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BURMA RELATED NEWS - August 14,
2001.
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HEADLINES
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bkk Post - Illegal workers will be granted
reprieve if registered on time
Bkk Post - Repatriation of 5,000 halted
Bkk Post - Border meet
put off till next month
NSTP - Illegal immigrants in hot
soup
Reuters - Pakistani president sets date
for return to democracy
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 14,
2001.
Cabinet to set clear guidelines this week Illegal workers will be granted reprieve if registered on time Yuwadee Tunyasiri Cabinet will this week set clearer guidelines for registering illegal
foreign workers.
Veerasak Kowsurat, adviser to Dej Bunlong, the deputy premier and labour
minister, said a proposal tabled before cabinet requires the registration of
alien workers currently hired by businesses nationwide.
Those registered will not be deported, thus granting a reprieve to workers
from Laos, Burma and Cambodia.
Employers must register their foreign workers with the Labour Ministry and
obtain work permits before Sept 29.
The foreign workers would no longer have to report to the police as part of
the registration process, Mr Veerasak said.
After the deadline, authorities will crack down on unregistered workers and
legal action will be taken against their employers.
Also, the army will be empowered to search for unregistered labourers and
alert authorities to their whereabouts.
Border police and immigration officials will co-ordinate in pushing back
those trying to slip into the country in the hope of securing work
permits.
Mr Veerasak said registration would incur a 1,000 baht repatriation
guarantee payment, 1,200 baht annual health insurance coverage and 3,550 baht
towards health checks and registration fees.
The registration would be renewable every six months. Workers issued with
permits would have their personal details filed for reference.
Mr Veerasak said the move would enable the government to keep track of the
number of illegal alien workers in the country, which at present is estimated at
one million.
He said the regulation might prove a boon to Thai workers as it could
discourage some employers who would instead opt to recruit from the local
workforce.
Neighbouring countries would be asked to prepare for repatriation of their
workers and, in the future, the policy might be extended to other nationals to
export their labour to Thailand.
An office for the management of illegal alien labour will be set up, and
chaired by the prime minister with the labour minister as his deputy.
Executives will include individuals representing relevant agencies.
The office is to come under the Labour Ministry and cabinet approval was
needed.
The new method of registration was expected to initially cost the
government 20 million baht.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 14,
2001.
Repatriation of 5,000 halted
Political situation does not warrant immigrants'
return
Supamart Kasem
Thai and UNHCR officials have suspended a plan to repatriate more than
5,000 illegal immigrants from Burma who are being sheltered in a refugee camp in
Tha Song Yang district.
The United Nations officials reasoned the current political situation in
Burma does not warrant the immigrants' return.
Originally, the repatriation of 5,606 illegal immigrants from Mae La
refugee camp was to begin on Sunday. But authorities decided to suspend the plan
because the timing was not right.
Moreover, most of those seeking refuge in Thailand do not want to be
repatriated because of uncertainties about their safety and a place where they
could return to earn a decent living.
Many of those on the repatriation list said they did not see how they would
be able to survive in Burma as their land, houses and other properties had been
confiscated by the authorities in Rangoon.
Many villages had also been turned into military bases for the pro-Rangoon
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
A Muslim at Mae La camp said many of the Muslims and Christians who
returned to their home villages in Kawkareik, Kamamaung, Papun, Yinbaing and
Hlaingbwe districts in Karen state, and Kyaito, Thaton and Mudon in Mon state
two or three years ago had been mistreated by Burmese authorities, which forced
them to flee back to Thailand.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 14,
2001.
Border meet put off till next month
Wassana Nanuam
Next week's scheduled Thailand-Burma border meeting has been postponed
until next month so that Burma's State Peace and Development Council first
secretary Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt can take part.
The 19th Regional Border Committee (RBC) meeting will now be held in early
September. It was scheduled for Aug 22-24 in Pattaya with Third Army chief
Lt-Gen Wathanachai Chaimuanwong and Burma's Triangle Regional Commander Maj-Gen
Thein Sein joining in the talks.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt will arrive in Bangkok in the first week of September for
talks with Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and military leaders to
discuss co-operation, drug suppression and border problems.
Army commander Gen Surayud Chulanont said he wanted to discuss joint
Thai-Burmese patrol operations and drug and border problems. Thailand was ready
to help Burmese ethnic minorities find other occupations to curb drug
production.
Lt-Gen Wathanachai said he had invited Maj-Gen Thein Sein to a friendly
round of golf and informal talks in Chiang Rai ahead of the RBC meeting in
Pattaya. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The New Straits Times Press - August
14, 2001.
KLANG
Illegal immigrants in hot soup By M. K. Megan A total of 117 illegal immigrants from India, Myanmar and Indonesia were
charged in the magistrate's court today with entering and staying in Malaysia
without proper documents.
All of them pleaded guilty and magistrate Rosli Ahmad sentenced them to
five months jail each.
They were arrested on July 25 at about 11.30pm in three premises at Lot
6121 Batu 5 1/2, Jalan Salleh, Meru. They were between 27 and 45 years of
age.
Twenty nine of them had overstayed. The others did not have valid travel
documents.
Prosecuting officers from immigration department were V. Kasturi Bai, Mohd
Sam Nordin, Abdul Aziz Omar and Khalidun Harun.
Selangor immigration director Dahri Ibrahim later at a Press conference at
the State Immigration headquarters in Shah Alam said the raid, code named Ops
Sapu, was organised following a tip off from the public.
"The raid was over and above the twice a week raid that we conduct. When we
received information we expected to arrest about 30 illegal immigrants.
"We were surprised to catch 117. We went in the wee hours when they were
sleeping."
Dahri said this was also the first time they had caught the most number of
Indian nationals. In the raid there were 56 Indians, 57 Myanmars (20 of them
females) and four Indonesians.
He said to date they have arrested 656 illegal immigrants. Last year the
department arrested 1,382 and collected RM2.158 million in compound.
"The number of arrests and compound collected are expected to increase this
year as until to date we have collected about RM1.7 million. We have four more
months and we are confident of surpassing last year's amount," he said.
Dahri said the illegal immigrants problem was like "flowing water". "The
more we clear the more it flows back," he said.
Meanwhile the Selangor Immigration Department will repatriate more than 700
illegal immigrants back to Indonesian from the Port Klang jetty tomorrow.
------------------------------------------------------------------ Tuesday August 14, 10:38 PM
Pakistani president sets date for return
to democracy
By Jack Redden ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf on
Tuesday promised national elections and a return to democracy in October 2002,
the third anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power.
In speeches marking Pakistan's 54th anniversary of independence, the
military ruler said elections for two houses of parliament and provincial
assemblies would take place from October 1-11, 2002.
Previously he has said national political parties could participate, but he
made no mention of the subject on Tuesday. He said the actual transfer of power
to a civilian set-up -- in which he will remain president -- would be completed
between October and November next year.
Musharraf, who seized power on October 12, 1999 and added the position of
president to his title of chief executive in June, has moved methodically toward
presenting his "roadmap" for a return to elected government, ignoring
international pressure for an earlier restoration of parliament.
He made it clear, however, he did not want a return to the chaotic elected
governments of the 1990s, saying the country's greatest threat came not from
traditional foe India but from internal problems.
Musharraf said he also planned to amend the country's suspended
constitution to introduce "checks and balance" by the end of June next year.
He said the changes would be made after a public debate on his proposals,
which he did not specify. He is expected to give the presidency, now a
figurehead position, key powers now held by the prime minister in the
British-style parliamentary system.
His announcement followed the last of a series of party-less local
elections held across the country this year that Musharraf expects to produce a
new political leadership to replace the largely discredited figures of the
previous decade.
He said in earlier speech on Tuesday to mark the national day that Pakistan
had somehow lost the spirit of its early years after the partition of the Indian
subcontinent and the formation of the country in 1947. But he did not blame
India, with whom he has begun peace talks.
"TERMITES" DESTROYING PAKISTAN
"Our threat emanates from within," Musharraf said. "Our economic malaise
coupled with intolerance, extremist attitudes in certain quarters, are the
termites eating us from within.
"All that is required is will and self-confidence to face these challenges.
We must realise and understand that the time has now come to rededicate
ourselves for achieving our ... objectives, the attainment of our rightful place
in the world," he said.
He also announced an immediate ban on two rival Islamic militant groups --
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from the majority Sunni sect and Sipah-e-Mohammad from the
minority Shi'ite sect -- that are often blamed by authorities for sectarian
violence in Pakistan.
Musharraf, who was head of the armed forces, seized power in a bloodless
coup after prime minister Nawaz Sharif tried to oust him. Sharif was arrested on
a wide range of charges but was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia last December.
After the coup, the Supreme Court gave its approval to the takeover but
told Musharraf that he had three years to complete promised reforms and hold
national elections.
But the election time announced on Tuesday is unlikely to satisfy major
political parties that disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling and sought
earlier elections. They had been barred from formal participation in the local
elections.
"I don't think anybody will be satisfied," said Najam Sethi, editor of the
respected Friday Times weekly.
The general's announcement evoked guarded criticism from the Pakistan
People's Party (PPP) of self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
A statement said the PPP was awaiting details of the election process and
would "keenly watch and monitor progress in the matter", but was concerned about
Musharraf's plans to amend the constitution by decree.
"The PPP believes that any attempt to amend the constitution in a manner
other than as laid down in the constitution itself would endanger the federation
(of Pakistan) and must be avoided," it said.
The Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, a grouping of parties that
want early elections, said it would meet on Thursday to discuss its response.
Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of Pakistan's main Islamic Jamaat-i-Islami
party, also opposed Musharraf's plans to amend the constitution and said in a
statement that elections must be supervised and conducted by an interim civilian
government.
Musharraf said now that local elections were complete he would turn his
attention to national polls. He said a period of preparation would last from
September 2001 to the following June and electioneering would be allowed from
July to October.
Musharraf has made clear there will be no role for former prime ministers
Sharif or Bhutto, who has remained outside the country rather than return and
face corruption charges.
In his morning speech, Musharraf urged Pakistanis to forge a renewed spirit
of unity that marked independence from Britain in 1947. "What did we do to lose
that magic touch?" he asked. "We shall rise again".
Underlining his belief that Pakistan's greatest problems are internal, he
said the armed forces and their nuclear weapons gave the country "complete
security" from any threat posed by India.
"We have everything in Pakistan in terms of both human and material
resources required to give us the place of dignity and honour in the community
of nations," he said.
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