Singapore, China,
Thailand, Republic of Korea and Japan.
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