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BURMA RELATED NEWS - JUNE 11,
2002.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
----------------------------------------------------------------- AFP - Myanmar tells Thailand it's ready to
talk
Reuters - General says debt row behind Thai
school bus attack
Reuters - Torture by Thai
police and army widespread-Amnesty
Reuters - Centuries of Distrust Divide Myanmar,
Thailand
Time Magazine - Books: Sentimental
Education
Time Magazine - Border
Disorder
Asia Times - Myanmar: ASEAN's problem child
The Nation - We
donâ??t overreactâ??
The Nation - HARD TALK: PM overplays 'love thy
neighbour' policy
Bkk Post - Chavalit urges government of
reconciliation in Burma
Bkk Post - PM says he
did not refer to buffer state
Xinhuanet - Thai-Myanmar High-Level Talks to Be
Held Soon: Thai Official
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Stops Buying Thai
Electricity for Border Towns
NSTP - Myanmar burns its drugs to impress
world
----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday June 11, 12:46 PM
Myanmar tells Thailand it's ready to talk (AFP) - Myanmar has contacted Thailand for the first time since a border row last month to say it wants to hold talks, Thai Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said. "Today I was contacted by Myanmar and told that they want to meet, and they
asked how they could meet with us. We informed them that we had already proposed
a meeting, and insisted that we wanted to make peace," Chavalit told reporters
on Tuesday.
Relations between Thailand and its military-run neighbour spiralled to a
low in late May when clashes along Myanmar's eastern border left several dozen
troops and pro-Yangon ethnic Wa militia dead or missing.
After both countries exchanged protest notes over the clashes, Yangon
unilaterally closed its border checkpoints with Thailand, blocked official
visiting delegations, and launched a stream of anti-Thai vitriol in its state
press, which has continued into this week.
After warning Thailand it would do so, Yangon last week launched an all-out
offensive against the rebel Shan State Army operating along the border.
Chavalit told reporters the meeting would take place "at half way" between
the two capitals, at a location of Myanmar's choosing.
He urged Myanmar to conduct the talks as soon as possible for the sake of
Myanmar people, who are suffering as a result of the border closure.
"The timing of negotiations is very important because there will be further
problems with more delays. I am sympathetic towards the situation inside Myanmar
where the price of goods is high and the currency is falling," he said.
Local Thai television has reported that the prices of basic necessities
along the border have gone up drastically since the closure.
Chavalit's comments come a day after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told
reporters Myanmar was not ready to hold talks as it was too busy battling the
Shan.
"It is not time," Thaksin told reporters before setting off on a four-day
official visit to Bahrain and Belgium.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday June 11, 12:08 PM
General says debt row behind Thai school bus attack BANGKOK (Reuters) - A gun
attack on a Thai school bus that killed three students and heightened
Thai-Myanmar border tensions last week, was due to a debt squabble involving
ethnic Karens, a senior Thai army official said on Tuesday.
General Panlop Pinmanee, deputy chief of Thai army intelligence, told Thai
media the three gunmen, who fired M-16 rifles at the bus in western Ratchaburi
province last week, were trying to stop the bus to collect a debt payment from
its driver.
The attack had heightened already bad feeling between Yangon and Bangkok
where tempers had flared last month after Myanmar accused Thailand of supporting
ethnic rebel groups fighting the Yangon junta. Thailand denied the charge.
Bus driver Thongmorn Khemtong told police last week he managed to speed
away from the scene of the ambush on a road about 20 km (13 miles) from the
Myanmar border after the masked gunmen, dressed in jungle fatigues, opened fire.
Thongmorn said he did not know the motive of the ambush and was not
involved in any personal conflict with any group.
Panlop said he believed the attackers were fighters from the Karen National
Union (KNU) operating on the Thai-Myanmar border.
The KNU, which has campaigned for an autonomous Karen state in eastern
Myanmar for decades, has issued a statement denying any role in the attack.
"Our information indicates that they were Karen soldiers... intelligence
showed they had intended to collect debt from the driver," the general said.
Panlop said he would meet a senior KNU officer near the border later on
Tuesday to get more information on the case.
Tensions have risen between Thailand and Myanmar, with Myanmar accusing
Thailand of backing the KNU and another ethnic army, the Shan State Army (SSA),
a charge Bangkok denies.
Intense fighting in eastern Myanmar between government troops and ethnic
guerrillas has killed dozens and threatens to spill over into neighbouring
Thailand.
The Myanmar army and its allies in the United Wa State Army have been
attacking positions held by the Shan State Army opposite Thailand's Chiang Mai
province, in a battle for territory and for control of the drugs trade.
Myanmar has sealed major border crossings and this week warned Thailand not
to get involved in its assault on the Shan.
Thailand's government has tried to defuse the mounting tension and has said
Myanmar troops are not a threat as they are fighting rebel groups and not
launching a strike into Thai soil.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Torture by Thai police and army
widespread-Amnesty
BANGKOK, June 11 (Reuters)â??
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Thailand's police and army of widely
using torture in prisons and while interrogating criminal suspects.
The London-based human rights watchdog said in a new report ethnic
minorities were particularly vulnerable to abuse and it called on the government
to investigate torture and punish officers found responsible.
''Torture should not be accepted as normal behaviour -- it is a gross abuse
of power,'' the report said.
It said the police and army routinely used torture and ill-treatment in
detention, shortly after arrest, during transport of detainees and in military
drug rehabilitation camps set up to end addiction to opium amongst hill-tribe
people.
''Poor Thai people, migrants and members of ethnic groups are particularly
vulnerable,'' Amnesty said.
Amongst examples of torture cited by the human rights group was the case of
a suspect in the high-profile murder of British backpacker Kirsty Jones in 2000.
''A man belonging to the Karen ethnic minority was tortured by police
during interrogation... He was blindfolded and stripped naked and beaten by
police, who stood on his stomach,'' Amnesty said.
''They demanded that he confess to the murder while threatening to kill
him. He refused to do so and was dumped on the side of the road.'' The Amnesty
report also highlighted the harsh conditions in Thai prisons, including extreme
overcrowding, poor quality and inadequate food and rampant, untreated disease,
including AIDS and tuberculosis.
It said shackling of death row inmates was common, despite being against
Thai law.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Centuries of Distrust Divide
Myanmar, Thailand
Mon Jun 10,12:40 PM ET By Andrew Marshall BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) -
As insults go, it was rather arcane.
When Myanmar's state-run media denounced Thailand last week after a series
of border clashes, they called the country "Yodaya" -- a phrase which left many
observers scratching their heads.
It turned out the word was a corruption of the name of the city of
Ayutthaya -- the glittering capital of Thailand until it was plundered in 1767
by an invading army from Myanmar which left the city in ruins and carried off 90
percent of its inhabitants.
Three centuries have passed, but the hostility has not died. An eruption of
tension this year between Thailand and Myanmar -- formerly known as Siam and
Burma respectively -- has its roots in hundreds of years of conflict and
distrust.
Both countries have been turning to the history books to support their
cause -- and annoy each other as much as possible.
The destruction of Ayutthaya, a fabled city of thousands of temples and
Buddha images until the Burmese took it apart brick by brick, still rankles the
Thais. Myanmar's media was well aware of that when it criticized the "Yodayas"
last week as "spiritually and physically weak and insincere people."
A previous battle between the two countries, in 1549, came back to haunt
bilateral relations last year when a blockbuster Thai movie dramatized the
exploits of Queen Suriyothai, killed as she rode an elephant against an invading
Burmese army.
The movie, Suriyothai, was the most successful ever made in Thailand and
has been re-edited by Francis Ford Coppola for an international audience.
Myanmar's military government, however, was not amused, and Myanmar newspapers
criticized the film.
WHITE ELEPHANTS AND RED BULL
The uneasy relations between the two countries have been complicated in
recent years by drugs trafficking. Bangkok says ethnic armies allied to the
Yangon junta produce most of the methamphetamine pills flooding into Thailand.
The latest eruption of tension between the two countries was provoked by
the movement of thousands of Thai soldiers to the Myanmar border last month.
They were ostensibly there for a training exercise, but military sources had
said they were planning a strike on a notorious druglord operating in the Golden
Triangle.
Myanmar reacted angrily and relations plummeted.
Newspapers in both countries have been fighting a war of words and Myanmar
expelled hundreds of Thai workers and banned advertisements for Thai products.
The furor is a setback for the policy of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, who has been trying to improve relations with Myanmar through
"personal diplomacy."
Thailand tried to defuse tensions by sending videotapes of two popular Thai
soap operas to Yangon, but the gesture did little to soothe frayed tempers.
Senior Myanmar officials have publicly attacked Thailand, and the
government announced last month that a white elephant with pearl-colored eyes
had been found in the west of the country. Analysts say the announcement was
timed to annoy the Thais.
In the past, white elephants were considered a sign of power and prosperity
in southeast Asia, and rival kings would compete to get hold of as many as
possible for their royal courts.
"Burmese kings felt an increased sense of power when they possessed a white
elephant," said the Irrawaddy magazine, based in Thailand and staffed by exiled
Myanmar journalists.
"As Burma becomes embroiled in another border dispute with Thailand, some
Burmese feel the regime is attempting to use the elephant as a display of its
power."
The dispute has also spilled over to affect popular Thai-made energy
drinks. During a bout of tension last year, with the Thai media accusing Myanmar
of flooding Thailand with drugs, the junta responded by saying Thai energy
drinks were a dangerous menace.
Striking back at Thai media publicity about the destruction of seized
drugs, Myanmar television last month proudly announced the destruction of
121,632 cans of the Thai Red Bull drink.
GLARING STATUES
The historical baggage that burdens Thai-Myanmar relations is symbolized by
two statues that glare at each other across the border on Thailand's northern
frontier.
On the Myanmar side, in the town of Tachilek, a large bronze statue of King
Bayinnaung stands just 100 yards from the border, arms crossed, eyes staring
into Thailand.
Bayinnaung was a king whose army razed Ayutthaya. Some historical accounts
say his savage invasion was provoked by the king of Siam's refusal to gift him a
white elephant.
Across the frontier in Thailand is a statue of King Naresuan the Great,
erected in 1998, two years after the Myanmar statue.
Naresuan -- depicted in the statue brandishing a sword -- was a grandson of
Queen Suriyothai and, according to legend, was taken to Burma as a hostage after
Ayutthaya was destroyed. He returned to rebuild the shattered kingdom and defeat
the Burmese.
Thai newspapers are urging the government to take a stronger line with the
Yangon junta.
"Our diplomacy and national resolve are being tested," the Nation daily
said. "It's time for our leaders to stand up and show some spine."
And with Myanmar's newspapers publishing articles daily criticizing the
Thais, there seems little prospect of a change in the centuries of mutual
hostility.
"In the past, every time Burma was weak, Yodayas began to attack the remote
areas to grab them easily," said an article in the English-language New Light of
Myanmar.
"Thus, Burma had to march into Yodaya to attack and crush Ayutthaya. Now,
let's see whether the description of Yodayas made by our forefathers is correct
or not."
----------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 10 June, 2002, 11:11 GMT
12:11 UK
Asia joins forces against haze A group of Asian countries has signed a ground-breaking agreement aimed at
putting an end to the seasonal hazes which blight the region, damaging
agriculture and tourism.
But even as the 10 Asean member states signed the deal, fires in Indonesia
had reportedly spread haze over Borneo island, causing breathing problems and
eye irritations.
The agreement calls on countries to strengthen their firefighting forces,
enforce controls on open burning and establish early warning systems to stop the
spread of polluting smoke.
Negotiations on the deal began five years ago, after forest fires cast a
thick pall of smoke over much of the region, causing $9.3bn in economic losses.
Regional problem
"The haze was not too thick but we fear that as the dry season continues,
things will get worse between August and September," said an official at the
meteorology office in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, where fires had
broken out on Monday.
The blazes were blamed on farmers who often illegally light open fires as a
cheap way to clear land.
The Indonesian Government has had little success in enforcing bans on open
fires.
Fires on Sumatra and Borneo regularly spread smoke to neighbouring
Singapore and Malaysia.
Monday's agreement - the first regional convention of its kind - should
bind governments to enforce controls, but there are no penalties for countries
which do not comply.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Time
JUNE 17, 2002/VOL. 159 NO. 23
Books: Sentimental Education A Burmese man's journey from jungle, through love and a political crackdown, all the way to Cambridge When Pascal Khoo Thwe was a baby, his grandmother spat three times on his
head while muttering tribal incantations to protect him "from evil people and
all misfortune." With all respect to the Padaung people of remotest Burma, the
spit-and-spell routine didn't do much good. Poverty, dictatorship, sickness,
war: Khoo Thwe had to overcome all manner of evils before finally escaping Burma
to study at the University of Cambridgeâ??the first Padaung tribesman to do so.
Khoo Thwe tells the story of this escape in From the Land of Green Ghosts
(Harper Collins; 304 pages), a memoir as heart-wrenching as it is amazing.
Khoo Thwe's final twist of good fortune seems better suited to the fairy
tales he heard as a boy from the Padaung's bewitching tribeswomen, still better
known today as "long necks" or "giraffe women" for the heavy brass coils they
wear around their throats. They taught him their colorful creation myth: the
tribe was born of a lovelorn she-dragon impregnated by the wind. One grandmother
recalls a European journey that prefigures Khoo Thwe's own. In the 1930s she
joined a troupe of Padaung women who toured England in a circus freak
showâ??although grandma never doubted who the real freaks were. "The English are a
very strange tribe," she concluded, amused by her hosts' attempts to appease the
spirits by drinking huge quantities of tea.
Khoo Thwe captures the rhythms and rituals of village life with a humor and
affection one might not expect from a narrator who confesses, "I was desperate
to shed my tribal traditions." That process begins at Mandalay University, where
he studies his first love, English literature, and meets his second, a feisty
student called Moe. Instinctively, they keep their affair secret. She is a
Burman, the nation's dominant ethnic group, some of whose members believe the
government- propagated myth that "backward" tribes like the Padaung are
cannibals. His family would have been equally shocked at his interest in a woman
from "the land of green ghosts"â??the Padaung name for the spirit-haunted Burmese
lowlands.
Khoo Thwe's education is abruptly terminated in 1987, when Burma's
superstition-obsessed dictator, General Ne Win, orders the nation's bank-notes
to be replaced with new denominations divisible by nine, his lucky number. The
savings of millions of Burmese (Khoo Thwe's included) are wiped out overnight.
To make ends meet, the author abandons his studies to wait tables at a grotty
Chinese restaurant, the improbable setting for a chance encounter with a
Cambridge literature don, Dr. John Casey, who will later change his life.
But first comes 1988, when student protests in Rangoon grow into a
nationwide pro-democracy uprising in which Khoo Thwe, a natural orator, plays an
impassioned role. "It is hard to describe the thrill people felt in finding
their voices for the first time," he writes, then describes brilliantly the
sheer, heart-pounding euphoria of defying the authorities under a regime where
"even to think about the possibility felt like committing a crime."
The euphoria is short-lived. After a savage military crackdown in which
thousands of unarmed protesters are murdered, a dazed Khoo Thwe stands on the
banks of the Irrawaddy River watching corpses spin past on the milk-chocolate
currents. As the regime starts liquidating all remaining dissentersâ??his beloved
Moe among themâ??what began as a lyrical coming-of-age tale becomes a dark and
gripping story of survival. Pursued by government soldiers, Khoo Thwe and fellow
students flee into the jungle to join ethnic insurgents on the Thai-Burma
border, enduring both disease and terrifying assaults by the Burmese army. Yet,
even as enemy mortars explode nearby, Khoo Thwe pores over his treasured copy of
The New Oxford Book of English Verse, an anomalous scene he compares to "reading
the New Testament in a brothel."
In the end, it is literatureâ??quite literallyâ??that saves him. In an
astonishing climax, a desperate letter dispatched from Khoo Thwe's rebel camp
somehow reaches Dr. Casey, who, with the help of an ex-SAS officer, smuggles the
young Padaung out of his jungle nightmare and into the hushed cloisters of Caius
College, Cambridge. A happy ending, then? Not entirely. As Khoo Thwe sadly (and
guiltily) acknowledges, for each miraculous success story like his own there are
thousands of bright young Burmese whose futures remain blighted by a repressive
regime. Khoo Thwe is clearly still haunted by the "green ghosts," and not even
this remarkable bookâ??part confession, part thrillerâ??can fully exorcise them.
Andrew Marshall is the author of The Trouser People: A Story of Burma in
the Shadow of the Empire (Counterpoint, 2002)
----------------------------------------------------------------- Time
JUNE 17, 2002/VOL. 159 NO. 23
ASIA - Border Disorder It's not just India against Pakistan. Amid a hail of gunfire, Thailand and Burma are facing off across their own frontier BY ROBERT HORN BANGKOK The Thai army platoon fanning out around the village of Wiang Haeng in
northern Chiang Mai province was expecting a routine patrol. That overcast
afternoon in late March, the soldiers were securing the area for a special visit
by Thailand's Queen Sirikit. But along the Thai-Burmese borderâ??where insurgents,
smugglers and drug dealers hold swayâ??little can be taken for granted. Suddenly,
the Thai troops were under fire. The enemy: a unit of the United Wa State Army,
a tribal force from Burma. Allied with the government in Rangoon and notorious
for its dominance of the narcotics trade, the tribal army frequently sends its
drug caravans slithering through Thai territory. When the four-hour firefight
was over, the Wa had retreated, but not before leaving one Thai soldier dead.
Queen Sirikit was advised to remain in her palace near Chiang Mai.
The confrontation with the Wa was more than just another border skirmish.
To the Thais, Queen Sirikit's inability to travel freely in her own kingdom was
an affront to their national dignity. Already seething over the Wa's drug
trafficking, the Thai army deployed troops and heavy artillery near the border.
Burmese soldiers, meanwhile, massed in support of the Wa and for an offensive
against other ethnic rebelsâ??fighting that threatened to spill into Thailand. As
Bangkok and Rangoon traded accusations, soldiers traded mortar fire. Villagers
were evacuated as stray rounds rained down on Thai soil. No civilians were
harmedâ??until last week. Farther south in Ratchaburi province, three gunmen in
military fatigues fired automatic weapons at a pickup truck full of
schoolchildren. Three students were killed and 12 wounded. "It was like
something out of the West Bank," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a defense analyst
at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
The world's spotlight remains on the face-off at the India-Pakistan border.
But the 2,100-kilometer Thai-Burmese frontier is almost as tenseâ??even without
the shadow of a nuclear war. The clashes have plunged relations between Bangkok
and Rangoon to their lowest point in years. Burma's junta has banned visits by
Thai officials, expelled Thai workers and closed border crossings, while Thai
army officers have accused Rangoon of warmongering.
This is one of Asia's most combustible areas. The Thai-Burmese border is
home to dozens of tribal groups whose conflicts, hatreds and alliances are so
complex and layered as to be nearly unfathomable. Some want an independent
state, others merely the independence to fund their wars against Rangoon or each
other by trafficking heroin, opium and amphetamines. Both the Burmese and the
Thais use these rebels as proxy warriors against each other. But army border
units from the two sides are also known to cooperate to make money from illegal
logging and mining. With so many vested interests and rival agendas, it's hard
to determine, say, the motive behind the attack on the school bus; it's been
blamed on everyone from ethnic rebels to radical Burmese students to Burmese
soldiers.
The individual taking most of the heat is Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra. After vowing to get tough with the Burmese and drugs, lately he's
lately been preaching a more tolerant line. When Burma protested over Thai army
exercises near the border last month, Thaksin's government halted them, and told
soldiers to counter incursions by firing blanks. Tensions between the Thai
government and its military are so palpable that, according to local press
reports, Thaksin endured a chewing-out last week by Chief Privy Councillor Prem
Tinsulanonda. Thaksin's intentions have been called into question because his
company, Shin Corporation, has signed an agreement to provide Burma with
satellite services. "We're trapped in a vicious cycle," says Chulalongkorn's
Panitan. "Things will get more tense before they get better."
Yet economics may, in fact, prove the most effective peacemaker. Thailand
is still recovering from the 1997 Asian financial crash, and the Burmese economy
is near collapse. "If they fight, both sides will end up as losers," says exiled
Burmese journalist Aung Zaw. "Neither can afford a war." But neither can afford
to back down.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Asia Times
Myanmar: ASEAN's problem child
By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - Myanmar's three-week tantrum against Thailand has confirmed its
reputation as the problem child of the Southeast Asian family.
On Friday, Yangon even stepped into the sports arena to express displeasure
at its Thai neighbor. The ruling military junta stopped Myanmese youth from
participating in an amateur competition for young swimmers from the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being held in Bangkok. This comes
in the wake of other anti-Thai sentiments expressed openly after border
skirmishes late last month. They have ranged from Myanmar expelling Thai workers
to denying visas for Thai officials - and even to ordering the Myanmese media to
tarnish Thailand, both its present and past.
"The attacks in the media are very harsh this time, much harsher than what
occurred last year when there was Burmese-Thai border tension," says Aung Zaw,
editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine published by Myanmese exiles in Thailand.
Yangon authorities have been equally determined in their role as censors.
They ordered the Myanmese media in late May to omit the words "Thailand" and
"Thais" in all copy.That resulted in Living Colour, a Myanmese business
magazine, having to blacken out all reference to Thailand in a story about ASEAN
for its June edition, says Zaw. "It is not rational."
Yangon's latest round of rage surfaced soon after the Thai army began a
military exercise along Thailand's northern border in late May. The objective of
that exercise, which involved some 10,000 Thai troops, was to curb the flow of
illegal drugs from Myanmar and ensure Thailand's war-readiness, including the
ability to deal with border threats.
According to Myanmar, the Thai army had exchanged fire with the United Wa
State Army (UWSA), an ethnic rebel group with ties to Yangon that has gained
notoriety for producing and trafficking drugs such as heroin and
methamphetamines. Myanmese authorities accused the Thais of providing military
help to another rebel group, the Shan, who are at odds with Myanmar and the
UWSA. Bangkok, however, dismisses the charges.
Despite mounting embarrassment the ASEAN family finds itself in over
Myanmar's outburst, regional political experts are convinced that Myanmese
authorities will get away with their barbs.
"There will not be any third-party intervention or an effort by ASEAN to
help resolve the issues troubling Burma," says Supang Chantavanich, director at
the Institute of Asian Studies, a think-tank at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn
University. "The ASEAN way will prevail - to ignore and avoid taking action."
Burma was the country's name until the Yangon junta renamed it Myanmar.
There are other reasons, too, that give Myanmar the license to behave like
the family black sheep without being rapped on the knuckles for violating the
spirit of cordiality and diplomacy.
"It is very apparent that Myanmar is seen as a prima donna project for
regional unity in Southeast Asia," says Landry Subianto, a researcher at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Jakarta- based
think-tank. "Having been successful in restoring normal situations in Cambodia
and the rest of Indochina, ASEAN leaders were inspired and felt obliged to bring
Myanmar back to normal life," he adds.
Myanmar became a member of ASEAN in July 1997, joining Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Ever
since, ASEAN members have defended Myanmar when it was subject to rebuke from
Western countries for its abysmal human-rights record. For instance, ASEAN
countries maintained that human-rights issues should not be included in
discussions of free trade.
Also, ASEAN used special political terms to describe how it was dealing
with Myanmar politically. "They came up with the ideas of 'constructive
engagement' and 'enhanced interaction' - to name a few attempts," says Subianto.
And for its part, Myanmar took cover behind ASEAN - particularly the stress
on regional solidarity and cooperation - when under fire from the European
Union, the United States and Britain.
"Whenever the junta has been criticized by the international community, it
has hidden behind ASEAN's skirt," asserts Teddy Buri, head of the Myanmese
parliamentarians in exile. "The military leaders expected to be protected by
ASEAN during any international onslaught."
Such support, in addition to ASEAN membership, lent legitimacy to the
military dictatorship that has ruled Myanmar for the past 40 years. And the
release early last month of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmese pro-democracy leader,
after 19 months of house arrest was a moment that ASEAN revelled in.
The regional grouping could take credit in the lead role of UN special
envoy Razali Ismail, a Malaysian diplomat, to help free Suu Kyi after year-long
talks he brokered with the Nobel Peace Prize winner and the junta. Yet, as
exiled parliamentarian Bury observes, Myanmar has continued to be the black
sheep in ASEAN. "It remains a thorn for ASEAN, showing disdain towards the
spirit that brings the countries together."
On the political front, Yangon has not minced its words when it comes to
Thailand, reflecting the tension, the conflicts and wars between the two
countries in history.
On the economic front, Myanmar has tested ASEAN's patience by pushing ahead
with domestic economic policies that violate the spirit of free trade, an ASEAN
hallmark.In April, for instance, Myanmar's generals introduced a new policy that
banned all foreign trading firms in an effort to protect local business. The
bulk of the affected were from ASEAN countries.
Myanmar's behavior, in fact, is considered excessive, by far, when compared
with the occasional disputes within ASEAN, such as the ones involving Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore.
"The cross-border problems between these two neighboring countries [Myanmar
and Thailand] are so far one of the most serious protracted issues that may
threaten the whole stability in the region," asserts Subianto.
For him, the ASEAN way of being disengaged from the conflict in the
interest of regional unity has the potential of "undermining the spirit of
ASEAN".
Thai regional expert Supang has a similarly pessimistic concern: "ASEAN
should get worried with Burma's behavior, since it indicates a lack of
solidarity in the region. And that can grow."
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
We donâ??t overreactâ??
Published on Jun 11, 2002
General Surayud responds to premierâ??s controversial remarks about combat
policy on the ThaiBurma bordern
Army Chief General Surayud Chulanont denied yesterday that the army had
overreacted when responding to spillovers of fighting between Burmese troops and
insurgent groups, saying it always followed the set rules of engagement.
Returning from a trip to the United States, Surayud, said:
"I want to reaffirm that the Thai army hasn't done anything that could be
called overreacting. It has strictly adhered to the required regulations when it
has had to deal with spillovers from Burmese soil."
His comments follow a report that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had
warned the army not to overreact when dealing with border tensions with Burma.
Thaksin's warning came as the Burmese military stepped up its efforts to
wipe out insurgent strongholds close to the border. It followed allegations by
Rangoon that the Thai army had supported the rebels in their battles against the
Burmese troops.
"As we have followed the rules of engagement when dealing with the issues,
I, as the army commander in chief, am ready to take full responsibility for the
matter," Surayud said.
However, the army did not have any problem with [the premier]'s statement
because its duty is to follow the policies of the government and Defence
Ministry without dispute, he said.
Responding to speculation that the conflict with Thaksin would lead to his
resignation, Surayud said: "There is no pressure related to my duty which would
cause me to resign. If possible I will serve the army until the date of my
mandatory retirement [Sept 2003]."
If he needed to clarify anything on the matter, Surayud said he would talk
to Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who is his direct boss. He was
also ready to talk to the premier if Thaksin wanted to discuss the issue.
Surayud also referred to Thaksin's suggestion on Saturday that Thailand
would stop using Burmese insurgents as a buffer against Burma. He denied that
his office was still using the buffer-zone policy, saying it had been abandoned
years ago.
Thaksin left yesterday for Bahrain and Belgium for a five-day official
visit. He blamed the media for trying to distort his statements, saying the
media's reporting of the matter had confused the public.
"At present, the country is running smoothly and the people are interested
in other things such as the World Cup. So it is good right now - the media
should not have done anything that could damage such a good atmosphere," Thaksin
said.
Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai said, meanwhile, that his government
had not adopted the buffer-zone policy as it did not want to interfere in other
countries' internal affairs.
Chuan said that Thaksin's suggestion had hurt Thailand, as other countries
would assume from his statement that Thailand used the Burmese rebels as a
buffer force.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
HARD TALK: PM overplays 'love thy
neighbour' policy
Published on Jun 11, 2002
Whether he wants to admit it or not, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is
embarking on what seems to amount to a policy of appeasement with Burma. While
marked with good intent, his eagerness to revive good neighbourliness with
Thailand's erstwhile adversary is creating more confusion than he had
anticipated.
Though he deserves commendation for his "vision" in getting the two
countries closer, his advisers definitely will have to remind the prime minister
of the need to pay more attention to the fine art of diplomacy and history.
Burma is an area far more complex than any other foreign policy issues and its
proper handling requires more than just a "CEO-style" of management.
Thaksin's caution to the Army not to "over-react" and his pronouncement of
an end to Thailand's policy of using ethnic minority groups as a "buffer state"
demonstrates his serious lack of understanding of the fundamentals of
Thai-Burmese relations. And it also reflects badly on his administration's stand
toward the military regime in Rangoon.
Thaksin made it clear the moment he assumed office that mending fences with
Burma would be his one of his administration's top foreign policy priorities.
Rangoon was his first overseas trip last June - to be returned by Burma's two
highest-ranking generals Lt-General Khin Nyunt in November and General Maung Aye
in April. Buoyed by the warm hand-shakes, Thaksin came up with initiatives that
he believed would convince Burmese generals of Thailand's "sincerity".
Sources close to Thaksin revealed that the prime minister has envisaged a
future in which Thailand and Burma would co-exist peacefully without ethnic
minorities as a thorn in Rangoon's side, paving the way for mutual cooperation
in drug eradication and subsequent closer economic ties. Eager to earn Burma's
trust, the sources said Thaksin laid all his cards on the table in his talks
with the Burmese generals.
The Burmese generals were also led to believe that Thaksin would be able to
contain the army's role, which has been historically dominant in Thai-Burmese
relations. It was, however, never made clear if the Army had been consulted by
Thaksin.
The Thai premier was apparently unware of the ramifications of his
statement. By renouncing the policy of "buffer state", Thaksin was implying that
previous Thai administrations had been using minority groups to serve as a
buffer between the two countries. The admission is more than likely to play into
the hands of the hawkish generals in Rangoon who have been accusing Thailand of
aiding the Shan ethnic minority in the current border skirmishes.
But more importantly, the remarks are seen as the Thaksin administration's
endorsement of Rangoon's use of military force to wipe out ethnic groups
resisting Burmese rule from their positions on the Thai-Burmese border,
basically killing any idea of possible national reconciliation. The Burmese
generals' war against ethnic minorities has been a cause of international
condemnation of their atrocities. A "green light" by the Thai political
leadership will undoubtedly encourage the Burmese to launch even more brutal
assaults on the minorities.
Of course, the border skirmishes must be seen in a larger political
context. They are resuming with unprecedented intensity at a time when the
international community is expecting more concrete signals of the ruling junta's
willingness to bring about national reconciliation following the recent release
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi has made it clear that all ethnic minorities must be involved in
the process of national reconciliation - something which the generals in Rangoon
do not necessarily agree with. Some analysts have even suggested that the
renewed war against the Shan - the only remaining minority group seriously
resisting Burmese rule - was designed to divert attention from Burma's internal
political situation following Suu Kyi's release.
We have no reason to doubt that Prime Minister Thaksin has Thailand's best
interest in mind in his dealings with Burma. But his recent overtures to the
ruling junta in Rangoon beg questions about his understanding of the complexity
of the issue.
Burma's most fundamental problems stem from the fact that the country is
still being ruled by a military dictatorship which has no respect for human
rights and democratic values. Even if all the minority groups along the
Thai-Burmese border were wiped out, there is no guarantee that the generals in
Rangoon would readily go for good neighbourliness with Thailand.
Under Thaksin's leadership, Thailand has softened its stand on democracy
inside Burma and is now encouraging a military solution to the ethnic problems
on the border. There is no way we can claim this to be a contribution to Burma's
national reconciliation.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Tuesday 11 June 2002
Chavalit urges government of
reconciliation in Burma
Wassana Nanuam
Leaders of all minority groups inside Burma should be made cabinet
ministers in a national reconciliation government that Thailand is willing to
help mediate, Defence Minister Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyuth said yesterday.
Gen Chavalit, also deputy prime minister, said Aung San Suu Kyi, the
National League for Democracy leader, should be interior minister, while Gen Bo
Mya, the Karen National Union chief, should be border minister. Wa leaders
should also get ministerial seats, he said.
Thailand was willing to mediate between them and then assist in the
drafting of a constitution and organising of a general election.
``We must help minority groups follow a peaceful path and allow them to
join the national reconciliation government because Shan people love their land
and are also the country's owners.
``We must support them to reunite, not to kill each other,'' he said.
Gen Chavalit said he first broached the general idea of a reconciliation
government with Burma last year.
``When Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt [Burma's State Peace and Development Council first
secretary] visited Thailand in September, I took him to Suan Son resort and we
discussed the issue _ Thailand's friendship for Burma _ from sunrise till
sunset,'' Gen Chavalit said.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, however, said Burma did not seem to be
in the mood for talks to settle border conflicts with Thailand. It was too busy
battling ethnic rebels along the border.
``It is not time,'' he said before leaving for an official visit to Bahrain
and Belgium yesterday. ``They are not happy at the moment because they have lost
their bases and have suffered casualties.''
----------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Tuesday 11 June 2002
PM says he did not refer to buffer state
He's caused a lot of damage, says Chuan
Post reporters
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denies having mentioned the existence of
buffer state policy along the border with Burma.
Mr Thaksin said he had merely reiterated the government's policy of
non-interference in the affairs on neighbouring countries.
He accused reporters of firing leading questions at him and then expanding
his responses in a way that caused confusion.
``They jumped to a conclusion and made a big fuss out of it,'' the prime
minister said.
Opposition leader Chuan Leekpai refused to accept the prime minister's
denial. He said it was hard to believe the prime minister had come up with a
statement so damaging for Thailand.
``The prime ministers statement has seriously damaged the country as it
causes the world community to think that we still use minority groups as a
buffer,'' the Democrat leader said.
Mr Thaksin said he had not said buffer state nor referred to the existence
of one. He had just emphasised to the media the government's policy not to
meddle with other countries' internal affairs and its steadfast refusal to
shelter any elements hostile to its neighbours.
Mr Thaksin raised eyebrows when he was reported as saying he was abandoning
the buffer state policy.
Critics said his comment was equivocal and could be interpreted to mean the
government had previously held to the policy but had decided to drop it
now.
Mr Thaksin said the media had gone overboard in reporting the buffer state
issue. ``I appeal to you to talk less and let the government get on with its
work.''
Confusion was often the product of lop-sided interviews with people who
knew only half the truth, he said.
Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Thailand dropped the buffer
state policy about 20 years ago.
``We have shifted from the buffer state policy to intelligence operations
outside Thai boundaries, or defence diplomacy as it is called by this
government.
``The prime minister understands it well. Do not hit out at him,'' he
said.
``We have no buffer state policy and do not even think about it.''
The Karen National Union said it never made any deal to act as Thailand's
buffer state.
Gen Bo Mya, KNU vice-president and defence minister, said Thailand had
never negotiated with the KNU or any other minority groups on the buffer state
proposition.
Rangoon, on the other hand, did sponsor a buffer state. It was made up of
the forces of KNU renegades and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
Gen Bo Mya said Rangoon hammered out a deal with the DKBA in Karen state's
Hlaingbwe district about five years ago entrusting the rebels to function as
buffer troops. In return, the DKBA was promised a share of the benefits from
border trade activities.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Thai-Myanmar High-Level Talks to
Be Held Soon: Thai Official ã??ã??
Xinhuanet 2002-06-11 18:08:44 BANGKOK, June 11 (Xinhuanet) --
Thailand believed that a high-level negotiation with Myanmar to solve border
conflicts will be held very soon, the state-owned radio here reported Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he
has just received a message from Khin Nyunt, secretary one of Myanmar's ruling
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), stating that relations between the
two countries are "still good despite the current tensions along the border."
"The positive gesture from Khin Nyunt could imply that a high-level talk to
solve the border problems could be opened soon," he said.
Chavalit said Myanmar has already sent a representative to contact him for
the talk, but the location and date of such meetings are yet to be confirmed.
Thailand proposed that the venue could be in border provinces in either
country.
The current Thai-Myanmar border tension took place about a month ago, as
military of both countries accused each other of shooting gunfire across the
border.
Myanmar then closed all border crossings with Thailand and expelled at
least 500 Thai workers.
----------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Stops Buying Thai
Electricity for Border Towns
Xinhuanet 2002-06-11 17:07:25 BANGKOK, June 11 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar stopped buying electricitypower from Thailand for two major trade towns
near the border between the two countries Monday.
According to a Thai official in the Chiang Rai province of Thailand, 700
kilometers north of Bangkok, all of the houses, shops, hotels, casinos and night
clubs in the Tachilek town and Myawadi town of Myanmar went dark Monday night.
Worawit Aeksowan, manager of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
(EGAT) in Chiang Rai province, confirmed that the two towns opposite the
province blacked out after Myanmar authorities stopped buying power supply.
He said the Myanmar government informed the EGAT that it would no longer
buy electricity power from Thailand.
"We are informed that Myanmar has unplugged electricity power from Thailand
for unknown reasons," Worawit said.
----------------------------------------------------------------- The New Straits Times Press
Myanmar burns its drugs to impress
world
By AFP June 10: AS Myanmar faces condemnation for being the world's largest
producer of opium, the ruling military generals are putting on a public
relations extravaganza.
"We try to be so clean that we've made ourselves poor," junta spokesman
Colonel Hla Min complains while busily taking snapshots of millions of dollars
worth of poppy seeds, refined drugs and precursor chemicals curling up in
smoke.
Members of the international and local Press, United Nations
representatives and diplomats were invited to witness the latest fiery
destruction of illicit drugs captured by, or turned in to, authorities.
"If we are as dirty as some outsiders claim, we would be one of the richest
tigers in this region," the colonel says.
Hla Min says that since 1974 illicit drugs worth some US$50 billion (RM190
billion) have been destroyed by authorities: "Enough to pay our outstanding
national debt ten times over." Drug-burning ceremonies are regular events in
Myanmar that critics argue do not reflect the massive drug indistry in the
country, but Jean-Luc Lemahieu, resident representative of the UN's Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP), says this one is different.
Almost 102 tonnes of poppy seeds were burnt in the capital of Myanmar's
northern Shan State at this ceremony, along with 249kg of opium, 102 kg of
morphine powder, three kilogrammes of solid mor-phine and various precursor
chemicals.
"This is obviously different in the sense that there was less processed
opium and heroin than opium seeds ... which makes it more symbolic as well as
indicates the willingness of all those directly involved to get rid of the
opium," Lemahieu says.
The destruction forms part of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse
Control's "Project New Destiny", which aims to prevent poppy cultivation by
distributing seeds for substitution crops.
Farmers have been asked to grow seven kinds of alternative crops instead of
opium across 8,891ha of land.
It's a big task in the country that global narcotics authorities declared
earlier this year as the world's largest producer of opium in 2001, accounting
for as much as 60 per cent of global supply.
Myanmar overtook Afghanistan after the Taliban militia's ruthlessly
enforced ban on opium poppies slashed Afghan production by 90 per cent.
Critics say the Myanmar regime turns a blind eye to much of the production
and trafficking in drugs by ethnic insurgent groups â?? in particular, the United
Wa State Army, the largest armed drug militia in the world.
But Myanmar's Home Minister, Colonel Tin Hlaing, is claiming success for
Project New Destiny already, as evidenced by the tonnes of poppy seeds
authorities say have already been turned in rather than seized.
"If the local inhabitants are fully committed and (continue to) show this
sort of co-operation, I am fully confident the drug scourge threatening the
whole of the world will not find a place on the soil of Myanmar," Tin Hlaing
booms.
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