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BURMA RELATED NEWS - February
08, 2002.
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HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Myanmar to accept return of illegal
workers, Thailand says
AFP - Thailand, Myanmar sign accord on
taxation
AFP - Asian HIV epidemic could become world's
worst, Australian report warns
Reuters - Myanmar ethnic army may end drugs
output by 2005
Bkk Post - Rangoon fires on Shan base
Bkk Post - Observer role for E. Timor
Xinhuanet - Myanmar to Attract Tourists at Berlin Tourism
Fair
Xinhuanet - Myanmar, Thailand Sign Agreement on Avoidance of
Double Taxation
FEER - TRAVEL: THE GOLDEN
TRIANGLE
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday February 8, 7:12 PM
Myanmar to accept return of illegal workers, Thailand says BANGKOK, Feb 8 (AFP) - Myanmar
will allow hundreds of thousands of illegal workers to be repatriated from
Thailand, and has assured they will not be prosecuted, Thai Foreign Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai said Friday.
"The two countries have agreed to set up a holding center at Myawadi and it
is possible it could be expanded to other towns to accommodate them," Surakairt
said after a three-day official visit to Myanmar.
The minister said Myanmar was willing to accept the repatrations if
Thailand could prove the workers were illegal immigrants from Myanmar.
After a crackdown launched last year, Thailand hopes to soon start sending
back hundreds of thousands of illegal workers from Myanmar.
About 560,000 Myanmar workers have registered since September with the Thai
authorities. Another 110,000 ethnic Karen and Karenni people are in 11 camps
along the Thai-Myanmar border, which Thailand also wants to close.
During the visit which ended Friday, Surakiart also held talks with army
chief General Maung Aye about the upcoming visit by Thailand's Princess Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn, who will represent her father King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
The trip is expected to go ahead in late October. Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra also invited Maung Aye to pay an official visit to Thailand
probably in April, Surakiart added.
The minister also outlined a scheme under which Thai boats can resume
fishing in Myanmar waters.
Myanmar cancelled Thai fishing licenses in October 1999 after Bangkok
supplied an escape helicopter to five anti-junta gunmen in exchange for the
release of hostages held at the Myanmar embassy in the Thai capital.
Surakiart said private companies intending to join the joint fishing scheme
must be approved by both governments and register their fishing trawlers with
both authorities.
The state-run Myanmar media reported late Thursday that the two countries
also signed an agreement on avoiding double taxation.
Surakiart, who headed an 18-member delegation, arrived in Myanmar's capital
on Wednesday.
After meeting top junta leaders, he departed Yangon late Thursday to the
western beachside resort of Ngapali for meetings with his Myanmar counterpart
Win Aung.
Thailand's newly appointed supreme commander, Admiral Narong Yuthavong, was
also in Yangon this week for an official goodwill visit at the invitation of
Myanmar's army chief General Maung Aye.
"The relations with Thailand had strengthened through the frequent exchange
of visits at all levels as well as the personal amity and rapport between the
leaders of the two nations," the state media said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday February 8, 12:58 AM
Thailand, Myanmar sign accord on taxation BANGKOK, Feb 7 (AFP) - Thailand
and Myanmar have signed an agreement on avoiding double taxation between the
neighbouring states, state-run Myanmar media reported Thursday.
The agreement was signed in Yangon Thursday by visiting Thai Foreign
Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Myanmar's Finance and Revenue Minister Khin
Maung Thein, TV Myanmar said in a dispatch monitored here
The signing ceremony was presided over by the junta's vice chairman,
General Maung Aye and secretary general Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, it
said.
It gave no further details.
Surakiart, who headed an 18-member delegation, arrived in Myanmar's capital
on Wednesday for an official three-day visit and to call on Myanmar's military
leaders.
A senior Thai foreign ministry official said Surakiart departed Yangon late
Thursday to Myanmar's western beachside resort of Ngapali for meetings with his
Myanmar counterpart Win Aung.
"The talks between the two foreign ministers would cover areas, including
narcotics, illegal migrants, trade and fisheries," Thai foreign ministry
spokesman Ratthakit Manathat said earlier this week.
Thailand's newly appointed Supreme Commander, Admiral Narong Yuthavong,
also arrived in Yangon Thursday for an official goodwill visit at the invitation
of Myanmar's army chief General Maung Aye, TV Myanmar said in a separate
report..
"The relations with Thailand had strengthened through the frequent exchange
of visits at all levels as well as the personal amity and rapport between the
leaders of the two nations," according to an official information sheet issued
by Myanmar's ruling military junta.
Surakiart is scheduled to return from Ngapali on Friday and depart for
Thailand later that day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday February 8, 4:20 PM
Asian HIV epidemic could become world's
worst, Australian report warns
(AFP) - An explosive HIV
epidemic fuelled by the sharing of unhygenic needles by millions of drug users
across Asia is threatening to become the world's worst, an Australian research
team warned.
The most comprehensive review yet of drug use and AIDS in 24 Asian states,
including Hong Kong and Macau, also accused governments of being mostly slow to
respond to the public health threat.
The review, made public Friday, found that HIV spread voraciously along
drug trafficking routes, with previously HIV-free areas of China now showing up
HIV sub-types traceable to the Golden Triangle heroin-producing region of Burma,
Laos and Thailand.
The Centre for Harm Reduction, based at Melbourne's Macfarlane Burnet
Institute, found that since its last report on Asia in 1997, more young people
and more women were starting to inject drugs, with amphetamines as well as
heroin becoming popular.
The project's chief researcher, Gary Reid, said high proportions of drug
injectors were infected by HIV in many countries including up to 75 percent in
Iran, 70 percent in China, and 65 percent in Vietnam.
In Indonesia in 1997 one percent of injecting drug users was HIV-positive
but this had since climbed to 19 percent, and in some pockets up to 50
percent.
"Once the epidemic gets into these drug-using communities it really
explodes," Reid said.
"In a number of the Asian countries it's now been confirmed that it is the
injecting drug-using community who are driving the HIV epidemic."
Governments desperate to control drug use were unfortunately emphasising
law enforcement and denying the health implications, Reid added.
He said that when trafficking routes were discovered and closed, others
opened immediately and communities which had never even seen drugs were suddenly
flooded.
Estimates of the prevalence of injecting drug users include a million in
Indonesia, three million in China, and hundreds of thousands in Burma, Iran,
Pakistan and Thailand.
The signs were ominous that HIV was crossing from drug users into the wider
community, particularly with increasing numbers of female sex workers adopting
the habit, Reid said.
The report, Revisiting the Hidden Epidemic, found that without immediate
effective intervention, Asia "may become home to the worst regional AIDS
epidemic on Earth".
It found that HIV was spreading rapidly among drug users because of the
sharing of injecting equipment, often in shooting galleries.
Needles and syringes were often cleaned with cold water rather than
sterilised with boiling water or bleach, and users were ignorant of the
dangers.
Reid said his own conversations with teenage injecting drug users in one
Chinese province revealed some were using blood rather than water to dissolve
the heroin powder before injecting and passing the needle on.
"That is a recipe for a crisis," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday February 8, 6:17 PM
Myanmar ethnic army may end drugs output by 2005 BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar,
one of the world's biggest opium producers, has said an ethnic army based in the
country has promised to stop production of all kinds of drugs by 2005, Thai
officials said on Friday.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Myanmar's military government
made the promise on behalf of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), a semi-autonomous
militia to which it is allied.
"Myanmar officials told me the Wa have promised to stop drug production,
not only opium, but all kinds including methamphetamine, by year 2005,"
Surakiart told reporters after a three-day trip to Myanmar.
Thailand has said it expects to be flooded with over 900 million
methamphetamine stimulant pills this year, 200 million more than last year, due
to higher demand and new plants in Laos.
Thai authorities say most of the pills are produced by the Wa militia
inside Myanmar.
The Thai army has said falling opium production in Afghanistan has prompted
growers in the "Golden Triangle", where the borders of Myanmar, Laos and
Thailand converge, to boost production to serve rising global demand for heroin.
Until 2000, Afghanistan was the world's main producer of poppies, which are
turned into opium and further refined into heroin. The then ruling Taliban
ordered a partial ban on poppy production in 1999, and outlawed it altogether
one year later.
Myanmar is now the world's biggest opium producer, according to
international narcotics agencies. The Myanmar government denies this.
Methamphetamine pills, also known as "Ya ba", or "crazy medicine", are
increasingly supplanting heroin as the main drug produced in the Golden Triangle
region.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - February 08,
2002.
Rangoon fires on Shan base
Burmese troops yesterday fired mortar shells at a Shan State Army base in
Gor Mueng, on the Burmese border opposite Ban Ja-dee.
A security source said around 10 mortars reportedly fell near Gor Mueng
base, manned by a few hundred SSA soldiers. There were no reports of casualties
and the SSA had not yet retaliated.
Yesterday's shelling was seen as a prelude to a major Burmese military
offensive against several SSA bases on the border, including Gor Wan, the SSA's
major command post near Ban Pang Noon.
Ban Pang Noon saw fierce border fighting last year after Burmese troops
crossed into Thailand and used Thai soil to attack SSA fighters in Gor Wan
base.
SSA military commander Jao Yord Serk instructed his fighters to be on full
alert following rumours Burmese troops might launch a rear assault from Thai
territory.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - February 08,
2002.
Observer role for E. Timor
Moves against drugs, terrorism planned
An informal meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Phuket on Feb 20 and 21
will discuss the possibility of giving East Timor observer status to the
group.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Rathakit Manathat said the retreat of 10 Asean
foreign ministers would also discuss Thailand's proposal for an Asia
Co-operation Dialogue, and collective moves against terrorism and drugs.
Progress would also be reviewed since the November Brunei summit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar to Attract Tourists at
Berlin Tourism Fair
Xinhuanet 2002-02-08 10:57:00 YANGON, February 8 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar will take part in the International Tourism Bourse due to open in
Berlin, Germany on March 16 this year, according to the Myanmar Ministry of
Hotel and Tourism.
So far, 20 Myanmar companies, organized under the country's Tourism
Promotion Board, have registered to participate in the five-day tourism fair
which is being described as the world biggest travel and tourism fair.
The Myanmar companies will feature their travel service products and the
fair will offer huge potential for drawing more tourists to Myanmar, said an
official of the ministry.
U Khin Maung Latt, the ministry's director general, said cooperation with
other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has
helped promote Myanmar's tourism industry.
In recent years, Myanmar participated in tourism fairs held in Thailand,
Singapore, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Republic of
Korea.
Meanwhile, Myanmar is also cooperating with tourism authorities of other
ASEAN members in regional activities including cooperation programs for tourist
destinations in the ASEAN region and market promotion activities of nations in
Great Mekong Region as well as Ganges-Mekong cooperation program.
To develop its tourism, Myanmar has signed bilateral agreement with China,
Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Thailand.
According to official statistics, tourist arrival in Myanmar dropped by
50.6 percent in the first ten months of 2001 compared with the same period of
2000, reaching only 92,388.
The statistics also show that since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in
1988, contracted investment in the sector of hotel and tourism has so far
amounted to 1.054 billion U.S. dollars.
The country targets to draw 500,000 foreign tourists annually.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar, Thailand Sign Agreement
on Avoidance of Double Taxation
Xinhuanet 2002-02-07 23:26:18 YANGON, February 7 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar and Thailand reached an agreement on avoidance of double taxation
here Thursday afternoon, the state-run Radio Myanmar reported.
The agreement was signed by Myanmar Minister of Finance and Revenue U. Khin
Maung Thein and visiting Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai on behalf
of their respective governments.
Prior to the signing, Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) Maung Aye and SPDC First Secretary Khin Nyunt met
with Surakiart separately.
Surakiart arrived here Wednesday on a three-day official visit to Myanmar
at the invitation of his Myanmar counterpart U. Win Aung.
Myanmar earlier signed similar agreements with three other member nations
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, namely Malaysia, Vietnam and
Singapore.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Far Eastern Economic
Review
TRAVEL: THE GOLDEN
TRIANGLE
Golden Getaway
By Bertil
Lintner/THOED THAI
Issue cover-dated February 14, 2002 It's one of the most notorious parts of Southeast Asia, but the
drug-growing region on the Thai-Burmese border offers some fascinating
destinations for the curious traveller
WHEN THE OLD HEADQUARTERS of a former Golden Triangle drug lord becomes a
tourist destination, you know times have changed.
Twenty years ago, the lush and tranquil highland valley of Thoed Thai was
under attack from Thai forces rooting out drug smugglers. Today, it boasts a
resort where you can lazily sip a beer at sunset or just enjoy the soothing
ripple of a nearby stream. If you get tired of the slow pace of village life,
you can go mountain-biking in the surrounding hills, which are some of northern
Thailand's most breathtakingly spectacular. Or trek up to a deserted military
camp that's been converted into a museum dedicated to erstwhile warlord Zhang
Qifu, alias Khun Sa. Continue uphill and you'll find the ruins of Khun Sa's
house and an old air-raid shelter.
Khun Sa, the most infamous opium king that the Golden Triangle has ever
produced, ran this place until Thai troops attacked it in January 1982. Fierce
fighting raged for several days before Khun Sa was defeated. To crown their
victory, the Thais replaced the village's name, Ban Hin Taek ("cracked rock
village"), with the more auspicious Ban Thoed Thai ("village upholding the Thai
spirit").
Khun Sa, who claimed to be fighting for independence for the Shans of
eastern Burma, retreated across the border to his homeland, where he established
a new base at Homong opposite the Thai town of Mae Hong Son. There, he built a
town and a military base that were even bigger and more prosperous than Hin
Taek. A few years later, in January 1996, he surrendered to the Burmese
authorities, disbanded his private army of some 15,000 men and moved to Rangoon
with his money and three young wives.
If you want the full story, ask "Khun" John, proprietor of the Rim Taan
Guest House on the river that flows through Thoed Thai. John speaks excellent
English, partly as a result of serving with the American-supported "secret" army
in Laos in the 1960s. Those skills came in handy back in April 1977, when a
representative of the United States government, Joseph Nellis, helicoptered into
the village for talks with Khun Sa over his offer to sell his entire opium
harvest to Washington. John was called in act as the interpreter. Khun Sa's
offer, however, was rejected, and the Americans decided in favour of-ultimately
unsuccessful-military action against the warlord.
The Rim Taan ("river bank") Guest House, which John now runs, consists of a
string of chalets that make up a total of 14 basic but adequate rooms. They're
not air-conditioned, but they do have fans and hot water-useful for coping with
the early morning chill of the mountains. At no more than 400 baht ($9) a night,
they're a real bargain. The adjacent Ting Ting restaurant serves excellent Thai
and Chinese food, but it's also worth exploring the food stalls in the local
market, which offer delicacies reflecting Thoed Thai's ethnic diversity, which
covers sizeable Shan and Yunnanese populations as well as Akha, Lisu, Lahu and
other hilltribes.
DETAILS: Rim Taan Guest House, 15 Mu 1, Thoed Thai, Mae Fah Luang, Chiang
Rai. John's mobile phone number is (01) 883 1401, but if the signal doesn't
reach Thoed Thai-which happens quite often-call the local telephone exchange at
(053) 771 223, ask them to go and get Khun John, and then call back in 10-15
minutes.
GETTING THERE: To get to Thoed Thai nowadays is easy. A wide, paved road
winds its way over the hills from Pasang on the main highway north of Chiang
Rai-in sharp contrast to the potholed dirt track that runs through the actual
village. Or you can approach it from the more famous-and more frequently
visited-old Kuomintang settlement of Mae Salong 25 kilometres away. Thoed Thai
is 10 kilometres off the main Mae Salong-Pasang highway.
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