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BURMA RELATED NEWS - January
21, 2002.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - UN envoy to visit Rangoon
VOA - Burma-made Ilicit Drugs Flooding
Thailand
ICRC - Cornerstones laid for limb-fitting
centre
Bkk Post - Electronic
sensors boost border security
Kyodo News - Myanmar
reacts to media reports on nuclear reactor
Kyodo News - 1st
software park opens in Myanmar
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 21 January, 2002, 11:09
GMT
UN envoy to visit Rangoon The United Nations human rights envoy to Burma, Paulo Pinheiro, is to visit
the country again next month.
Mr Pinheiro's previous visit last October was interrupted because he fell
ill.
A United Nations source said Mr Pinheiro wanted to investigate tension and
violence between Muslims and Buddhist monks in some parts of Burma.
He is also expected to pursue the case of a student leader, Min Ko Naing,
who's been in detention for more than 12 years.
The Burmese military government is accused of repressing political
opposition and using forced labour.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Pacific Report: Burma-made
Ilicit Drugs Flooding Thailand
VOA News 20 Jan 2002 11:56 UTC A published report in Thailand says 800 million illegal methamphetimine pills are expected to flow into Thailand this year from drug labs inside Burma. The Bangkok Post quotes Thai military officials as saying that the drug
trade was likely to increase this year despite improving relations between
Thailand and Burma.
Lieutenant-General Noraset Issaruangkul na Ayudhyua told the newspaper that
the Red Wa, which is an ethnic militia accused of controlling the trade, has
increased production of methamphetimines to counter increased efforts to
suppress the narcotic.
He said the group, which has signed a cease-fire with Burma's military
rulers, is running 61 drug factories and has 200 million pills hidden in border
areas awaiting distribution.
The newspaper says drug gangs are replacing large bulk shipments of
methamphetimine pills with large numbers of people who smuggle small amounts
into Thailand, evading surveillance at the border.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 January 2002
ICRC News 02/02
Myanmar: Cornerstones laid for
limb-fitting centre
A joyful celebration has launched construction of a new limb-production and
-fitting centre in Hpa-An, the capital of Karen state, in south-east Myanmar. On
January 14, representatives of the ICRC, the Myanmar Red Cross Society, the
authorities and Buddhist clerics gathered to lay the cornerstone. The ceremony
coincided with the Karen New Year and the ceremony was followed by traditional
Karen dances performed by people in colourful local dress.
A letter of understanding was signed on 6 December by the ICRC, the
Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Myanmar Red Cross. The
structure should be completed by May, and the centre is expected to be fully
operational two months later. Expectations are that after a year of operation
the centre will be rehabilitating 40 amputees a month.
During the celebration, the local abbot performed a blessing ceremony and
donations of robes, food and drink were made to the monks. In all, nine
different stones were laid for each corner of the building.
The ICRC started its limb-fitting programme in Myanmar at the
government-run National Rehabilitation Hospital in 1986. In 1988 a similar
programme was initiated in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence at a
military hospital in Yangon. In late 1989 a second military prosthetic service
was set up in Pyin Oo Lwin, north of Mandalay.
In 1990 the ICRC started working jointly with the Ministries of Health and
Defence and with the Myanmar Red Cross to identify, select, transport,
accommodate, feed and fit with artificial limbs amputees from remotes areas – in
particular border areas – free of charge.
Since then, the programme has produced some 3,000 prostheses. Prosthesis
production at the ICRC-supported centres went from 385 units in 1999 to 907 in
2000. In 2001 the total output was 2,150.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - January 21,
2002.
DRUG SUPPRESSION / TASK FORCE 399
Electronic sensors boost border security
Special unit gets new capability
Wassana Nanuam
The United States is donating highly sensitive electronic sensors to help
the army track drug smugglers crossing the border from Burma.
The electronic bugs, approved by the US congress, will greatly boost drug
suppression capability.
A Supreme Command source said the donation follows a year's training by US
special forces of the army's Task Force 399, a special fast-deployment unit set
up exclusively to combat drug smuggling from neighbouring countries.
The training scheme wound down last year and the US pledged further
assistance through donation of the sensors. How many were being provided was
confidential; there would be enough of them to serve the task force's
needs.
The sensors could detect movement and are calibrated to differentiate
between humans and animals. They would report how many people there were, if
they had cargo and if they were armed.
A task force patrol could then be sent to intercept them.
The devices are portable, could be easily moved and would allow better use
of manpower, instead of stationing troops at every point of passage on the long
border.
The government has also allocated 120 million baht from the drugs
eradication budget to the army. Some of the money was spent buying night vision
gear and equipment to detect drug precursors.
Task Force 399, commonly known as Chor Kor 399, reports directly to the
Third Army.
Established on Jan 25, 2001, it comprises companies of infantry, special
warfare personnel and a joint-operating unit of the Border Patrol Police. Now in
its second year of existence, the task force's achievements have been below
expectations, netting only 40,000 methamphetamine tablets in its first 90-day
mission, ending in December.
A three-day second mission over the New Year in Mae Sruay, Chiang Rai,
reaped 112,000 pills, again below target.
However, its existence had unnerved the Red Wa, the rebel army in Burma,
which feared an all-out offensive on its drug producing factories, the source
said. In reality, the task force stayed inside the Thai border.
Lt-Gen Udomchai Ongkasingha, Third Army commander, said he aimed to
transform the unit into a force capable of launching monthly offensives around
the clock, both along the borders and in town centres.
The unit worked in close collaboration with the Naresuan Task Force in Tak
and Mae Hong Son, and the Pha Muang Task Force covering Chiang Mai and Chiang
Rai.
Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont lauded the task force as the most
effective outlet the army employed in tackling the drug scourge.
Faulty intelligence was an impediment, he said. He hoped to change that if
proper funding was made available.
Gen Boonrawd Somthat, the army chief-of-staff, had confidence in the task
force's efficiency but insisted it must be better equipped.
uTwo men, a Thai and a Burmese, have been sentenced to death for possessing
200,000 speed pills with intent to sell.
The Criminal Court yesterday passed the death sentence on Sai Sam-on, 25, a
Burmese national; and Adisak Jaengkhamkam , 45, of Sukhothai's Kong Krailat
district.
The two men were arrested on Jan 18 last year at a hotel in the Lat Phrao
area.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar reacts to media reports on
nuclear reactor
YANGON, Jan. 21 Kyodo - Foreign
media reports on Myanmar's efforts in nuclear science were deliberate attempts
to derail the program, Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win charged Monday.
(20 :38)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st software park opens in
Myanmar
YANGON, Jan. 21 Kyodo - In a
first step to developing an independent software industry, Myanmar opened its
first information and communication technology (ICT) park Monday at Yangon
University's Hlaing Campus in the northern suburbs of Yangon. (17 :10)
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