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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December 23,
2001.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------------- TI - Canadian firm to mine gold in Myanmar:
Report
VOA News - French Activist Disappears Along
Burma-Thai Border
Bkk Post - French
activist goes missing in Burma
Bkk Post - Maneeloy to
be shut down by yearend
Bkk Post - Nine
loggers arrested in wood swoop
Mizzima - Unity move started among the
Naga groups
----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times of India
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2001 Canadian firm to mine gold in Myanmar: Report BANGKOK: A Canadian mining firm plans to develop the site of a gold deposit
found in central Myanmar, a report said Sunday.
Ivanhoe Mines of Canada would form a joint venture with Myanmar's military
government before proceeding with the project, a company source was quoted as
saying in the Myanmar Times weekly.
The size of the gold deposit had not yet been determined, the source
reportedly added.
An Ivanhoe press release earlier this month said the company was developing the Modi Taung gold project site located some 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of Mandalay. Ivanhoe has been taking samples from the site, which is situated in a
mining exploration area covering 1,400 square kilometers, since discovering the
gold deposit in late 2000, according to the Myanmar Times.
The statement also said that preliminary metallurgical analysis showed 97
percent of the gold could be recovered using conventional techniques.
Through a subsidiary, Ivanhoe Myanmar Holdings, Ltd., the Canadian firm
holds a 50 percent stake in No. 1 Mining Enterprise (ME1), a copper mining
entity wholly owned by the Myanmar junta, the company's website said.
Ivanhoe also discovered a high-grade gold deposit in South Korea in 2000.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- French Activist Disappears Along
Burma-Thai Border
VOA News 23 Dec 2001 11:00 UTC A French activist who supports the opposition in Burma has disappeared along the Burma / Thailand border. Xavier Tanuy, 31-year-old nurse's aide from the French province of
Brittany, was last seen at the Thai border town of Mae Sot on October 17th. He
reportedly left for Burma on a motorcycle carrying a significant amount of
money.
Mr. Tanguy did not go through Thai immigration and Burmese authorities say
they have no idea where he is, or even if he actually entered Burma.
The Frenchman has been described as a sympathizer with one or more rebel
groups fighting the Burmese ruling military from strongholds on the Thai
border.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Dec 23,
2001.
French activist goes missing in Burma
Last seen in Mae Sot around October 17
A 31-year-old French activist supporting the Burmese opposition has not
been seen since going missing near the Thai-Burmese border in mid-October,
sources said yesterday.
Xavier Tanguy, a nurse's aide from the western French province of Brittany,
had been living in northern Thailand and was last seen in the border town of Mae
Sot around Oct 17, according to one of his friends.
He reportedly left for Burma on a motorbike carrying a significant amount
of money, according to a reliable source. The French embassy in Bangkok had
asked Thai authorities to investigate his disappearance as quickly as possible,
a diplomat said yesterday.
The Burmese government says it knows nothing about the Frenchman's
whereabouts.
``It's been a long time since he presumably disappeared,'' a Burmese
government spokesman said. ``If he had entered Burmese territory, we would have
known about it by now.''
Opposition group sympathisers have been known to slip into areas controlled
by Burma's ethnic militias, particularly those of the rebel Karen, without the
ruling military government knowing.
``We think he may have been taken prisoner in Burma or perhaps worse,''
said one of Tanguy's friends, Bruno Janiaux, who said he was the last to see the
Frenchman.
Mr Janiaux said Mr Tanguy was known by Burmese intelligence officers, and
was ``untraceable in Thailand, even though it seems he did not left [Thailand]
officially''.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Dec 23,
2001.
Maneeloy to be shut down by yearend
Students will transfer to new holding centre
Yuwadee Tunyasiri
The government will press ahead with the planned closure of Maneeloy
holding centre, the National Security Council secretary-general said
yesterday.
Kachadpai Burusapatana said protests were futile since the plan was a joint
agreement between the NSC and the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
Mr Kachadpai said the holding centre for exiled Burmese students would be
shut down before the end of the year.
He said the Burmese students should understand the situation. Thailand is
also housing another 100,000 Burmese refugees in camps on the border with
Burma.
The students were opposed to the closure plan, which would see them
evacuated to another shelter.
The shelter was being built on the border between Ratchaburi and
Kanchanaburi provinces to accommodate the students, pending repatriation to
third countries.
The UNHCR set aside a budget for Thailand to help fund construction of the
new centre.
``Evacuation of the exiled students to a new shelter would be closely
supervised by the UNHCR,'' he said.
The army, police and other agencies were being prepared for the
evacuation.
Mr Kachadpai also rejected the idea of deporting the illegal immigrants to
third countries. ``That's impossible because they aren't qualified,'' he
said.
Mr Kachadpai said he discussed Thailand's terrorism and drug suppression
co-operation with the US defence secretary and the UN secretary-general during
his visit to Washington with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He said the
United States was pleased with Thailand's initiative in fighting drug
trafficking in the region.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Dec 23,
2001.
Nine loggers arrested in wood swoop
Plodprasop blasts illegal activities
Supamart Kasem
Nine Thai and Burmese nationals were arrested and more than 10 million baht
worth of illegal wood was seized during raids in three districts on the Burmese
border.
Forestry chief Plodprasop Suraswadi, who led the raids, said this
northwestern province played host to the most intense illegal activities hitting
forests.
A task force of 100 forest rangers and forestry police arrested seven
Burmese workers and seized 665 pieces of processed wood as well as 294 teak
logs, the carcasses of five protected animals and 18 shotguns in Tha Song Yang
and Mae Ramat forest reserves.
The processed wood had been used to make houses to hide its origin.
At Ban Mae Lamao, in Mae Sot district, officials raided three illegal
furniture factories where they found 209 teak logs and five empty houses made of
illegally processed teak, and more than a hundred pieces of furniture. They also
arrested a Thai and a Burmese.
The factories and the empty houses were less than a kilometre from a police
station in Mae Lamao national forest reserve, a watershed forest.
They also found 10 rai of forest land which was allegedly being cleared by
businessman Kriangsak Sarachai, who was not at the scene. The kamnan of tambon
Pha Wo, Lamai Thongnut, said Mr Kriangsak moved from Lampang three years ago and
claimed to have permission to clear the land.
Mr Kriangsak owned one of the furniture factories. A police warrant would
be issued for his arrest, officials said.
The forestry chief said the destruction of forests in the province was an
organised activity involving lowlanders, hilltribe villagers and Burmese
immigrants.
Timber would be felled in forest reserves and hauled out by elephants to
factories where it was processed. The wood was then used to make jerry-built
houses or furniture. The furniture would be sent across the border to Burma and
brought back in as imports.
Burma told him it had not agreed to any wood exports, said Mr Plodprasop.
All the wood purportedly imported from Burma was actually felled in Thai
forests, he said.
``I am working with provincial and military authorities to conduct more
raids,'' he said. ``At the same time, I will prepare information for the
government so that urgent measures may be taken to protect the rest of the
forest.''
The wood seized in the raids would not be sold by the Forest Industry
Organisation, as often happened in the past, to deter further illegal
logging.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Unity move started among the Naga
groups
Mizzima News By Our Correspondent Guwahati, Dec. 23: In a bid to bring peace to the insurgency-infested North
East India, the Naga groups of the region and Burma have vowed to start a new
process, keeping aside their old enmity. The move was initiated by the Naga
Hoho, an apex body of Naga tribal groups, at a rally held in Kohima, capital of
Nagaland recently.
The move of the Naga Hoho assumes significance at a time when the two main
militant groups ? the National Socialist Council of Nagalim -Issac Muiva
(NSCN-IM) and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K) have
been involved in bloody clashes despite ceasefire agreement with the Government
of India.
The rally aimed at bringing all Naga conflicting groups under one umbrella
was a historic one and it was attended by as many as 32 tribal and non-tribal
groups of the region and bordering areas of Burma. The groups adopted a joint
declaration, which they termed as ?Kohima Declaration? and it said, ?after a
long violence and oppression, the Naga people deserve peace and search of a
permanent solution to the vexed political issue and hence conflicting groups
must come together to start a new process in this regard?.
The rally has been described as the greatest ever-effort made by the Hoho
to bring unity and understanding in the deeply divided Naga society.
Though the absence of the NSCN-K leaders was a matter of discussion among
the tribal Groups attending the rally, the Naga Hoho leaders simply ignored it
and said that the NSCN-K has already extended its support to the rally.
Moreover, to create a peaceful atmosphere for reconciliation of various Naga
groups, the NSCN-K has declared a ceasefire, the Hoho leaders observed.
On the other hand, the chairman of the NSCN-IM Khodao Yanthan and
chairman of its ceasefire monitoring committee Punthig Shimrang who
were present in the rally hailed the initiative of the Naga Hoho saying it would
pave the way in bringing peace and unity among the Naga groups. Punthing
said that his organization would support and accept the reconciliation and unity
if it is based on national principle.
Scato Swu, a senior leader of a militant group stressed the need for
reconciliation among the various groups. In his emotional speech, Scato Swu
said: ?we will never be able to complete our house if we destroys the other?s
construction. We must cement our house in such a way that we can live there
without any fear?. The meeting which was presided over by the president of
Naga Hoho, M Vero called upon the Naga groups to give up hatred
among them in the greater interest of the Naga society.
Meanwhile, several senior leaders of the political parties have welcomed
the move of the Naga Hoho saying it would begin a new chapter in the trouble?hit
region.
Nagaland chief minister S C Jamir said that the peace effort of the Hoho
does not go in vain. ?As the Naga problem is purely a political one, the
reconciliation move should have a political goal?, he added.
Former chief minister of Nagaland and a senior political leader Hokishe
Sema said that the Central Government is keen to solve the Naga crisis and hence
all the groups fighting each other should come forward to join hands with the
Government of India. Former Rajya Sabha MP Sukhato Swu said that the Naga groups
should work together in bringing peace and unity among the people. ?The Naga
people desperately want a peaceful atmosphere after five-decades old insurgency
problem and this is the right time for starting a new beginning," he added.
Though the majority of the people have supported the peace process, the
conspicuous absence of the NSCN-K leaders in the rally has worried the people.
However, they are still optimistic that the coming Christmas would be a new
beginning for the Naga society.
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