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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
14, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Japan PM vows more support for Asia, with
regional rivalry in mind
AFP - Thailand asks Malaysia for more time to
mull pipeline project
Reuters - Koizumi ends Asian tour with call for
ASEAN partnership
AP - Rebels Want Talks With Myanmar
Bkk Post - Ministry rejects royal statue
Bkk Post - China's help sought in war against
drugs
The Nation - Police nab gang members
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 14, 5:13 PM
Japan PM vows more support for Asia, with regional rivalry in mind SINGAPORE, Jan 14 (AFP) - Japan
on Monday pledged its maximum contribution to Asia's economic growth and
political stability in an apparent bid to boost its position in the regional
leadership race.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made the vow on the final leg of a
Southeast Asian trip seen as an effort to raise Japan's profile in the region to
counter China's intensified dialogue with its Asian partners.
"Our goal should be the creation of a community that acts together and
advances together," Koizumi said in Singapore, in his first policy speech made
overseas.
"I believe that Japan has made a contribution in strengthening the
countries of ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," Koizumi said.
"True to the old adage, 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.'"
Spelling out specific steps, Koizumi mentioned his support for ASEAN's
effort to speed up reforms, build a healthy financial system and improve
infrastructure in the region, including the Mekong River area.
Japan's assistance can also cover regional security, he said in a lecture
hosted by Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
"In cooperation with the countries of ASEAN, we intend to make an even more
active contribution to ensure regional stability here in Southeast Asia" in such
areas as Mindanao island in the Philippines, Indonesia's Aceh province, and East
Timor, he said.
Koizumi repeated his plan to send Japanese troops to East Timor earlier to
join UN peacekeeping operations.
"Efforts towards democratisation in Myanmar must also be accelerated, and
this is an endeavor that we fully support," he said.
"Our pasts may be varied and divergent, but our futures can be united and
supportive of each other," he said in an attempt to allay concerns in some Asian
countries over Tokyo's potential resurgence into a military power.
As a first step toward the formation of a new regional framework, Koizumi
has proposed a comprehensive economic partnership between Japan and ASEAN.
"In the 21st century, as sincere and open partners, Japan and ASEAN should
strengthen their cooperation under the basic concept of acting together,
advancing together," he said.
Koizumi used the trip, which ends on Tuesday, to try to strengthen Tokyo's
economic and political influence in the region in the face of China's growing
clout, analysts said.
In November, Japan was left out in the cold when China and the 10-member
ASEAN agreed to create the world's most populous free-trade bloc within 10
years, covering two billion consumers.
In a bid to catch up with Beijing's rapid approaches to the region, Japan
on Sunday signed a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore, the first ever FTA
forged by the world's second largest economy.
The Japanese premier suggested that proposed Japan-ASEAN relations must
expand to other Asian partners, even including China.
He expressed hope that through an accumulation of concrete forms of
cooperation, "the countries of ASEAN, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea,
Australia and New Zealand will be core members of such a community."
At a separate news conference, Koizumi said the presence of the US was
necessary for Asia's new economic partnership.
"Cooperation in the region should not be exclusionism," the Japanese
premier said. "US presence will bring stability" to Asia, he said.
He underscored the need for further dialogue on farm trade after the
Japan-Singapore free-trade accord failed to include some 1,500 farm products on
their tariff-free list.
"The agricultural issue can trigger a political problem in Japan," Koizumi
said. "It is necessary to hold full talks over liberalisation" of farm products,
he said.
On the domestic front, Koizumi admitted that Japan's slowness in reforming
its system had resulted in the nation's worst recession, but stressed that
reforms were now under way.
"We will aim at sustainable recovery even at the cost of present, temporary
growth," he said. "I am carrying out reforms as I am confident that Japan will
revive without fail."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 14, 5:24 PM
Thailand asks Malaysia for more time to mull pipeline project BANGKOK, Jan 14 (AFP) -
Thailand has asked Malaysia for more time to consider whether to go ahead with
building a controversial cross-border pipeline, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai said Monday.
After a meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar in the
southern Thai city of Hat Yai, Surakiart said the government needed to carry out
more public hearings and consultations on the project.
"I told him that the government will take time to listen to public
opinion," he told reporters after the two-hour talks, according to ministry
officials in the Thai capital.
Surakiart added that he did not expect the process would take too
long.
The joint natural gas pipeline is due to go into operation next year.
Thailand and Malaysia are expected to start pumping gas from a seabed site along
their border in the Gulf of Thailand in mid-2002.
The gas will come ashore at Songkhla, Thailand and then be sent by pipeline
to both countries. The first stage of the project is expected to cost one
billion US dollars.
Officials from a joint development organisation for the project say there
could be 25 years of gas in the reserve.
But the plan has been stalled by strong opposition from Thai environmental
groups who say the pipeline will destroy fishing grounds and cause other
ecological damage.
A Thai government spokesman said earlier this month that the authorities
would take another three months to decide whether to construct the
pipeline.
The delay was announced after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went to the
region to listen to 3,000 angry opponents of the pipeline and later met 100
leading supporters of the project.
During Monday's one-day meeting, which focused on economic affairs, the two
foreign ministers also agreed to extended the opening hours of the Hat Yai
border checkpoint due to a sharp increase in tourist traffic over the last
month.
The two sides also agreed to consider adjusting the operating hours of
other crossings including Sungai-Kolok and Padang Besar.
They resolved as well to cooperate more closely on HIV-AIDS treatment and
to discuss better transport links to facilitate Malaysian trade to Cambodia,
Laos and Myanmar.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 14, 5:43 PM
Koizumi ends Asian tour with call for ASEAN partnership By George Nishiyama SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday called for closer ties with Southeast
Asia in an apparent bid to keep China's influence in check and said Tokyo was
ready to help prevent regional conflicts.
The Japanese leader outlined his Asian policy in a speech in Singapore, the
final stop on a regional trip widely seen as Japan playing catch-up after China
unveiled its free-trade plans in November.
Koizumi made one last pitch for increased cooperation between Japan and
ASEAN, which Tokyo hopes will ultimately lead to an East Asia cooperative
community that will also include Australia and New Zealand.
"In the 21st century, as sincere and open partners, Japan and ASEAN should
strengthen their cooperation under the basic concept of 'acting together --
advancing together'," Koizumi said in a speech in English, rare for a Japanese
leader.
"We must strengthen broad ranged economic partnership by stretching further
than trade and investment -- to such areas as science and technology, human
resource development and tourism," the prime minister said.
He said a free trade agreement signed with Singapore on Sunday, the first
of its kind for Japan, was an example of such cooperation.
Koizumi's week-long tour took in the five founding members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which apart from Singapore are
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. The five other ASEAN members
are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
RESPONSE TO CHINA
China economy's is booming while others in the region wilt and the
country's growing political clout combined with the promise of trade riches from
its vast market are hard to resist.
Beijing dreams of a free-trade area of 1.7 billion people worth a trillion
dollars a year and hopes it can be created within a decade.
But if he saw such a vision as a threat, Koizumi didn't show it on Monday.
"China's decision to seek a free-trade zone with ASEAN is fine," the prime
minister later told a news conference.
"From now on, Japan will seek to cooperate with not only Singapore, but
with each of the ASEAN members in a broad range of areas," he said.
But the Japanese leader did not refer to a specific time frame in his
proposal.
"Rather than setting a time limit, we should further build on our
cooperation we have in place now," he said.
REFORM AND STABILITY
Koizumi said Japan and ASEAN nations must carry out reforms if they wanted
their economies to get back on track.
"By undertaking reforms in our respective countries, we will advance
individually and jointly toward increased prosperity," he said, adding he was
determined to push ahead with reforming the Japanese economy.
"I also know that the countries of ASEAN are awaiting Japan's structural
reform and the subsequent return of a dynamic Japanese economy. I realise that
when it comes to the global economy, rain does not fall on one roof alone,"
Koizumi said.
He also said Japan was ready to work for securing stability in the region.
"In Southeast Asia, Japan would like to actively cooperate in reducing
poverty and preventing conflicts, in such cases as Mindanao, Aceh and East
Timor," the prime minister said, referring to long running separatist conflicts
in the southern Philippines, Indonesia's Sumatra island and rebuilding of the
now independent East Timor.
Japan has recently taken part in a number of U.N. peace-keeping operations.
"In cooperation with the countries of ASEAN, we intend to make an even more
active contribution to ensure regional stability here in Southeast Asia," he
said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday January 14 5:27 AM ET
Rebels Want Talks With Myanmar By DAVID LONGSTREATH, Associated Press Writer NYA LI PHYO HTA CAMP, Myanmar (AP) - The rebel Karen National Union urged
Myanmar's military regime on Monday to initiate peace talks aimed at ending five
decades of fighting.
The call came as well-armed guerrillas joined villagers and children at a
jungle camp to celebrate the Karen New Year.
Talks between the rebels and the Myanmar junta, known as the State Peace
and Development Council, or SPDC, broke down in 1997.
``Now again, we would like to solve the problem politically by negotiation
with the SPDC,'' said Mahn Nyein Maung, a KNU central committee member.
Although the regime is urging the KNU to give up its armed struggle, it
failed to restart peace talks, he said.
``The SPDC must contact the KNU officially. Then we will welcome
negotiations,'' he said.
The KNU has been fighting the central government since Myanmar, also called
Burma, achieved independence from Britain in 1948. Unlike most other ethnic
rebel groups, the KNU has refused a cease-fire, demanding a political settlement
first.
Rebel fortunes have fallen sharply in recent years under military pressure.
The group once controlled a large area of Myanmar's eastern border region
but now has no fixed territory and is thought to have only about 2,000-3,000
troops, a fraction of its former military force.
On Monday, about 250 Karen civilians, including old women smoking cheroots
and girls in traditional dress, gathered just across the Moei River border with
western Thailand to watch a military parade and eat a celebration meal.
The festivities, which included children playing sports on a dusty marching
ground, masked worries about security after recent nearby clashes with Myanmar
government forces.
About 50 mostly young KNU troops armed with assault rifles patrolled the
camp perimeter as their battalion commander read a speech by leader Ba Thein
vowing to continue the struggle for more autonomy in the eastern Karen State.
The speech claimed the Myanmar government army had forced hundreds of
thousands of Karen people to flee their homeland and had made the country ``a
big jail and refugee camp.''
More than 100,000 mostly Karen refugees are in camps inside Thailand. The
Thai government wants to repatriate them, but Myanmar remains reluctant to
accept them since many support the KNU.
The KNU held its ceremony in secret. An Associated Press reporter was
driven there from Thailand by the rebels. The rebels said a Myanmar army camp
was less than four miles from Nya Li Phyo Hta.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - January 14,
2002.
Ministry rejects royal statue Monument could affect border ties Wassana Nanuam The Foreign Ministry has objected to a Third Army proposal to build a
monument of King Naresuan the Great in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district for fear it
could affect Thai-Burmese relations, an army source said.
The proposal was made in April last year by Lt-Gen Wattanachai
Chaimuanwong, who was then Third Army commander. He believed the monument could
boost the morale of Thai soldiers and the people of Mae Sai.
At that time Thai-Burmese relations were at their lowest because of
escalating military tensions along the border between the two countries.
The Third Army had asked the Fine Arts Department to design the monument.
Instead of working on the design right away, the department turned to the
ministry for approval.
The project first ran into delays on the ministry's insistence that the
Fine Arts Department alter the design which was originally meant to see King
Naresuan mounted on horseback and holding a sword in his right hand.
The ministry wanted it to be an equestrian King Naresuan, but without a
sword.
In the latest move, the ministry sent a letter to the army, saying that the
monument could put the improving Thai-Burmese relations in jeopardy as the area
where the monument would be built is only one kilometre from Kuteng Nayong, a
disputed area which is claimed by both countries.
If it was built, the monument of the late Thai king would confront the
monument of Burma's King Bayingnaung in Tachilek.
According to the source, the ministry even sought the reaction of the
Burmese government but Rangoon had ``nothing to say''.
This prompted the ministry to urge the army to review the project.
The source said consent or no consent, the army would go ahead with the
monument once it is able to raise the seven million baht needed for the project.
The Third Army is trying to raise funds by selling statues and coins of King
Naresuan. The army also planned to build a ``victory pagoda'' next to the
monument, which was expected to cost another 30 million baht, the source
said.
But military relations are certainly improving between the two sides.
Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkhasing, the Third Army commander, will soon be meeting
Maj-Gen Chit Tan, Burma's Triangle Region commander.
At the same time, Gen Wattanachai, who is now assistant army chief, visited
Burma last week at the invitation of Maj-Gen Thein Sein, the former Triangle
Area commander.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok post - January 14,
2002.
China's help sought in war against drugs Forum begins today in Chiang Mai Anucha Charoenpo Thailand will seek China's co-operation in the war against drugs during a
three-day bilateral meeting starting today in Chiang Mai.
Rassamee Witthaves, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics
Control Board, said she would lead a team to discuss drug problems with 11
Chinese officials.
Mrs Rassamee said Thailand was being flooded with methamphetamines from a
neighbouring country (Burma) to such a degree that it has become a major
security threat.
China is also suffering from an influx of methamphetamines through its
4,000km border with Burma.
Mrs Rassamee said she would propose that Thailand and China share
intelligence information and co-operate in criminal investigation, training and
education, and in prevention and suppression.
China has been co-operative and helpful in combating drugs, Mrs Rassamee
said, and the Chiang Mai forum would be used to make China more aware of the
drug problem in China, Thailand and Burma
Thai drugs officials believed drug networks in the three countries were
connected and they hoped the forum would be helpful in strengthening drugs
suppression efforts and co-operation with China.
China has sent a drugs liaison officer to its embassy in Bangkok while a
Thai drugs official would be dispatched soon to the Thai embassy in
Beijing.
Mrs Rassamee said a four-nation drug meeting would be held on Jan 17-18 in
Chiang Mai involving China, Thailand, Laos and Burma.
Sixteen officials from the four countries would discuss an action plan on
drug-related matters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Police nab gang members Published on Jan 14, 2002 Three members of drug lord Wei Xieukang’s gang were arrested early
yesterday in Chiang Rai with precursor chemicals for methamphetamine
production.
A police car chased a black pickup truck without licence plates, which
refused to stop at a police checkpoint, for about one kilometre up a hill to
Wiang Mork village before the suspicious vehicle stopped, an informed source
said yesterday. “The suspects were not inside the vehicle. They had all scurried
into a nearby forest.”
The incident reportedly took place before sunrise. Police later tracked
down Chiang Wen Chai, 50, and his 48yearold wife Chan sae Chiang, but the
alleged gang leader Mah Yong Thing, 40, managed to run away in the darkness.
Sacks of precursor chemicals for methamphetamine production were discovered
on the truck’s back seats. Police officers said the chemicals could be turned
into more than 100,000 speed pills.
Chiang and his wife confessed that they had received the chemicals from a
drug trafficker in Chiang Khong district and had planned to use them to produce
methamphetamines at a new production base in Wiang Mork village. They testified
that Mah’s wife, Lee Yong Ying, 35, was in charge of the new factory.
Acting on new information, police arrested Lee Yong Ying at her house and
seized Bt228,300 in cash there. The money was believed to be have come from the
drugs trade.
Police said that they had set up a checkpoint there following leads
suggesting that the methamphetamine trafficking gang, which was part of Wei
Xieukang’s network, had moved from the ThaiLao border to a hilltop village on
Thai soil.
“The police officers are trying to locate the big machine used to pump out
the speed pills,” the source said, adding that tipoffs had indicated that the
drug traffickers set up broom factories as a front to hide their illicit
businesses.
Meanwhile two 14yearold schoolboys were arrested in Suphan Buri for
possessing 423 speed pills with intent to sell. They were detained pending
further investigation.
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