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BURMA RELATED NEWS - December
10, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Burmese Refugee Photos Win Acclaim in
U.S. Art W-orld
BBC - Burma seeks inquiry into bodies
mystery
BBC - Burma's forgotten refugees
AFP - Myanmar urges Thai inquiry into deaths of
13 citizens
AFP - Myanmar junta frees another 27 female
prisoners
Reuters - Myanmar slams "outlandish" U.S. rights
report
Bkk Post - Suffocation suspected in deaths of 13
Bkk Post - Displaced persons seek Thai
citizenship
Bkk Post - What's this
all about?
Bkk Post - Chavalit wants border villages
bolstered
The Nation - 13
Burmese look to have suffocated
ST - 13 from Myanmar not murdered: Police
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Burmese Refugee Photos Win Acclaim in U.S.
Art World Wed Mar 6,12:45 PM ET By Jill Oestreicher Gross WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chan
Chao left his native Burma when he was 12 and didn't look back for nearly two
decades.
When he finally did, as a photographer, it was through the lens of a Fuji camera that locked eyes with the struggling people of his homeland, officially known as Myanmar. He returned again and again and the images he captured eventually catapulted Chao onto the international art scene. On Thursday, 11 photographs from his trips to refugee camps at the borders
of the southeast Asian nation go on display at the Whitney Museum's 2002
Biennial, one of the most important exhibitions for modern artists in the United
States.
Chao's photos are humanistic portraits of student activists and ethnic
rebels who, after being pushed to Myanmar's borders and are living in camps, are
united by a desire to see their country, run by a military junta, turn to
democracy.
"As portraits of people they are incredibly engaging," said Lawrence
Rinder, the Biennial's chief curator. "The characters that one sees ... and the
way that they engage with the camera, and therefore with the person looking at
the pictures, is very direct and unabashed and unguarded in a way that one
rarely finds in pictures, even in portraits."
"And, of course," Rinder continued, "when one knows the story of these
people ... and of course of Chan Chao's own personal history, how he encountered
these people, the work becomes ever richer and acquires more meaning and depth
and emotional resonance."
After leaving his homeland with his family as a child and settling in the
Washington area, Chao, a freelance photographer and artist, didn't become
curious about Myanmar until he turned 30.
"That's when I thought to myself, maybe it was really time for me to see
where I came from, who I am, and I decided to return to Burma," Chao, now 35,
said at a coffee shop near the Washington apartment he shares with his wife and
cat.
ROUGH JOURNEY BACK
Myanmar has a long history of military rule since independence from Britain
in 1948. The current junta has been widely criticized for its poor human rights
record since it took control of the country in 1988 and refused to hand over
power after democratic elections two years later.
After being denied a visa twice, Chao, with the help of his father's
contacts in the region, was able to approach the border through northwest
Thailand and southern India.
Chao said his initial trip was a soul-searching visit that allowed him to
"make some pictures and let that be that." So after eight days of taking photos,
he returned to the United States, where he is a citizen, developed his film, and
shared it with those close to him, including John Gossage, his former professor
at the University of Maryland at College Park.
"They seemed quite extraordinary and I encouraged him," said Gossage. "I
mean, I don't think he needed encouragement. I think he understood what he was
getting."
That 1996 trip, along with news that some of those he met or photographed
may have been killed in clashes with the military, lead to another trip to the
Thai border in 1997, followed by a third to the India border in 1998. Based on
several hundred rolls of film, Chao created a book, "Burma: Something Went
Wrong" (2000, Nazraeli Press), a collection of more than 70 photos that led to a
show at the Numark Gallery in Washington and, ultimately, to the Whitney.
Many of the refugees photographed by Chao left Myanmar shortly after 1988.
The State Department estimates that there are hundreds of thousands of Burmese
refugees living along the borders with Thailand, India and Bangladesh.
"I know this a very important moment in Burmese history and that it's
really sort of mobilizing the whole country to voice their opposition to the
military," said Chao, who teaches photography at the Corcoran College of Art and
Design.
AT THE WHITNEY
His book landed in the hands of Whitney curator Rinder last year.
"This was one that really caught my eye and I took it home with me and kept
it around and looked at it over and over and really was just very compelled by
the pictures and so when I was going on my national tour of the country for the
Biennial, I made a point of visiting Chan Chao," he said in an interview with
Reuters from New York.
After seeing the images in person, Rinder said he knew they had a place in
the Whitney's show, which this year features 113 artists in mediums ranging from
painting to performance art.
Chao used similar composition for his images of men, women and children of
all ages, photographed at 12 different camps. Nearly all the subjects are seen
looking directly at Chao's camera in front of blurry mountainous or jungle
backgrounds. The faces are serious and singular, sad and honest.
"By making the pictures the same way, you're forced to look at subtle
differences," Chao said. "When you start to accumulate the subtle differences,
you have a full range of human emotion. That was my approach to this project."
Chao also said that viewers should examine the photos as if the subjects
were looking back at them, forming a dialogue between the two, a technique
Rinder noted.
The photos include a woman in her former school's uniform who is now a
member of a rebel group, a land mine victim, a man in a sarong with a farm tool
in his hand, a uniformed pro-democracy soldier, a young Buddhist monk who leads
prayer at a refugee camp, and two former anti-democracy fighters.
"The whole project has been such an eye opener. Everything from the
political situation to how some of those people live to how people respond to
the pictures," Chao said. "I felt that ... there was a lot of luck on my part in
being able to be in the right place in the right time and (have people)
responding to me."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Wednesday, 6 March, 2002, 11:31
GMT
Burma seeks inquiry into bodies mystery Burma's military junta has asked the Thai Government to launch an inquiry
into the deaths of 13 Burmese nationals whose bodies were found dumped in
north-eastern Thailand.
Police in Prachinburi province initially said they believed the Burmese -
who included children and teenagers - had been murdered.
But a forensic investigation has found they suffocated, probably
accidentally during the difficult journey from Burma.
Officials in Thailand say they believe the Burmese were the victims of an
illegal smuggling racket.
A police spokesman, Major General Pongsapat Pongjaroen, told the BBC it was
possible the victims had suffocated as they crossed the border underneath a
truck.
The bodies, in empty sandbags, were found dumped at a quarry and hidden
under piles of fertiliser sacks.
Migrant workers
The head of the police forensic department, Major General Chid Samathiwat,
said he estimated the victims were aged between 12 and 25 years old and that
they died late on Monday night.
He said the victims' heads were twisted due to rigor mortis, and that their
necks were not broken as was previously thought.
Thailand has just begun a campaign to repatriate thousands of Burmese
working illegally in the country. Burma has set up a camp at Myawaddy, on the
Thai-Burma border to receive them.
Before the forensic findings emerged, Kyaw Win, Burma's deputy chief of
military intelligence told reporters he believed the 13 Burmese had been
murdered.
"This is something that should not have taken place at all at a time when
we are repatriating," he said.
"We will make a request through the foreign ministry to the Thai Government
to take serious action against the murderers after investigation and to prevent
similar incidents from breaking out and to give Burmese workers protection."
The Burmese workers in Thailand are known to be unpopular with the local
population.
Last month the bodies of about 14 workers, thought to be Burmese, were
found dumped in a creek in north-western Thailand.
Officials said they suspected those victims were Karen migrant labourers
killed by their Thai employer to avoid paying them, or hired for criminal
activity and then killed when they had finished the job.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Wednesday, 6 March, 2002, 14:17
GMT
Burma's forgotten refugees By the BBC's Alastair Lawson reporting from Cox's Bazar It is 10 years ago this month that Muslim refugees from Burma began arriving in their thousands into Bangladesh. The refugees, known as Rohingyas, came from Burma's Arakan province to
escape what they said was persecution by the military government.
They say their land was confiscated and they were pressed into forced
labour by the predominantly Buddhist Burmese authorities.
By the end of 1992, about 250,000 had arrived in south-eastern Bangladesh,
where the government placed them in more than 20 camps around the town of Cox's
Bazar.
Their number has dwindled to about 20,000, but those that remain say
conditions are so poor, they are barely better than those they endured back in
Burma.
Abuse
In Kutupalang camp, about 30km east of Cox's Bazar, it is not hard to see
what they mean.
Home to about to about 8,000 Rohingyas, the camp is guarded by armed
policemen under orders not to allow outsiders to enter.
There is limited access to adequate sanitation - open drains are clearly
visible - and many live in over-crowded and flimsy straw huts.
Many appear malnourished, and all rely on the United Nations and aid
agencies for their daily food handouts of rice.
"We sometimes experienced serious torture in the camp and I have witnessed
some terrible beatings," said Abdul, who arrived in Bangladesh from Burma in
1992.
Like many other Rohingyas, he was repatriated to Burma in 1997 but fled
back to Bangladesh two years later because of what he says was continued
persecution.
He said the abuses against refugees in the camps were mostly inflicted by
fellow Rohingyas appointed by the Bangladeshi authorities to enforce discipline
and maintain law and order.
Persecution
Another refugee, Hossain, said the Bangladeshi government and the United
Nations refugee agency had forced many Rohingyas to return to Burma, even though
most faced certain torture there.
Both organisations insist that no refugee has recently been made to return
involuntarily.
Hossain, who was a farmer back home, fled to Bangladesh in 1998.
"Although conditions are tough here, they are not as bad as in Burma. There
we were regularly tortured and oppressed, and denied even the right to practise
our religion," he said.
"Every time my rice crop was ready for harvest it would be confiscated by
the Burmese military," he said.
"They told us that as Muslims we had no rights there."
Antagonism
The relationship between the refugees and the local Bangladeshi community
frequently reaches boiling point.
"They create lots of trouble here," said local journalist Umral Haq.
"They are often involved in crime, even though it is difficult for many of
them to leave the camps," he added.
"They are believed to steal livestock from local farmers and have been
accused of destroying the jungle so that they can get firewood."
Some Rohingyas, however, have escaped the camps and are now blending into
the local community.
But with no sign of Burma agreeing to take back the last of the refugees,
it looks as if the Rohingyas will be around the Cox's Bazar area for sometime to
come. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday March 6, 4:58 PM
Myanmar urges Thai inquiry into deaths of 13 citizens YANGON, March 6 (AFP) -
Myanmar's military junta on Wednesday asked the Thai government to launch an
inquiry into the deaths of 13 Myanmar nationals whose bodies were found dumped
in northeastern Thailand.
Police in Prachin Buri province initially said they believed the six men,
four women and three children had been murdered and their bodies placed in sacks
and dumped by the roadside.
But a forensic investigation found Wednesday they had suffocated, probably
accidentally during an arduous secret journey to Thailand where they were to
join the ranks of illegal labourers.
Before that finding was released, Myanmar's deputy military intelligence
chief Major General Kyaw Win said the discovery prompted Yangon to send a formal
request through diplomatic channels to ensure there was no repeat of the
incident.
"We feel that such killings should not be happening just when we have begun
the process of repatriation of hundreds of illegal Myanmar workers from
Thailand," Kyaw Win told reporters.
He added that "no official protest" had been lodged regarding the deaths,
but that Yangon urged Thai authorities to see to the safe return of other
workers.
There are an estimated two million illegal workers in Thailand, many of
them from neighbouring Myanmar. Last October the labour ministry registered
roughly 560,000 of them in an effort to control cross-border migrations.
Kyaw Win said that since February 5 over 800 men and women had been sent
back to Myanmar. The junta has set up a reception camp at Myawaddy, on the
Thai-Myanmar border, to receive returning nationals.
Thailand's Major General Chid Samathiwat, commander of the police forensic
department, said in Bangkok that he estimated the 13 victims were aged between
12 and 25 years old and that they died late on Monday night.
"From the preliminary autopsy we found they died because of suffocation and
choking," he said.
Chid said the victims' heads were twisted due to rigor mortis, and that
their necks were not broken as was previously thought.
Thailand's deputy prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he also
believed the 13 were victims of a smuggling racket and had died due to
suffocation.
"They were inside the sacks for many hours, and therefore they were
deprived of oxygen, but there were no signs of a brutal beating," he told
reporters.
Thailand's national police chief, General Sant Sarutanond, instructed all
border checkpoints to be on alert for illegal immigrants.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday March 6, 4:41 PM
Myanmar junta frees another 27 female prisoners (AFP) - Myanmar's military
junta said it had freed 27 female prisoners in the latest of a series of
releases of both ordinary and political prisoners over the past week.
A spokesman for the regime said the female prisoners, who were all either
pregnant or had young children, were released on humanitarian grounds from jails
where they were detained for various criminal activities.
"They are all in good health and reunited with their respective families,"
the spokesman said in a statement.
The move brings to 147 the total number of female prisoners freed over the
past week, in an apparent "merit-making" gesture linked to the consecration of a
massive Buddha image in Yangon.
As well, the junta on Monday announced it had freed five student activists
who had been incarcerated at Tharawaddy and Myaungmya prisons.
At least two of them -- Tint Swe and Kyaw Oo Nyo -- were known to be
affiliated with the Burma Communist Party.
Some 236 political prisoners have been released since the junta began talks
with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in October 2000, a process aimed at
paving the way for democratic reforms.
A prominent person in the latest batch was Yin Htwe, one of 24 activists
whose original sentences were extended for having written a letter from jail to
the former UN rapporteur for human rights on prison conditions.
The releases over the past week closely follow last month's visit to
Myanmar by the current UN human rights envoy, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who renewed
calls for the junta to "release all political prisoners".
After completing his third trip to the military-ruled state, Pinheiro said
prison conditions were better here after some 150 missions by the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Jean-Michel Monod, the ICRC's Asia, Pacific and Latin America regional
representative, was also in Myanmar for a visit earlier this month.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday March 6, 9:38 PM
Myanmar slams "outlandish" U.S. rights report By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
military government on Wednesday slammed a U.S. State Department report on the
Southeast Asian country's human rights record as "repeatedly incorrect and
outlandishly disoriented". The report, released this week, said Myanmar's
military was guilty of routine torture, extrajudicial killings, rape, forced
labour and political and religious repression.
The Myanmar government, desperate for international legitimacy that could
lead to more aid, trade and investment, said in a statement that the United
States should look at its own rights record before criticising others.
"(The report) is based again on a repeatedly incorrect and outlandishly
disoriented information regarding Myanmar," said the statement, which was faxed
to Reuters.
"Such a high profile report...is designed to find fault with others in its
dismemberment of a nation while self-exempting one's own self," it said.
Myanmar's ruling generals, shunned by many Western countries for their
human rights record and repression of opponents, have been trying to show the
world they are moving towards democracy and cleaning up their rights record.
Since late 2000, the government has engaged in United Nations-brokered
talks with Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD), although many observers say the process has stalled.
For two years the regime has let the Red Cross visit the estimated 1,500
political prisoners languishing in Myanmar's jails and last month it allowed
U.N. human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro into the country to assess the
situation.
"SUFFOCATION WITH PLASTIC BAGS"
Pinheiro, who will present a report to the U.N. on April 4 which could
influence international attitudes towards Myanmar, left saying there was no
longer abuse of political prisoners.
But he said he wanted to return to the country later this year to
investigate allegations of rights violations by the Myanmar army near the Thai
border.
The United States, which, along with the European Union, maintains aid and
trade sanctions against Myanmar, said in its report that the military was
abusing prisoners.
"Members of the security forces regularly tortured, beat, and otherwise
abused prisoners and detainees and other citizens," said the U.S. document, much
of which was based on what it said were credible reports by human rights groups.
"The most common forms of mistreatment are sleep and food deprivation,
beatings coupled with around-the-clock questioning under bright lights, near
suffocation with plastic bags, confinement in leg clamps and forcing water in
the nose and throat."
The report said some of the most serious abuses were in areas where the
Myanmar army was fighting ethnic minority armies, adding that soldiers forced
villagers to relocate and forced farmers to sell crops, land and cattle cheaply.
"Army members have beaten, raped and killed persons who resist," the report
said.
The U.S. document said although the government had loosened restrictions on
the opposition NLD and released over 200 prisoners, political activity remains
severely restricted and activists were harassed.
"The junta...refuses to accept the legal political status of key NLD party
leaders, particularly Aung San Suu Kyi, and restricts their activities severely
through security measures and threats," the report said.
The military has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest since September 2000, and
detains around 800 members of the NLD, which won the country's last democratic
elections in 1990 but was never allowed to rule.
U.N. envoy Razali Ismail, who brokered the talks between the government and
the NLD, is due to begin a four-day visit to Myanmar on March 19.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Thursday 07 March 2002
Suffocation suspected in deaths of
13
Police launch search for people smugglers
Post reporters
The 13 Burmese nationals whose bodies were deserted at a dump in Prachin
Buri may have suffocated to death while being smuggled into Thailand, police
said.
Wichit Samathiwat, commander of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, said
autopsies found suffocation was the cause of death in all cases.
No wounds were found on the bodies though there were bruises that may have
been caused when they bumped against one another.
Three men and seven women were found, aged about 18-30, and two boys and
one girl. The bodies were stuffed in rice sacks and left in a 100-rai dump site
in tambon Nonhom, Muang district.
Police believe a gang smuggled the group into the country.
Amnuay Petsiri, deputy national police chief, who oversees eastern and
northern provinces, said searches for the gang were carried out simultaneously
yesterday in Tak, Chon Buri, Prachin Buri and Nakhon Nayok. Police believed the
gang smuggled the illegals from Mae Sot district of Tak to a factory in Prachin
Buri.
Charnvut Watcharabukka, a police commissioner who oversees alien labour
suppression, said Mae Sot was a popular route for human smuggling. Burmese
workers usually pay about 5,000 baht to people who smuggle them in.
A civic group in Tak wants the government to stop human rights violations
against alien labour. Last month, the bodies of 17 brutally murdered Karen
workers were recovered from a Tak stream. Police believe the Karens were also
working here illegally.
Panithi Tangphati, of Tak Border Civil Society, said pictures of the
victims should be distributed to Burmese labour communities on the border. The
National Human Rights Commission and CARE, a NGO, would be asked to gather
information. Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the murders did not
mean Burma was refusing to co-operate with efforts to repatriate illegal
workers. The Ministry's Department of East Asian Affairs was working with police
to see if the deaths stemmed from a business conflict or from people smuggling,
Mr Surakiart said.
Burma's Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win would pay a courtesy call on
Mr Surakiart today before co-chairing talks with Tej Bunnag, permanent secretary
for foreign affairs, on the repatriation process. The two sides have agreed to
build a holding centre in Myawaddy for Burmese workers returning from Thailand.
Mr Surakiart said that if repatriation failed international confidence in
bilateral efforts to solve the problem would be hurt.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Thursday 07 March 2002
Displaced persons seek Thai
citizenship
Been in limbo since Second World War
Displaced people scattered in this southern province have called on the
government to recognise them as Thai people.
A total of 564 displaced people on Tuesday attended a public forum held at
Wat Uppanantharam in Muang district. The forum was organised by a group of local
people and joined by human rights activists.
Charan Distha-apichai , a member of the National Human Rights Commission,
said some displaced people had migrated from an area which once belonged to
Thailand. During the Second World War, he said, Thailand had to sign a treaty
giving some of its territory to Britain which governed Burma then. This resulted
in a group of Thais being left on Burmese soil. Some Thais were slave labourers
during the war.
After the situation returned to normal, they migrated from Burma to some
Thai southern provinces, including Ranong, Chumphon and Prachuap Khiri Khan, to
live with their relatives. However, they were classified as displaced people,
said Mr Charan.
Their children also faced the same plight. They were not recognised as Thai
people, he said.
The number of displaced people has gradually increased. Since they have not
been granted Thai citizenship, the displaced people are not entitled to state
welfare benefits.
Their children could obtain education only up to Pathom Suksa 6 (Grade 6),
Mr Charan said. They were not allowed to pursue their studies in the secondary
level due to a lack of evidence about their parents' and their own
citizenship.
Montha Supannarat, 36, a displaced person in Ranong, said her ancestors had
lived in Thung Samet of Burma's Mergui province. Before the Second World War,
Thung Samet belonged to Thailand.
The woman said most people in Thung Samet wanted to return to Thailand
because their relatives were living in Ranong province. Though they were issued
Burmese identity cards, they could not speak Burmese nor understand their
culture.
Mrs Montha said she and her family moved to Ranong to stay with their
relatives after 17 years in Burma's Thung Samet village. When they returned to
their motherland, however, they were labelled displaced people.
She called on the government to grant Thai citizenship to the displaced
people whose ancestors were Thai.
Prasert Inthachak, 50, another displaced person, said his parents were
Prachuap Khiri Khan natives who moved to work on a plantation in Burma, where he
was born.
When he grew up, he returned to Thailand to stay with his relatives.
However, he has never been recognised by authorities as a Thai. Mr Prasert said
displaced people had run into a lot of hardships. They were not entitled to
social welfare benefits or education.
Wilaiporn Ninyoung, 21, another displaced person in Ranong, said children
of displaced people had no chance to receive education due to a lack of official
documents.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Thursday 07 March 2002
What's this all about?
Thai security forces are being blamed for having a hand in a retaliatory
attack by Shan minority forces on part of a huge Burmese troop build-up. - The
deputy transport minister just had to go. He was found to be serving two masters
at the one time _ neither of which was we the taxpayers. - The deputy education
minister had to go because he did not invest his money wisely and so is
seriously deficient in political support.
The Burmese junta has sought an explanation from Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh,
our defence minister and close buddy of the generals in charge in Rangoon, for
last month's assault by the Shan State Army which left dead five Burmese troops
and two defence volunteers posted at a border base near Gor Wan, SSA's major
military command.
The Shans mounted the surprise attack on Feb 8 from border bases opposite
Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang district, following heavy fire from Burmese troops a
few days earlier directed at SSA bases.
Adm Narong Yuthawonge, supreme commander of the armed forces, was on an
official visit to Burma at the time.
Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, first secretary and intelligence chief of the Burmese
State Peace and Development Council, sent a letter to Gen Chavalit seeking any
details he might have of the SSA retaliation.
The junta thinks the SSA fighters mounted their attack from inside Thailand
with the support of Thai security forces. Security forces on the ground here
insist this is rubbish. They say SSA mounted the attack from bases deep inside
Burma.
"The Burmese military junta was very disturbed by the incident and wanted
us to clarify things," said one of our people in uniform. He said Gen Chavalit
was also unhappy with developments as it might hurt our ties Burma _ thus
ruining any chance he might have of borrowing panda bears, or whatever, from
them.
The junta is said to be particularly incensed by television footage of the
attack showing close fighting between SSA and the Burmese troops shown on Feb 9
on Channel 7 here.
Gen Vichit Yathip, an army specialist and key go-for for Gen Chavalit, has
briefed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the Burmese request for
detail.
Another chap in uniform said Gen Chavalit had ordered Army
Commander-in-Chief Gen Surayud Chulanont to mount an investigation to see if
there is any basis to the Burmese claims.
"This issue, if left untackled, could cause a rift and misunderstandings
between us," one member of our security forces said.
Thousands of Burmese troops are massing along the border and surrounding
five SSA bases which straddle the rugged border terrain adjoining Mae Fa Luang,
awaiting an order from Rangoon to strike.
SSA fighters, meanwhile, have been told, or so we've been told, to watch
that any future military operations do not rock the boat as far as the
terrifically wonderful Thai-Burmese relations are concerned.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Thursday 07 March 2002
Chavalit wants border villages
bolstered
Yuwadee Tunyasiri
The defence minister wants border villages to develop rapidly to protect
the country from external threats.
Addressing a seminar on border strategies organised by the National
Security Council yesterday, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said villages in 30 border
provinces were still underdeveloped and consequently too weak to block problems
seeping in from neighbouring countries.
``Infrastructure, education and the living conditions of locals along the
border are still not good enough. If this fence is weak, problems will seep in
from neighbouring countries and we will have to bear a heavier burden in solving
them,'' he said.
He cited illegal alien immigration, drug smuggling and transnational crime
as serious problems stemming from neighbouring countries. He estimated illegal
alien workers hiding in Thailand at up to two million.
``People staying in some border provinces are not Thai. They are mostly
Karen, Cambodian and Burmese. The Thais are a minority there. Some border
schools do not even have a Thai student. If this continues, problems will
arise,'' Gen Chavalit said.
Apart from strengthening border villages, he suggested Thailand help solve
problems in neighbouring countries as well, since this policy had succeeded with
Malaysia and Cambodia.
``Ten to 20 years ago, Thailand helped bring peace to Malaysia as we
managed to bring the Malaysian government to negotiate with its insurgents until
there was peace and security that has led to today's prosperity.
``For Cambodia, Thailand mediated with the different movements in Cambodia
and organised talks at Ban Phitsanulok, the government's guest house, until
there was the Tokyo declaration and the peace accord signed in Paris, and
happiness was restored in Cambodia,'' he said.
The government was now trying to implement this policy with Laos and Burma,
he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
13 Burmese look to have suffocated
Published on Mar 7, 2002
forensic results showed that 13 Burmese nationals whose bodies were found
at a waste site in Prachin Buri on Tuesday died of suffocation and choking,
Police Commissioner General Sant Sarutanond said yesterday.
The group - three men, seven women and three children - was not murdered as
earlier speculated, Sant said. "Some corpses had broken necks, but we believe
that they were broken after they died," he explained.
Defence Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said: "The group may have
tried to evade detection by police by hiding in an enclosed space or in the rice
sacks. When they were inside, there may not have been enough air," he
said.
The victims had not died from being beaten, he said.
Police found the bodies of the 13 Burmese on Tuesday, dumped at a garbage
site in rice sacks. It was initially presumed they had been murdered.
However, preliminary autopsies at the Police Hospital in Bangkok indicate
they appear to have suffocated. A border pass was found with one body, showing
that one person had crossed the border at Tak's Mae Sot district.
Maj-General Chid Samathiwat, commander of the police forensic department in
Bangkok, estimated that the 13 victims were aged between 12 and 25 years old and
that they died late on Monday night.
Chid said the victims' heads were twisted due to rigor mortis but their
necks were not broken as had previously been thought.
Chavalit said police believed the dead could have been Burmese labourers
destined for Prachin Buri and Nakhon Nayok as both provinces were in urgent need
of workers.
In Rangoon, Burma's military junta asked the Thai government to launch an
inquiry into the deaths.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Straits Times - March 7,
2002.
13 from Myanmar not murdered:
Police
BANGKOK - Thai police said yesterday that 13 Myanmar nationals, whose
bodies were found dumped in sacks by the roadside, had suffocated or choked and
were not murdered as was initially thought.
Police in eastern Prachin Buri province said on Tuesday after finding the bodies, including those of three children, that they believed the 13 had been hit on the head and strangled. But a forensic investigation found they had suffocated, probably during an
arduous secret journey to Thailand where they were to join the ranks of illegal
labourers.
'From the preliminary autopsy, we found they died because of suffocation
and choking,' said Major-General Chid Samathiwat, commander of the police
forensic department.
He said the victims' heads were twisted due to rigor mortis, and that their
necks were not broken as was previously thought.
He estimated the youngest of the victims was just 12 years old, and the
oldest was 25. They were believed to have died late on Monday night.
Myanmar's military junta yesterday asked the Thai government to launch an
inquiry into the deaths. --AFP
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