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----------------------------------------------------------------- BURMA RELATED NEWS - June 06, 2001. ----------------------------------------------------------------- HEADLINE ----------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Thailand Distorts It's Own History With
Myanmar-Analysts
Reuters - Thai police get tough on illegal
immigrant workers
Reuters - Myanmar textbook calls Thais lazy
pleasure-seekers
FT - Labour group to assess Burma
NSTP - Illegal alien driving bogus Telekom van
to ferry Myanmars busted
TI - Myanmar dissidents demand scrutiny of
failed talks
Bkk Post - Burmese columnist panned for
misinterpreting facts
The Nation - Views on
freedom of _expression_
The Nation - Twisted
view of history
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Bilateral Trade With ASEAN
Members Up
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Calls For Enhanced
Cooperation to Overcome Environmental Problems
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Leader Stresses Need for
Strong Armed Forces
IHT - Burma Sanctions Sputter
TIE - Into Myanmar on
tonga, rocking with Kareena
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 6, 3:30 PM Thailand Distorts It's Own History With
Myanmar-Analysts
BANGKOK (AP)--Thailand is
equally guilty of distorting history concerning its neighbors, analysts said
Wednesday after Myanmar published a new fourth-grade textbook that portrayed
Thais as lazy and servile.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, apparently hoping to prevent a new war
of words with Myanmar, or Burma, declined to comment on the book and urged both
sides to stop trading angry words.
"Myanmar is very sensitive to news reports from Thailand, so the best thing
for both sides it to stop trading accusations and let the leaders settle
matters," Thaksin told reporters.
The Education Ministry in Myanmar introduced the 12-page history textbook
supplement for the 2001-2002 academic year in state-run schools that reopened
Monday.
One section of the book says: "Thai people are given to fun and
appreciation of beauty. They are disinclined to self-reliance and hard work."
The textbook was published as Thai-Myanmar relations are at their lowest
level in years, principally over Thailand's accusations that Myanmar's ruling
military junta aids drug traffickers.
Myanmar denies the charge and accuses Thailand of supporting
anti-government rebels. Their arguments have sparked frequent border skirmishes
since January.
Myanmar history expert Sunait Chutintranon warned that the textbook will
have a lasting impact on bilateral relations if young Burmese were "taught to
hate the Thais."
But Sunait and other experts said Thailand must also stop portraying its
neighbors in a negative light in its textbooks and movies.
"In Thai history textbooks, we talk about our neighbors as our enemies. We
only tell stories of wars that we won and made people of neighboring countries
our slaves. From now on we should put other aspects in our textbooks," Sunait
told ITV television network.
Thai textbooks portray medieval Myanmar kings as thieves who only wanted to
loot Siam, as Thailand was formerly called.
"In a way, the Myanmar textbook is a quid pro quo," said Sulak Sivaraksa, a
leading Thai social critic.
He said the textbook may be a Myanmar government effort to deflect
attention from its own troubles - a weak economy, accusations of human rights
abuses and international pressure to allow a return of civilian rule.
"The (Myanmar) government is very weak right now and they need to find a
common enemy. I feel sorry for them," Sulak said.
He said he didn't believe the Myanmar people would be influenced by the
textbooks issued by their "oppressive government."
"It's very simple. In Burma nobody takes the government texts seriously.
The Burmese people are a lovely people and, on the whole, they like the Thais,"
he said.
"Thailand and Myanmar should be more open to each other in terms of culture
and academic knowledge exchange," said Kraisak Choonhavan, a senator and a
proponent of better relations with Myanmar.
"We cannot change history, but we can make it based on truth," he
said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 6, 9:03 PM
Thai police get tough on illegal
immigrant workers
BANGKOK, June 6 (Reuters) - Thai police said on Wednesday they were launching a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrant workers, aiming to drive almost a million of them, mostly from Indochinese neighbours, out of Thailand by 2005. Deputy national police chief Sant Sarutanonda told reporters the national
police force was asking the Ministry of Labour to import legal workers from
Cambodia and Laos to replace the illegal ones doing dirty and dangerous jobs.
"We want to get rid of illegal workers within four years. After that we
think the Ministry of Labour should liaise with the government of Laos and
Cambodia to bring in legitimate labour," Sant told reporters.
"If we don't address the problem now, we would face a minority problem like
our neighbours," he said referring to Myanmar.
Sant said since January Thai police had arrested and deported about 120,000
illegal workers, mainly from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and South Asia.
There is no official figure on how many illegal immigrants are working in
Thailand, but authorities estimate the number could be close to one
million.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 6, 8:56 PM
Myanmar textbook calls Thais lazy
pleasure-seekers
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai-Myanmar relations soured further on Wednesday with the distribution of a compulsory Myanmar school textbook which describes Thais as lazy, opportunistic and pleasure-seeking. "They have little desire to depend on themselves and very little interest
in violence or hard work," a chapter on the Thai national character says.
"Thai people are characterised by indulging in beauty and pleasure," it
says.
Myanmar's exiled democracy movement apologised for the textbook, while
Thailand called it a "misunderstanding" that could harm already strained
bilateral ties.
Relations between the two Southeast Asian nations -- enemies for centuries
-- have been deteriorating over the past few months following a series of
clashes on their 2,400-km (1,490 mile) border.
Thailand accuses Myanmar of fostering a booming cross-border drugs trade,
while Myanmar says Thailand is encouraging unrest among its many ethnic
minorities.
The text book, which will be compulsory for students between the ages of
nine and 14 years, particularly criticises what it says is Thailand's "bend with
the wind" foreign policy.
One chapter, which focuses on the future of bilateral relations, says
Thailand is a "bad neighbour" which has the wrong attitudes toward the country.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said on Wednesday he had not
taken any diplomatic action over the book but would raise the issue when he met
Myanmar leaders.
"Creating misunderstanding is not healthy for the relations of the people
of both countries," he said.
He said Thailand thought the textbook content was an incorrect
interpretation of history, but that the issue was ultimately a domestic one.
Myanmar's foreign minister Win Aung is scheduled to pay an official visit
to Thailand during June. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has also said he
plans to visit Myanmar soon to improve bilateral ties.
"We would like to apologise to the people of Thailand for the publication
of the textbook," the Bangkok-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front said in
a statement.
"We deeply regret this and would like to state that this is not the view of
the people of Burma (Myanmar)."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Financial Times
Labour group to assess Burma By Frances Williams in Geneva Published: June 5 2001 15:56GMT | Last Updated: June 5 2001 17:52GMT Burma has agreed to a visit by a high-level International Labour
Organisation team in September to conduct "an objective assessment" of the
impact of measures taken by the military junta to end forced labour.
The move, announced in a report to the ILO's annual conference which opened
on Tuesday, is expected to dampen calls at the conference for tougher action
against Burma, which has repeatedly flouted ILO and human rights conventions
banning the practice.
Last November, the ILO urged its 174 members, including trade union and
employer representatives, and other international bodies to "review their
relations" with Burma to ensure they were not abetting forced labour.
Rangoon issued a decree last October instructing local officials to stop
using conscript workers but human rights organisations claim villagers are still
being forced to work unpaid on construction and agricultural projects or for the
army.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The New Straits Times Press
PADANG BESAR
Illegal alien driving bogus Telekom van to ferry Myanmars busted by Shahrum Sayuthi 06 June 2001 An attempt by an illegal immigrant agent to disguise his van as a Telekom
Bhd vehicle failed to dupe the authorities, resulting in his arrest along with
15 Myanmar nationals.
Perlis Anti-Smuggling Unit officers last night detained the "tekong darat"
and the illegal immigrants after a two kilometre high speed chase along the
Jalan Kampung Syed Omar near here.
The van carrying the illegal immigrants which bears a Telekom Bhd sticker
was also seized.
Anti-Smuggling Unit operation commander for Chuping, Inspektor Muhd Azhari
Chik, who led the operation said the Telekom sticker was believed to have been
used as a ruse to confuse the authorities.
"The tekong darat could had probably tried to disguise the van in such a
way so that the illegal immigrants would appeared to us as Telekom workers," he
said.
Muhd Azhari, who was speaking to reporters at the Anti-Smuggling Unit camp
in Chuping after the operation said the van was rented by the 28 year old local
man from Kampung Simpang Empat.
He said the man would be charged for harbouring illegal immigrants under
Section 56(1)(d) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 which carries a maximum compound
of RM3,000 for each illegal immigrants.
The illegal immigrants were detained for entering the country without
proper travelling document under Section 6(3) of the same Act pending their
deportation order.
Recalling the incident, Muhd Azhari said the enforcement officers received
a public tip-off about the "tekong darat" and the illegal immigrants at 8.30
pm.
They spotted the van as it was moving out of a secluded area at a nearby
secondary forest and gave chase after the driver failed to stop after ordered to
do so.
Muhd Azhari said the van however stopped after two kilometre, probably
because the driver realised he cannot outrun the enforcement officers' four
wheel-drive vehicle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Times of India - June 06,
2001.
Myanmar dissidents demand scrutiny of
failed talks
BANGKOK: Secret talks between democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and Myanmar's military regime have failed to make any head way and
should now be opened to public scrutiny, a Myanmar dissident group on
Tuesday.
"The progress over the last eight months of dialogue has been virtually
non-existent," the All-Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) said in a
statement.
The Thailand-based activist group called on the opposition National League
for Democracy (NLD) and the ruling State Peace and Development Council to reveal
details of the contacts which began last October.
"We ask the NLD and SPDC to open up the talks so the people of Burma and
the world can see if there is progress" said spokesman Sonny Mahinder.
"The current talks are not open. People are frustrated waiting for
information while human rights abuses and forced labour are still occurring
inside the country."
The ABSDF accused the military regime of staging religious and racial
riots, which have broken out in recent weeks to "distract people's attention
from current political and economic problems."
"The people of Burma should have access to information about the real
progress of the talks," it said, urging foreign governments and rights
organisations to maintain pressure on the SPDC.
UN envoy Razali Ismail ended a four-day mission to Myanmar on Monday where
he met with Aung San Suu Kyi and top junta leaders in a bid to revive the
reconciliation talks they embarked on in 2000.
The dialogue, the first between the two warring sides since 1994, initially
raised hopes that 40 years of military rule might finally be coming to an end in
Myanmar.
But in the last few months the contacts appear to have hit a road block, as
elements within the junta balked at the prospect of introducing democratic
reforms.
The government's decision to allow Razali to visit last week, after a
worryingly long absence of five months, was hailed as a sign that the
reconciliation process was back on track.
But eyebrows were raised again on Monday when the Malaysian diplomat left
Yangon without any of the prizes he was expected to be handed - including the
release of a batch of political prisoners and permission to release a statement
on the direction and intent of the talks.
Instead, UN chief Kofi Annan later made a vaguely-worded statement which
said only that the visit by his special envoy had been "timely" and that he
hoped it would help reconcile the military rulers and opposition.
Dissident groups and the nation's many ethnic minorities, whose support
will be crucial in any transition to democracy, have made increasingly loud
calls for light to be shed on the secret dialogue.
"It's difficult for everyone else to have the patience and forbearance to
deal with this situation when we don't have a great deal of information to go
on," said one diplomat in Yangon after Razali's departure.
"The mood here is one that we have to be very patient and we have a long
way to go," he added. (AFP)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post - June 06,
2001.
Burmese columnist panned for
misinterpreting facts
Articles no cause for alarm, say experts Bhanravee Tansubhapol
Thailand should not easily be agitated by "profane" articles in the Burmese
media because they had misinterpreted Thai history, historians told a seminar
yesterday.
The Burmese columnist Ma Tin Win of the Institute of Education
misinterpreted the implications of the Bowring Treaty, which Siam signed with
Britain in 1855 during the reign of King Mongkut, said Chalong Soontravanich, a
history professor at Chulalongkorn University.
Many historians and several historical writings acknowledged that the
Bowring Treaty caused a dilemma for Thai sovereignty and freedom of monetary
management, he said.
"But this concern was solved by King Chulalongkorn, who later amended the
controversial part of the treaty by signing other treaties in which Thailand
sacrificed portions of its land to France and Britain in exchange for
extra-territorial rights and tax rights being abolished," Mr Chalong said.
In her article "Never Been Enslaved But a Real Slave" published May 21 in
the official mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar, Ma Tin Win misinterpreted the late
historian Rong Sayamanond's statement that the Bowring Treaty cost Siam its
power of jurisdiction and the right to use money.
Mr Chalong said the manner in which she'd written her piece showed she was
only a columnist, not a historian, so Thai readers should be more thoughtful and
not so easily agitated.
"We have also condemned others in history so the article should be a mirror
to warn ourselves. Of course it hurts to be spoken of like that, but it's like a
diamond which can be viewed from many sides. We could insteadask why Ma Tin Win
hates Thaisinstead of the British, who colonised Burma."Thamsook Numnonda, a
retired history professor from Silapakorn University, said Burma signed a treaty
with Britain in 1826 surrendering the opium trade to the British, while King
Rama III banned the opium trade.
She said King Rama IV, or King Mongkut, signed the Bowring Treaty which
allowed opium to be traded by the British and Chinese in 1855 in order to
contain the opium problem and tax opium money.
"Ma Tin Win simply chose to voice those facts which suited her own
assumptions," Ms Thumsook said.
Suthachai Yimprasert, another Chulalongkorn University history professor,
disagreed with the Thai government's protest over the article.
"Our bilateral relations have been deteriorating due to conduct by both
sides. We should not take up this article and retaliate."The real problem, he
said, stemmed from a too-close association with Burma. Rangoon was allowed to
enter the same regional grouping without tending to its human rights
record.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation - June 06,
2001.
Views on freedom of _expression_
The International Freedom of _expression_ Exchange (Ifex), an alliance of
more than 50 non-governmental organisations worldwide, yesterday opened its
annual conference with discussions about access to information in the
region.
The meeting was themed "Bringing Down the Walls: Open Information for the
New Millennium".
Sheila Coronel of the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalists
(PCIJ) said that the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia had the best access to
information within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) while
Burma had the worst.
Surveying Asean countries about the availability to the public of various
"public" records, she found that Singapore and Burma had the most secrecy.
Coronel said that although Singapore was considered an open society,
getting access to certain information was extremely difficult. For example,
records concerning government officials, military personnel and alien
information were deemed too confidential.
Burma scored lowest in the region in all categories, while the Philippines
was considered the most accessible country.
Sharing the lessons of Thailand's information act, Kavi Chongkittavorn,
president of the Thailand Journalists' Association and managing editor of The
Nation, said that in the three years since the law had been introduced, the
government had become more transparent and more accountable.
"It has served as a deterrent because any person who commits malfeasance
can be traced," he said, adding that the law also empowered ordinary citizens,
especially those in rural areas.
However, Kavi said that a culture of secrecy still persisted in Thailand,
as government officials continued to withhold information they were supposed to
give out to the public. "They do not understand that giving out information when
needed is part of their service," he said.
Kavi said that neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia were
learning from Thailand's experience of it and its implications for
society.
He said that the current government had issued several executive orders
instructing 8,477 state agencies in all provinces to comply with the law without
delay.
He said it was estimated that only 45 per cent of the government agencies
were ready to give information to the public.
Other Ifex panellists included Ken Battacharjee of Article 19 and Sunanda
Deshapria and Waruna Karunathilaka of Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement.
Over the next two days Ifex, meeting in Bangkok, will discuss challenges to
the media in newly democratic states, especially journalistic ethics and the
concentration of media ownership.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Nation - June 06,
2001.
Twisted view of history
Vorapun Srivoranart
Historians argued yesterday that controversial articles run recently in the
Burmese state-run press insulting past Thai monarchs were fraught with
"historical anachronisms" and pointed to serious problems for the bilateral
relationship.
In the past, Thailand and Thai history were not principal concerns of the
Burmese public, whose chief enemy was the British, said Chalong Soontravanich,
from Chulalongkorn University's history department.
However, articles allegedly penned by Ma Tin Win, from a Burmese
educational institution, in the New Light of Myanmar, showed explicit feelings
of hatred toward the Thai public and sent a "dangerous signal" as far as
people-to-people ties on both sides were concerned, Chalong said.
He said the articles offered a gross misinterpretation of the history of
Thailand and of Southeast Asia as a whole. For example, Rama IV could never have
been personally involved in the negotiations leading up to the Bowring Treaty
between Siam - as Thailand was then known - and Britain, as protocol did not
allow it.
He dismissed the allegation that the former King had given greater
importance to the throne than he had to the nation. "At that time, there was no
such thing as the nation-state and, therefore, the monarchy and the Kingdom
could be referred to interchangeably."
"She [Ma Tin Win] chose to say only what she wanted to say, and chose to
ignore what she wanted to ignore," said Thamsook Numnonda, a retired historian
from Silpakorn University. Thamsook said one should not draw a parallel between
the time Siam acceded to the Bowring Treaty in 1855 and when Burma, then the
Hanthawaddy kingdom, signed an accord with the British in 1826.
"The social and historical contexts were completely different," involving
disparate factors and strategies," said Thamsook. Moreover, the Burmese king in
1867 even signed an agreement with the British granting the latter
extra-territorial rights in the wake of a palace coup.
Suthachai Yimprasert, also of Chulalongkorn University's history department
said while it was true that history was subject to individual interpretation,
the articles were a special case since they occurred in the context of
interstate tension and constituted a deliberate attempt to hurt the Thai
people.
He accused successive Thai governments of showing excessive friendliness
towards Rangoon, while turning a blind eye to human rights and political
repression.
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Myanmar's Bilateral Trade With
ASEAN Members Up
2001.06.06 14:05:38 YANGON, June 6 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar's bilateral trade with five other member countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,
Indonesia and the Philippines -- totaled 313.6 million U.S. dollars in the
first two months of this year, up 22.9 percent from the same period of
2000.
According to the latest figures published by the country's Central
Statistical Organization, these trade accounted for 40.7 percent of
Myanmar's total foreign trade during the two-month period with its import
from these ASEAN members amounting to 181. 47 million dollars, while its export
to them valued at 132.13 million dollars. The trade deficit stood at 49.34
million dollars.
Of these five ASEAN members, Myanmar's trade with Thailand accounted
for the highest volume with 125.48 million dollars or 16. 3 percent of the
country's 769.15 million dollars' total foreign trade.
It was followed by that with Singapore which took up 123.26 million
dollars or 16 percent. Myanmar's trade with Malaysia and Indonesia stood
at 39.25 million dollars and 24 million dollars, respectively.
In 2000, Myanmar's total foreign trade, including the border trade,
totaled 4.086 billion dollars, of which its bilateral trade with the five other
ASEAN members amounted to 1.651 billion dollars, accounting for 40.4
percent of the country's total foreign trade during the year.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Myanmar Calls For Enhanced
Cooperation to Overcome Environmental Problems
2001.06.06 13:44:42 YANGON, June 6 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt Wednesday called for enhanced
international cooperation and efforts to overcome environmental problems that
the world is facing.
Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council, made the call at a ceremony here marking the World
Environment Day.
Noting that all forms of life on earth are interlinked and
intertwined in the form of web, he warned a collapse in one system will impact
the other and eventually lead to the collapse of the entire
ecosystem.
The planet earth is very fragile with limited capacity to endure and
tolerate environmentally detrimental human actions and pressures, the
Myanmar leader said, adding that over-exploitation of earth's resources,
huge generation of solid wastes, gaseous wastes and wastewater are
damaging the ecosystems and posing serious threats to the
environment.
Khin Nyunt emphasized the key role of international cooperation in
addressing the current environmental issues, and appreciated the efforts
of the international organizations, particularly the U. N. Environment Program,
and governments for successfully developing many important multilateral
environmental conventions.
He called on all nations, big or small, rich or poor, developed or
developing, to work together to make the world a cleaner and safer place
to live.
In this respects, he stressed the need for strong support from the
developed countries in terms of technical transfer and financial
assistance to help the developing countries promote environmentally sound
technologies and strengthen environmental institution for implementing
environmental programs.
With regard to Myanmar, he said the country, which is a developing
nation, is doing its best to become a modern and developed state, paying
due consideration to environmental factors.
Myanmar is green with more than 50 percent of its land covered with
forest. The land area of reserved and protected forest amounts to more
than 104,000 square kilometers.
At present, there are 30 sanctuaries and 4 national parks in the
country to protect the natural environment as well as to protect and
preserve wildlife, fauna and flora.
There are over 3,410 kinds of botanical plants in the country, of
which trees take up 2,700 kinds, bamboo 96 kinds and cane 36 kinds. There
are also more than 1,240 kinds of birds.
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Myanmar Leader Stresses Need for
Strong Armed Forces
2001.06.06 12:33:46 YANGON, June 6 (Xinhuanet) --
The Myanmar Armed Forces must always remain a strong defense organization,
no matter what political and economic system a government practices, said
the country's top leader Senior-General Than Shwe Tuesday.
Than Shwe, chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council
and Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Services, made the remarks when
addressing the country's War Veterans Organization ( WVO) Conference,
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.
He called for upholding three main national causes: non-
disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and
perpetuation of sovereignty.
The Myanmar WVO, a non-governmental organization, was founded in
December 1975 and the Myanmar WV Law was enacted in August 1989.
The Myanmar WV Central Organizing Committee was reformed in October
1998.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The International Herald
Tribune
Wednesday, June 6, 2001
Burma Sanctions Sputter
Elizabeth Olson New York Times Service Case Tests the Resolve of UN Labor GENEVA Nearly all governments agree that smooth, seamless international trade is good and mistreatment of workers is bad. . But when free trade and labor standards intersect, as anti-globalization protests in Seattle and elsewhere have illustrated, the results can be surprisingly troublesome. . Look no further than efforts by many governments to take Burma to task for flouting international labor policies. . In November, the International Labor Organization, a UN affiliate based in Geneva with 175 member countries, called for stiff measures against Burma because the military government forced villagers to do unpaid construction work. Initially, the European Union, the United States and other countries indicated that they would impose sanctions on Burma. But a new report by the labor organization failed to identify a single country that had responded to its call with any concrete action. . The reason is that Burma belongs to the World Trade Organization, and sanctions with some sting - such as a ban on textile exports - would violate WTO rules. . The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights abuse listed Burma as one of the three worst offenders. The United States suspended trade preferences for Burma years ago, and Americans are banned from investing there. But there is only limited support in Congress for additional sanctions, in part because the Burmese government has reopened a dialogue with the country's most prominent dissident, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the United States continues to be Burma's largest export market. . Burma's trade with both the United States and the European Union has soared recently. According to Eurostat, the Union's statistical agency, the volume of trade between the 15 countries and Burma shot up from E222.6 million ($188.3 million) in December 1999 to E404.3 million in December 2000. The Commerce Department reports a near-quadrupling of U.S. imports from Burma since 1997 to a total of $412 million last year. . Oddly, that growth has occurred in part because the United States has cold-shouldered Burma, also known as Myanmar, diplomatically. There have been no negotiations on a bilateral quota for apparel, such as the ones the United States has negotiated with most other developing countries. Manufacturers from China and elsewhere have set up shop in Burma specifically to exploit that loophole. . The labor organization's fruitless effort to take a strong stand against Burma's practices has shed a harsh light on its lack of enforcement power. At a March meeting, U.S. officials worried about the group's ineffectiveness. . "In the absence of democratic reforms in Burma, the practical ability of an ILO presence there to assure that forced labor has been eliminated nationwide is highly problematic," Charles Spring, a Labor Department official, told the group. -----------------------------------------------------------------
The Indian Express - June 05,
2001.
Into Myanmar on tonga, rocking with
Kareena
Thanks to ‘open’ border, Indians shop in Myanmar for
cheap consumer goods, liqueurs
Sankarshan Thakur
Tamu (Myanmar), June 5: WE rode into one of the world’s most obstinate
military dictatorships with ten-rupee tickets on a ramshackle tonga. The border
guard who signed our permits on the Moreh Frontier called himself Ping Pong Taa
and his bearing was only a little more military than his name. He wore his
outsize sergeant’s cap fashionably askew, in the manner of an MTV veejay, and he
was playing a Kareena Kapoor song on his Chinese mini-stereo—‘aa rang de dupatta
mera...haan rang de dupatta mera...’’ Not quite the officially designated
bilateral theme, but you couldn’t blame Ping Ping Taa for not trying: he had the
volume turned so high all of India and Myanmar could hear.
‘‘Latest,’’ he proudly smiled, revealing what could only have been pewter
dentures between other rotting teeth, ‘‘Lovely, no?’’
It was raining and the horse neighed and bucked angrily down the slippery
strip from no man’s land into Tamu. Every time the animal skittered off the road
and dug its hooves indignantly, its Myanmarese owner turned and jested in broken
Hindi. ‘‘India hai naa, India,’ he said, ‘‘Hum Burma kaa, hamara ghoda India ka,
udhar se aataa hai, open border se, iska to permit bhi nahin maang hai.’’ (It’s
India. I am Burmese, my horse is Indian, it comes from the other side, across
the open border, he doesn’t even require a permit).
The horse was grossly whipped and underfed, like all horses yoked to carts
everywhere else, but if it had a voice, it would perhaps also have complained
about the unbearable burden of slaving in an alien land. It jerked and pulled
but half an hour or so later it deposited us quite safely in Tamu town, the
first Myanmarese post beyond the ‘‘open’’ border.
The famed bamboo curtain is more than just a little ajar here and the view
out may offer better perspectives on what’s happening across the border than you
may find in India itself. Tamu is nothing but a hardcore trading depot, even
more aggressive in purpose now that the WTO is in place. The town’s spine is two
long columns of squat shops spilling over with all manner of goods, mostly
Chinese and cheap: garments, bolts of silk, electronics, toys, cosmetics,
platoons of plastic durables, crockery, cutlery, pornography. Ask for it and the
Tamu retailer will produce it for you.
The train of goods from Tamu in Noreh and Manipur is long and overloaded.
Tongas, such as the one we took, and old ford station wagons form an unbroken
chain of Indians emptying their cash in Tamu for goods. Manipur is meant to be a
strictly dry state but barely a hour off its limits you will find the most
versatile liquor stalls and the most well-stocked: the best Scotch in a dozen or
more brands, the most delectable wines, liquers so rare often neither seller no
buyer may know how esoteric or prized they may be.
And all of it travels rather smoothly and regularly to ‘‘dry’’ Manipur; it
is possible in Imphal to blend the most exotic cocktails and it doesn’t always
have to be done under the table; you just pay a little premium, carting costs
from Tamu or Moreh.
But stuff more lethal than just excess alcohol is exported out of here into India. In the alleys and bylanes of Tamu bustle the arms bazaars that feed insurgency in the north east. Chinese and Czech automatic weapons, rocket launchers, grenades, mines, remote explosive devices. ‘‘It is an open market on the other side,’’ an Assam Rifles major had told
us on the Indian side of the border post at Moreh, ‘‘We know it but we can do
little about it. It is an understatement to call the border porous, it leaks
more than it plugs. We can barely keep tabs on what we call the legal trade
coming in from Myanmar, there is just so much that comes in.’’
A few minutes at the international turnstiles will tell you how heavily
loaded even the legal trade is against India just a one-day traffic of goods
pouring in. All India seems to export is cash and ill-bred horses and songs
Kareena sings: that is music to Myanmarese ears, or at least to Ping Ping
Taa’s.
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