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Burma Related News - March 03,
2002.
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Headlines
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Bkk Post - Rights
panel probes deaths 17 found in stream with throats
cut
Bkk Post - Crackdown
aims to nab 35,000
Bkk Post - Employers
urged to aid health costs
Xinhuanet - Acreage Under Irrigation
Increases in Myanmar -------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post
Sunday 03 March 2002
Rights panel probes deaths
17 found in stream with throats cut
The National Human Rights Commission is looking into the deaths of 17 Karen
people found in a stream here last month.
A team led by Charan Dittha-apichai is on a three-day visit to the
province. NGOs had demanded the commission look into the mass killings.
The Karen were found with their throats cut in a stream near the border in
Mae Ramat and Mae Sot districts.
Mr Charan's team talked to police working close to where the bodies were
found and met deputy provincial police chief Khattiya Anantariwong and
immigration authorities.
Sawek Pinsinchai, the provincial police chief, was not in town but will
speak to the commission soon.
Mr Charan said police did not know who the victims were. They were believed
to be Karen Burmese workers connected to a drug trafficking network or a labour
trafficking ring.
Mr Charan said the commission was looking into the matter and his team
would leave Tak today and report the findings to chairman Saneh Chamarik.
Bangkok Post - Sunday 03 March 2002
ALIEN LABOUR
Crackdown aims to nab 35,000
Many have failed to renew work permits
Immigration police expect to apprehend 35,000 illegal immigrants during a
three-month nationwide crackdown.
Pol Maj-Gen Ukrit Patchimsawat, the deputy immigration police commissioner,
said the clampdown would last until May 9 and target 35,000 illegal workers who
failed to renew their work permits.
Phuket immigration police chief Pol Col Apirak Hongthong said over 300
alien workers were arrested in the southern province since Feb 10.
A total of 18,238 alien workers were registered in Phuket with a further
2,000 believed to be working illegally. The province expects to apprehend 1,000
illegal workers during the crackdown.
The Labour Ministry said 9,856 migrants, including 9,037 Burmese, 536 Lao
and 283 Cambodians, asked for work permit renewals during Feb 24-27.
The maximum penalty for hiring illegal foreign labour was 10 years in
prison and a 100,000 baht fine under the immigration law, plus a three-year jail
term and a 60,000 baht fine under the labour law.
Bangkok Post - Sunday 03 March 2002
Employers urged to aid health costs
Workers' families need checkups
Alien workers need their employers' help in meeting the health costs of
family members, says Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan.
Bosses should bring in for health check-ups alien workers' families, she
said. Registered workers were entitled to health insurance but their families
were not.
Ranong province alone has 25,000 registered alien workers, but the number
of foreign workers is believed to exceed 80,000. Registered workers' family
members are included in the bigger figure, as many go out to work.
``We don't know how many unregistered workers are out there and if they
have any kind of diseases,'' Mrs Sudarat said.
Unregistered workers cost Ranong's public health office more than three
million baht in medical bills from October to December last year.
Almost 568,250 alien workers have registered, of which 451,335 are Burmese
nationals.
Meanwhile, police in Phuket said they would get tough on people hiring
illegal workers.
Pol Lt-Gen Charnwut Watcharapuk, in charge of suppressing illegal alien
labour, said illegal workers would not be tolerated as the matter involved
national security.
Phuket planned a big crackdown on illegal labour in the next two
months.
Acreage Under Irrigation Increases
in Myanmar
Xinhuanet 2002-03-03 10:10:48 YANGON, March 3 (Xinhuanet) --
The irrigated area of Myanmar has increased by 972,000 hectares to 1.98 million
hectares after 130 dams were built since the present government took office in
1988, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
The building of the 130 dams in the past 13 years, which cost 51,453.03
million Kyats (about 147 million U.S. dollars), has brought the total number of
dams in the country to 267. Myanmar's irrigated area accounts for 13.16 percent
of its cultivated area.
Meanwhile, the government has also built 262 river-water pumping stations,
undertaking tapping of underground water and digging wells to bring safe
drinking water to rural areas. These projects are now supplying drinking water
to 15.15 million rural people.
According to official statistics, Myanmar's cultivable land stretches
18.225 million hectares. Sown area in the country has reached 15.04 million
hectares compared to 9.63 million hectares in 1988.
As agriculture is the mainstay of Myanmar's economy, the government is
giving priority to the development of the sector in order to produce enough food
to feed the nation's present 52-million population.
Agriculture accounts for 42 percent of the country's gross domestic product
and 25 percent of its export value.
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