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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
18, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Japan to set up tuberculosis prevention
center in Philippines
Reuters - Malaysia to tighten conditions for
Indonesian workers
BBC - Eyewitness: Golden Triangle opium
fields
AlertNet - WFP seeks aid for Myanmar refugees
Bkk Post - Talks on Burmese crop substitution
Bkk Post - Reactor for
Burma unlikely, says army
The Nation - LICENSED CASINOS: Study to mull
legal gambling
NSTP - Smart card IDs for foreign
workers
ST - Yangon's nuclear ambitions alarm Asia and
Europe
ST - Thai pregnancy ban on foreign workers
sparks abortion fears
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday January 18, 5:25 PM
Japan to set up tuberculosis prevention center in Philippines MANILA, Jan 18 (AFP) - Japan
will set up a Southeast Asian regional center for tubercolosis prevention in the
Philippines, Japanese officials announced Friday.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo accepted a proposal from Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi's when he visited the country last week, the Japanese
embassy said in a statement.
The center will be established under the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) Information and Human Network for Infectious Disease
Control.
For the past 10 years, Japan has been transferring to the Philippines
techniques in tuberculosis prevention as part of its efforts to establish a
network to fight against infectious diseases, the embassy statement said.
It has also funded the construction of two tuberculosis prevention
facilities in the Philippines which can host seminars and workshops and gather
information on the disease in ASEAN countries.
The Philippines was also chosen because it hosts the World Health
Organization's Western Pacific regional office and can closely coordinate with
that body, the embassy said.
ASEAN, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has over 360,000 people
suffering from tuberculosis.
Friday January 18, 9:08 PM
Malaysia to tighten conditions for Indonesian workers KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -
Malaysia said on Friday it would tighten conditions for recruiting foreign
workers and give priority to non-Indonesians following violent clashes between
Indonesians and police.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the country may look at Indonesians
last when hiring, after hundreds of Indonesian workers from a textile factory
attacked police on Thursday when officers tried to detain colleagues suspected
of taking drugs.
"Indonesian workers have been giving us many problems, sneaking into the
country, when caught they become violent, we cannot accept such behaviour,"
Mahathir was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying.
The workers damaged police vehicles and property in Thursday's riot in
Malaysia's western state of Negeri Sembilan.
The violence comes just over a month after more than 1,600 illegal
Indonesian immigrants at a detention camp in southern Johor state rioted and
burnt down some of their quarters.
Mahathir said in future, the government would give priority to
non-Indonesian foreign workers who had a record of not creating too many
problems for Malaysia. Those who created problems would be speedily deported to
their country of origin, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government has decided
to tighten the conditions for the recruitment of foreign workers after
Thursday's incident.
"We definitely want to impose more stringent conditions when we take in
foreign workers in future," he was quoted by Bernama as saying.
Mahathir said foreign workers were guests in the country and should respect
its laws. He added it was the government's aspiration to reduce the number of
foreign workers but this could not be done in view of the shortage of local
workers in certain sectors.
Malaysia is home to more than a million foreign workers, most of them from
poorer neighbours Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the
Philippines.
BBC - Friday, 18 January, 2002, 14:01
GMT
Eyewitness: Golden Triangle opium fields The authorities in Thailand say drug lords in the so-called Golden Triangle
- the border area of Thailand, Burma and Laos - are working hard for the dubious
distinction of becoming the world's leading producers of heroin.
The title had been held for the last three years by Afghanistan, but recent
events there have cut production from 4,000 tonnes per annum to just a few
hundred.
Golden triangle drug lords want to plug that gap - especially in the
western European markets, where Afghanistan supplied up to 90% of the heroin
used on UK streets.
I am travelling with a unit of the Thai Armed Forces as it patrols a
section of the Golden Triangle looking for opium poppy fields, the crop that
produces heroin.
Against a clear blue sky a Thai military helicopter soars high above a
stretch of jungle as beautiful as it is notorious.
'New plants'
Behind me sits a Thai Air Force gunner keeping a beady eye on the hills
below. The drug lords who operate in the region have the capability to shoot our
helicopter down.
It is not long before we find what we have been looking for - clearings in
the dense jungle, little fields pock-marking the ground. Opium poppy fields.
On the ground we get a closer look. A lieutenant-general in the Thai Third
Army leads me to a field about the size of two tennis courts. In front of us are
neat little rows of white flowers - young opium buds, fluttering in the light
breeze.
To one side a garden sprinkler feeds water to the buds. A new development
here in the cultivation of opium poppies, says Lieutenant-General Udomchai
Onga-kasing of the Thai Army.
He says the sprinklers are evidence that drug lords are now ordering local
farmers to grow more opium poppies, in order to dominate the global heroin
market.
"New techniques are being used to grow more poppies," he says. "Farmers now
use fertilisers and pesticides.
"And they're now irrigating the land using sprinklers so the planting
season is much longer."
Chasing the dragon
All around me now in this field, soldiers with Ak-47s slung over their
shoulders are hacking away at the opium poppies, flattening the drop using long
rubber whips. But the destruction of this field is a tiny victory in the war
against drugs here.
The Golden Triangle covers a vast area - impossible to monitor completely.
In a jungle clearing in northern Thailand, a young woman chases the dragon.
I watch as she uses a straw to inhale the noxious fumes of a tiny amount of
heroin heated on a spoon by a candle.
The woman, who refused to tell me her name, is typical of so many in the
remote reaches of the Golden Triangle. They have grown up with drugs. Opium has
been used for centuries in these parts, for medicinal purposes as well as to get
high.
But some villages are turning their backs on drugs, at the behest of the
Thai Government.
A village elder in northern Thailand, Toop Pia Kom, says his community gave
up smoking opium to years ago. He says it was ruining too many people's lives -
that it had to stop.
UN fears
But there are still many people in the Golden Triangle who are addicted to
drugs, and there are many poor farmers willing to plant their fields with opium
poppies rather than with less lucrative Thai fruits for example.
It is a big worry for the international community, following Afghanistan's
demise as a drug producer.
"There is certainly a risk that South East Asia will play a more important
role in the supply of heroin to western Europe and the UK," says the regional
representative of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme in
Thailand, Yngve Danling.
"We are very worried about this and we are working with governments in the
region to improve co-operation and improve facilities for fighting drug
production."
As Thai soldiers finish off destroying a field of opium poppies, the Thai
Government is renewing its appeal for help from the international community in
the war on drugs: for money and better surveillance equipment to help win the
battle.
Opium and heroin have ruined ruined many lives. Afghanistan used to be a
major culprit - now it is the drug lords of lands of the Golden Triangle who
want to increase their profits from the misery of others.
AlertNet
16 Jan 2002 00:00 WFP seeks aid for Myanmar refugees DHAKA (Reuters) - The United Nations' World Food programme (WFP)on Tuesday launched an appeal for food aid for 21,500 Muslim refugees from Myanmar living in Bangladesh. The WFP, which is asking for food aid worth $2.1 million, said the refugees
in two camps in southeastern Bangladesh were heavily dependent on food aid.
"The refugees have suffered from chronic malnutrition since they arrived as
part of a 250,000 people fleeing the North Rakhine province of Myanmar in
1991-92," it said in a statement.
The bulk of the refugees returned home under an agreement with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees two years later.
"We urge donors to give us the means to help this group of people for whom
there is not yet a permanent political solution in sight," the statement quoted
Pieter Dijkhuizen, WFP country director for Bangladesh, as saying.
The statement said the refugees were due to be sent back to Myanmar but
remained because of reluctance to leave on their part and because of a
protracted repatriation clearance process by authorities in Myanmar.
The refugees had originally fled to escape alleged persecution by Myanmar's
military rulers, but officials in Bangladesh say many of them are economic
refugees.
Bangkok Post - Jan 18,
2002.
Talks on Burmese crop substitution Muang Yong Kha to get Thai help Anucha Charoenpo Senior anti-drug officials will today visit a Wa-controlled area in Burma's
southern Shan State to promote an alternative development project funded by the
Thai government.
Kitti Limchaikij, secretary general of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB),
and M.R. Ditsanadda Ditsakul, director of the royally-initiated development
project of Doi Tung, will discuss the scheme with Burmese and Wa officials for
two days.
Mr Kitti is meeting Pao Yu Yi, leader of the southern Wa military base, and
Pol Maj-Gen Saw Win, Burma's police department head.
On a visit to Rangoon last year, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pledged
20 million baht for a scheme to develop the mountainous area on the same basis
as the royally-initiated project of Doi Tung in Chiang Rai province.
Mr Kiitti said Burma had previously proposed Muang Toom in Shan State as
the area to be developed but had since opted for Muang Yong Kha.
About 50 kilometers north of Thachilek province in Burma, and 7km east of
Muang Toom, it is opposite Mae Fah Luang district in Chiang Rai.
Muang Yong Kha has many opium plantation areas and is home to as many as
2,000 families from various hilltribe groups.
Mr Kitti said the project would last about five years and the money pledged
by the government would not be enough. He would talk to Burma about getting
international help.
Pol Col Hkam Aung, joint secretary of Burma's Central Committee for Drug
Abuse Control, who led Burmese delegates to a two-day four-nation meeting on
drugs control, said Burma was pleased Thailand was helping out.
Burma had mounted alternative development projects of its own in Shan
State, in the Wa and Ko Kang areas. ``We expect to make the areas free from
drugs and opium by 2005,'' he said.
Pol Col Hkam Aung said the Burmese government paid for the anti-drug
projects itself and did not get any international help.
Bangkok Post - Jan 18,
2002.
Reactor for Burma unlikely, says army
The army is wary of any move by Rangoon to obtain a nuclear reactor, but
does not think it likely, says an intelligence source.
On Wednesday, Burma's Foreign Minister Win Aung said Burma wanted a nuclear
medical research reactor and would look into generating nuclear power.
Army intelligence units are checking the reports, but thought Burma was not
wealthy enough to buy or develop a nuclear system.
Unconfirmed reports last year said Burma had sought help on nuclear matters
from Pakistan with Burmese military leaders meeting Pakistani President Gen
Pervez Musharraf.
``This news is funny rather than frightening,'' the source said.
The Nation
LICENSED CASINOS: Study to mull legal gambling Published on Jan 18, 2002 Case for legalisation to be weighed as border casinos siphon off
billions
The Anti Money Laundering Office has asked Chulalongkorn University's
Faculty of Political Science to conduct a study into the legalisation of
gambling.
In an attempt to stop money from leaving the country illegally, the
commission is studying the possibility of officially licensing casinos in
Thailand. The study, which will take four months, will look at how to control
the funds involved in all forms of gambling.
After the study a hearing will be held to monitor public opinion on
legalised casinos and other forms of gambling.
Studies indicate that as much as Bt130 billion flows out of the country
every year from illegal gambling. Much of it goes to 18 casinos strategically
located near border crossing points in Cambodia, Burma and Laos.
Chulalongkorn will help fund the research. Agencies in the Netherlands, the
United States and Australia have also expressed interest in funding the
study.
Research by Chulalongkorn's Political Economy Centre indicates that Bt320
billion is gambled every year, with illegal casino gambling taking the major
slice of 35 per cent, or Bt110 billion. The research also said gambling has
become a way of life in the country, with creative variations on underground
gambling taking place everywhere in society.
Academics have expressed concern that legalised gambling could lead to
social problems. But they acknowledge that the issue of unchecked financial
transactions is also a key part of the debate on whether gambling should be
legalised.
Advocates of legalised gambling say it would lead to revenue from taxes,
checks on transactions and a curb on money leaving the country.
Pichate Panvichatkul, a Demo-cratic Party MP from Krabi, said that studies
into the possibility of legalising gambling require special care. "When we
calculate tax revenues and the money leaving the country, the social effects
will have to be taken into consideration. How much budget would have to be used
to cure social ills?" he asked.
The Anti Money Laundering Office is also looking into the possibility of
having licensed money-changers. Currently, only commercial banks and hotels with
foreign guests are licensed to change money.
The New Straits Times Press
Smart card IDs for foreign workers Document to be issued from March to stem influx of illegal immigrants By Annie Freeda Cruez KUALA LUMPUR, Thurs. — Laminated smart cards with security features will be
issued to all foreign workers from March for quick identification and to stem
the flow of illegal immigrants.
The 800,000 foreign workers, including domestic maids, are required to
carry the card at all times.
The card, which is "machine-readable" at Immigration offices and police
stations, will contain information on the worker including a photograph, name
and address of employer and bar codes that the Immigration Department can use to
detect forgeries.
Immigration director-general Datuk Mohd Jamal Kamdi said the card, which
will be difficult to forge, will be initially issued in Sabah.
The department plans to issue the cards to all foreign workers by
2004.
"The smart card will replace the present card issued to foreign workers,"
he said at the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers briefing-cum-dialogue on
the latest employment policies on foreign workers, at Wisma FMM in Bandar Seri
Damansara here.
Jamal said the issuance of the card will be decentralised to avoid the
backlog caused by the practice of giving out the present card only at the
department's headquarters.
"From March, Immigration departments nationwide can issue the smart card
together with the foreign workers' international passports." The card can only
be read by special machines issued to the departments and police, he
added.
Jamal and his officers will brief the police on the smart card in Seremban
next Thursday.
The department will also have "holding areas" nationwide where foreign
workers picked up during enforcement operations will be held before they are
transferred to detention camps or deported to their country of origin.
Jamal said the holding areas could be in police stations or in areas where
the operations were held to enable those with proper documents to be
released.
"It is a hassle to get a release order for foreign workers in detention
camps as it involves a lot of paperwork," he added.
He said the move will also ease overcrowding in the 12 detention centres.
Another move that the department has undertaken this year is to give expatriates
green cards so that they are able to travel without endorsing their arrival and
departure in their international passports.
"We have many expatriates who frequently travel abroad and they have to
keep renewing their passports when the pages finish," he said, adding that a
circular on this was sent out three days ago.
Last year, the department deported 158,486 illegal immigrants and it
expects the number to rise to between 400,000 and 650,000 this year.
"At present, the biggest number of illegal immigrants in the country are
from Indonesia followed by those from Myanmar and Bangladesh," Mohd Jamal
said.
Indonesians comprise 70 per cent of the illegal immigrants while 10 per
cent are from Myanmar and the rest from Bangladesh and other countries.
Asked if the department would curb the flow of immigrants into the country,
Mohd Jamal said they would monitor the situation as they did not want locals to
be deprived of jobs.
"We are also concerned about the spread of diseases by foreigners besides
their involvement in crime," he added.
Meanwhile, FMM chairman Datuk Dr James Alfred said the Home Ministry at its
Consultative Panel meeting on Nov 29 had agreed to consider issuing a three-year
work permit to skilled foreign workers.
This permit can be extended to a maximum of two years.
The Straits Times - January 18,
2002.
Yangon's nuclear ambitions alarm Asia and Europe The government says the small reactor is for medical purposes, but many fear that Myanmar lacks expertise to run it safely By Larry Jagan IN YANGON MYANMAR'S wish to develop a nuclear research reactor has alarmed many of
its Asian neighbours as well as the European community.
'Myanmar is committed to developing a nuclear research reactor for medical
purposes,' Foreign Minister Win Aung said recently.
While he said that 'it will be some time' before the reactor is built, his
words have been startling nonetheless.
This is especially so following numerous reports in recent weeks that
Russia has signed a deal with Myanmar to supply a reactor.
The Myanmar authorities have also admitted that more than 200 technicians
have received nuclear training in Moscow over the past 12 months.
There is an acute shortage of isotopic manufacturing ingredients in
South-east Asia, and Australian companies have been considering expanding their
nuclear facilities to boost production.
A diplomat in Yangon said: 'It may be that cash-strapped Myanmar sees a
long-term export need which they could meet.'
However, there are doubts that Myanmar has the necessary infrastructure and
know-how to operate a nuclear reactor safely.
British nuclear expert John Large said: 'They have good cause to
worry.'
'There is little evidence that the Myanmar authorities understand, let
alone would be able to implement, the necessary safety regime to be able to
prevent the dangerous accumulation of radioactive material.'
While Mr Large conceded that it 'could only be a small reactor, probably
for the use of pharmaceutical production', he stressed that Myanmar lacked the
necessary infrastructure and know-how to deal with the nuclear waste that 'any
reactor, no matter how small, will produce'.
A Western diplomat in Yangon pointed out: 'Myanmar's safety record leaves a
lot to be desired. They have trouble maintaining existing electricity
generators, let alone a nuclear reactor.'
Indeed, a team sent from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
Vienna last November found safety standards to be 'well below the minimum the
body would regard as acceptable', said an IAEA official who did not want to be
identified.
The team had been sent to assess Myanmar's preparedness to use and maintain
a nuclear reactor safely, following Yangon's request for help in financing and
securing a nuclear research reactor.
Myanmar has yet to respond to the IAEA report, but nuclear officials in
Vienna fear this means that the country plans to proceed with its nuclear
ambitions without the necessary attention to safety.
Nuclear experts are certain that Moscow will supply the nuclear reactor, as
it will be several years before Yangon is able build its own.
'They would have to import it lock, stock and barrel from Russia,' said Mr
Large, 'and even then it would only be operational within about three
years.'
NUCLEAR COMMITMENT
'Myanmar is committed to developing a nuclear research reactor for medical
purposes.'
- Myanmar Foreign Minister RADIOACTIVE RISK
'There is little evidence that the Myanmar authorities understand, let
alone would be able to implement, the necessary safety regime to be able to
prevent the dangerous accumulation of radioactive material.'
- British nuclear expert John Large SAFETY RECORD WANTING
'Myanmar's safety record leaves a lot to be desired. They have trouble
maintaining existing electricity generators, let alone a nuclear reactor.'
- Western diplomat based in Yangon SAFETY: Below standards
YANGON told the IAEA - the international body which supervises the
production of nuclear energy - that it planned to acquire a nuclear research
reactor last September, said an official in the organisation.
Yangon also asked the IAEA to help it finance and secure one.
Two months later, the IAEA sent an inspection team to check the country's
preparedness to use and maintain a nuclear reactor safely.
'The team concluded that the safety standards in place were well below the
minimum the body would regard as acceptable,' said an IAEA official who did not
want to be identified.--Larry Jagan
The Straits Times - January 18,
2002.
Thai pregnancy ban on foreign workers sparks abortion fears Bangkok's late ruling, which prevents pregnant workers from renewing their work permits, may cause an illegal abortion problem, say NGOs BANGKOK - The late introduction of a regulation banning foreign workers
from pregnancy will spark a rise in illegal abortions, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) said.
The Labour Ministry's regulation states that female foreign workers will be
given a medical checkup and those who are found to be pregnant will not have
their licences to work in Thailand renewed.
Foreign labourers, mostly from Myanmar and Laos, have to renew their permit
from March 25, six months after the country started to allow them to work in the
country legally in various business sectors.
Mr Adisorn Kerdmongkol, an official of the Campaign for Popular Democracy
in Myanmar, said the pregnancy regulation might create an illegal abortion
problem.
He said the regulation should have been issued much earlier, not just
before the foreign workers were due to renew their licences.
'There is a likelihood that female foreign workers will undergo abortions
in order to be able to renew their permits,' he said.
Ms Patcharin Somwadi, coordinator of the Rak Thai Foundation's fertility
health project, echoed Mr Adisorn's sentiments.
'Those who want their licences to be renewed, will seek abortions to solve
their problem,' she said.
The regulation might also force workers who were pregnant to work illegally
without renewing their permits.
Ms Patcharin said the foundation had been assisting female workers who had
suffered complications after having illegal abortions.
The workers said they were forced to undergo abortions because their
employers would have fired them otherwise, she added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Labour Minister Ladawan Wongsriwong said the Social
Security Office was planning to increase the children's allowance for insured
workers from 150 baht (S$6) to 250 baht per month.
Workers had earlier requested an increase to 300 baht, but the ministry
said it could not meet the request because the Social Security Fund could not
shoulder a 100 per cent hike.
The Labour Ministry also warned employers to register their workers for
Social Security coverage, saying that those who violated the regulation would
face a fine of up to 20,000 baht or a six-month jail term.
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