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BURMA RELATED NEWS - MAY 26,
2002.
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HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar man sentenced to death for
murder of Japanese businessman
(AFP) - A Myanmar national has
been sentenced to death for the murder of a Japanese businessman and a Myanmar
woman earlier this month.
A court at Insein prison found Wai Lin, a 24-year-old bellboy at Yangon's
Inya Lake Hotel, guilty of murdering Shuho Yamanokuchi, resident general manager
of Mitsubishi Corporation, and Ma Kyi Pya, the Myanmar Times said.
Yamanokuchi, 52, and Ma Kyi Pya, 21, were found stabbed to death on May 13
in the hotel where the Japanese man had been a long-term resident, the weekly
newspaper said in its edition to be published Monday.
The defendant was arrested by intelligence officers two days later.
Wai Lin was not questioned during the Friday trial as he had confessed to
the crime, nor were there any defence witnesses, his court-appointed lawyer San
Myint Tin told the newspaper.
Judge Tin Mhwe also sentenced the defendant's father, San Wai, to seven
years in jail for hiding evidence related to the case, the paper said.
Wai Lin had reportedly stolen property from Yamanokuchi's room, although
the newspaper did not say if theft was a motive for the murder.
At the beginning of the investigation police suspected it may have been a
crime of passion, an Inya Lake Hotel source told AFP days after the
murder.
Yamanokuchi had suffered 21 stab wounds, the source said.
Wai Lin has seven days to lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court, the
newspaper added.
Sunday May 26, 2:39 PM
Thailand-Myanmar trade suffers from border closure (AFP) - Traders on both sides
of the Thai-Myanmar border say they have grown angry and restless over last
week's sudden border closures which are costing over a million dollars a day in
lost business.
Last Tuesday, Myanmar's military junta sealed the border at three key
crossings -- Tachilek-Mae Sai, Myawaddy-Mae Sot and Kaw Thaung-Ranong -- without
informing Thailand, catching several traders and villagers off guard and
effectively bringing commerce to a halt.
"Closing down the border is just ridiculous," said a businessman in Mae
Sot, Thailand, who does business with Myanmar traders.
"Many people especially in Myanmar are suffering shortages of food,
medicine and petrol as well as many other basic needs," said the businessman who
asked not to be identified.
Thai-Myanmar trade, much of it on the black market, amounts to over a
million dollars per day, traders have said, and in many cases serves as a
lifeline for Myanmar citizens desperately short of commodities, medicine and
hard currency.
Myanmar's agriculture sales are also being badly hurt, traders
warned.
A source in Tachilek said agricultural goods bound for Thailand were being
held in poor-quality go-downs near the border gate and risked being damaged or
ruined.
"The situation is serious," he said.
A registered Myanmar trawler bearing fish and lobster bound for Thailand
was forced to turn back by the Myanmar navy on Wednesday, residents of Kaw
Thaung said.
Sources in the border towns also said dozens of Myanmar nationals were
stranded in Thailand following the border closures.
"Some of them were going to Thai doctors for medical treatment and are now
not allowed to return home to their relatives despite appealing to local
officials," Nyunt Win, a resident of Myanmar's Kaw Thaung, told AFP by
telephone.
Tourists have also been forbidden from crossing, cutting into border
revenues earned on day-trips into Myanmar which are allowed under normal
conditions.
Panavit Chaiyarote, a Thai businessman in Mae Sot, said a senior military
official in Myawaddy told him he understood the difficulty of people living in
the area.
"But he said he could do nothing, as the order was issued by central
authorities," Panavit Chaiyarote said.
Myanmar's currency, the kyat, rose on the black market Friday as there was
less demand for greenbacks at the border. One US dollar was selling for 810
kyats Friday compared with 860 kyats a week earlier, a businessman said.
But he warned that any gains made on the strengthening kyat would be eroded
by rising prices of Thai goods.
Business sentiment is depressed, the businessman said, stressing it was a
far different mood than earlier this month, when the junta freed opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest and the kyat rallied from
all-time lows of 1,200.
In Tachilek, the military has laid sandbags and mounted additional machine
guns at the border gate, an eyewitness told AFP.
Tensions rose last weekend after Thai troops and the United Wa State Army,
a Yangon-aligned ethnic militia, traded fire across the border in Thailand's
northern province of Chiang Mai, some 750 kilometres (469 miles) north of
Bangkok.
Both sides swapped protest notes over the incident and Myanmar's Colonel
San Pwint of military intelligence told reporters "another option" could be
employed if the border spat could not be resolved by diplomatic means.
Myanmar opposition leader
addresses college commencement, says Burmese thirst for
education
Sat May 25, 4:01 PM ET ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP)-
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a videotaped college commencement
address Saturday, said the Burmese people thirst for education and should be
allowed to pursue it.
"We would like to see a country where our people are free from the economic
and social handicaps that force them to choose between education and survival,"
Suu Kyi said in the address taped May 19 for students at Bard College.
"In other words," she said, "we would like to make basic education
available to all. Then we would like our education to be of a quality that opens
up a wider spectrum of choice to our young people on the threshold of
adulthood."
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, freed earlier this month after 19
months of house arrest, received an honorary doctorate of humane letters in
absentia.
In her address to the more than 350 graduates, Suu Kyi said the small
liberal arts college has opened it's doors to many Burmese students.
She said her country lost both economic and intellectual ground when it
lost democratic rule, and education is one of the elementary rights they're now
struggling for. "Half a century ago, as a newly independent, democratic nation,
Burma was seen as one of the most promising countries in Southeast Asia," she
said.
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy movement began closed-door talks with the country's
ruling military junta in late 2000.
However, she recently warned that achieving democracy in Myanmar ? formerly
known as Burma ? would not be an easy task. Her party handily won a general
election in 1990 but the military refused to let it take power, harassing and
jailing party members instead.
Bangkok Post - Sunday 26 May
2002
Official injured amid raids on
checkpoints
Rocket fired at army base fails to explode
Supamart Kasem
Tension along the border with Burma mounted as a border official and
civilian were injured in four attacks by unidentified troops against at least
two Thai military checkpoints and a border village early yesterday.
The 13th Infantry Regiment Task Force's base in Mae Sot district survived
an attack after a rocket fired by assailants failed to go off.
A group of between 10 and 12 attackers fired 81mm mortars, RPG rockets and
rifles at the 344th border patrol police company's checkpoint on Mae Sot-Mae
Sariang road at Ban Huay Pang Yang in Tha Song Yang district about 1am.
Pol L/Cpl Thirapol Surapol, 26, sustained wounds in the neck and face from
shrapnel and was admitted to Tha Song Yang hospital.
Other border patrol policemen fought back but had to withdraw. The
attackers were able to seize M16 assault rifles.
Meanwhile, another group opened fire on Ranger Unit 3504 at Ban Mae La on
the same road.
Thai rangers retaliated with 60mm mortars and M79 grenade launchers. The
attackers retreated into a forest.
In Mae Sot district, troops fired an RPG rocket at Mae Tao village in
tambon Tha Sai Laud about 2am.
One shell hit a house, leaving the owner Sumalee Wongkham, 21, seriously
injured.
About the same time, at least 10 assailants gathered outside Mae Tao
village and fired RPG rockets, AK47 and M16 assault rifles at the village and a
military checkpoint. They missed.
The group left behind an RPG launcher and two rockets with a timer and set
the devices for 8am. They failed to go off.
Deputy 13th Infantry Regiment Task Force commander Col Sitthi Chansomboon
took a bomb clearance team from Naresuan task force into the area to destroy the
RPG launcher and rockets.
Maj-Gen Suthep Phothisuwan, Naresuan task force commander, yesterday
inspected Mae Sot and the scenes of four ambushes.
He said the attacks were well-planned and might be the work of the same
group.
He had told military units to step up safety measures.
A border official in Tak who requested anonymity said an earlier ambush
occurred at Ban Morker Thai checkpoint in Phop Phra at 3.15am on Friday after
soldiers taking part in the Surasi military exercise had withdrawn.
Meanwhile, Burmese troops have reinforced an area near two Burmese military
outposts, Pang Mai Soong and Pang Kam Kor, about two kilometres from Wiang
Haeng's Ban Lak Taeng border pass in Chiang Mai.
The outposts were captured earlier by the Shan State Army.
``The move is a clear indication that Burmese troops will launch a military
drive to take back the outposts,'' a local security officer said. Nine
battalions of Burmese infantry were moved in.
Col Yawd Serk, the SSA military commander, said Burmese troops would try
their utmost to take the posts back. ``What we did last week was to launch a
military operation against drug traffickers taking refuge with Burmese border
troops,'' said Col Yawd Serk. The Burmese military junta had lost face, he
said.
Bangkok Post - Sunday 26 May 2002
Third Army chief: We didn't help Shan
`Not a single shot was fired across border'
Subin Khuenkaew and Wassana Nanuam
Burmese and Wa military outposts along the border opposite Wiang Haeng
district would have been wiped out if Rangoon's allegation that the Thai army
provided artillery support for Shan rebels was true, said Lt-Gen Udomchai
Ongkhasingh, the Third Army Region commander.
The cavalry officer spoke to the Bangkok Post during a ceremony ending the
month-long Surasi 143 military exercise at 5th special forces regiment.
``Three artillery battalions, each with 18 artillery pieces, had been fully
deployed during the exercise in border areas where Shan rebels clashed with
Burmese and Wa forces.
``If we had given the Shan our artillery support as alleged by Burma then
all military posts located near the border would have been wiped out within half
an hour. Not a single shot from our artillery was fired across the border,''
Lt-Gen Udomchai said.
The Thai military previously said only mortars were used to retaliate
against cross-border shelling.
The commander said new border tension between Thailand and Burma stemmed
from fighting among ethnic minority groups inside Burma and had nothing to do
with the Thai army.
The Third Army commander hoped the situation would soon return to normal
following Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's order to cancel the
military exercise, which was aimed at testing the army's war readiness and
involved nearly 30,000 troops equipped with tanks, armoured personnel carriers
and other heavy machinery.
Lt-Gen Udomchai said a handful of army officers might be unhappy about the
defence minister's order. However, soldiers had to obey orders.
``Gen Chavalit is the defence minister and our direct commander,'' Lt-Gen
Udomchai said.
He said the Post's report on Friday regarding dissatisfaction among senior
army officers over the defence minister's order had worried statesman and former
premier Gen Prem Tinsulanonda.
``Pa Prem called me this morning and asked me about the story in the
Bangkok Post since he wanted to know the real situation,'' said Lt-Gen Udomchai,
who played down the report and said ``those who aren't happy (with Gen
Chavalit's order) could be officers who don't like the defence minister''.
Gen Chavalit's order calling for swift withdrawal of troops undergoing the
exercise was an issue for discussion among army generals, who felt it was highly
improper for the defence minister to have issued such an order, regarded as
appeasing Rangoon.
``Such an order means we have already lost the battle [with Burma],'' said
one army general, adding that the border tension with Burma was highlighted at
yesterday's intelligence briefing headed by Army commander Gen Surayud
Chulanont. |