|
---------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA RELATED NEWS
- JULY 01, 2002.
---------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES
--------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters - Political struggle in Myanmar is now
waged with smiles
Reuters - Myanmar's Suu Kyi ends travels
unhindered by junta
Reuters - Taiwan woman faces drug charge in
Cambodia
AP - Myanmar Opposition Leader
Returns
AP - Thailand blacklists two Myanmar journalists
of state-owned daily
AP - Shan rebels urges U.N., ASEAN mediation
with junta
AP - Opposition says Aung San Suu Kyi's 9-day
trip outside Mynamar capital a success
BBC - Suu Kyi's tour 'a success'
The Nation - Patch-up
signal from Burma
The Nation - The enemy
within: the drug lords destroying Thailand
Bkk Post - Rangoon
ends fight against Shan rebels
Bkk Post - Criticism
countered
Xinhuanet - Australia to Train Myanmar Plastic
Surgeons
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 1, 3:43 PM
Political struggle in Myanmar is now waged with smiles By Andrew Marshall BANGKOK (Reuters) - The last
time Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi tried to travel from Yangon to
Mandalay, the ruling junta sent armed police to block her, jailed dozens of her
supporters and locked her up in house arrest.
The result -- an international outcry that worsened Myanmar's isolation and
pushed its tottering economy closer to collapse.
Last week, following her release from 19 months in house arrest, the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize winner tried once again to travel to Myanmar's second city.
The junta's response showed how it has suspended efforts to persecute the
pro-democracy leader and settled on a new tactic -- being nice to her.
In stark contrast to the events of September 2000, Suu Kyi and her
entourage were allowed to travel freely for more than a week on a leisurely trip
to Mandalay and back, stopping at several smaller towns and even accepting
government invitations to visit a new bridge and a hydroelectric plant.
This time there was no international condemnation of the junta, no threats
to step up sanctions which analysts say are the strongest weapon Suu Kyi has in
her dealings with the military.
By allowing Suu Kyi, 57, to travel freely, the junta has improved its
image, analysts say, and at little cost. Her trip may have raised the morale of
some of her supporters but it hardly shook the foundations of the junta's grip
on power.
"The government seems to have realised that the worse they treat her and
the democracy movement, the more pressure and problems they will face," said a
Western diplomat in Yangon.
PEACE BREAKS OUT
Diplomats say the junta seems to have decided that Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) is no longer a major threat to its iron rule of
Myanmar.
The party, which won Myanmar's last election in 1990 but has never been
allowed to govern, has limited resources and the possibility of any mass
uprising seems remote, analysts say.
Many former NLD members resigned after years of persecution, and most are
elderly.
International sanctions are more pressing -- the country's economy has been
moribund for decades but recent years have seen a worsening downward spiral of
hyperinflation, currency collapse, trade deficits and shortages of key
commodities.
The junta is desperate to improve its international standing, mainly to get
sanctions lifted, analysts say. It wants to give the impression it is serious
about reaching an accommodation with Suu Kyi, even though many doubt whether it
will ever allow real reform.
The government began confidential talks with Suu Kyi in October 2000, but
they have yet to go beyond "confidence building", officials say.
The junta, which says moving too fast towards democracy could unleash
anarchy, has not bothered to hold talks with Suu Kyi since her release from
house arrest on May 6.
So far, Suu Kyi has matched the junta's conciliatory tone. She has agreed
not to resume the weekly anti-government speeches she used to hold at her
residence and seems to be avoiding angering or embarrassing the government.
Her visits to government construction projects during her trip to Mandalay
were unprecedented.
"It was more than a test of her freedom of movement. It was a test of the
mutual confidence between Suu Kyi and the government, and they showed
understanding and trust towards each other," said a veteran politician in
Yangon.
"She did not over-exploit her popularity among the people, and on the other
hand the military showed it can cooperate with her by inviting her to their
project sites."
BEHIND THE SMILES
But behind the public show of reconciliation, analysts say, the two sides
are far apart and agreement seems unlikely.
Many doubt the junta has any real intention of allowing a democratic
government to take power.
Myanmar is by no means the only dictatorial government in Asia, but it has
been singled out for sanctions and criticism because of its treatment of Suu Kyi
and her party.
Suu Kyi faces the dilemma that she is most dangerous to the junta when she
is being persecuted, as this keeps international attention on Myanmar and
ensures sanctions stay in place.
Trips like this month's visit to Mandalay are useful in drumming up support
but analysts say the NLD poses no serious challenge to the junta's rule of
Myanmar.
Suu Kyi has demanded substantive political negotiations before she
reconsiders her influential position on sanctions.
Sooner or later, if the government fails to talk to her, she is likely to
harden her stance and resume criticism of the junta.
Suu Kyi and her party may already have survived years of persecution by the
junta, but their challenge now is to survive the threat of simply being
ignored.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 1, 1:05 AM
Myanmar's Suu Kyi ends travels unhindered by junta By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi returned home on Sunday after a week on
the road drumming up support in a trip unhindered by the ruling junta that has
previously sought to restrict her movement.
Suu Kyi set off last Saturday for Mandalay, Myanmar's second city and
cultural hub some 600 km to the north. On her way she visited several smaller
towns, including the birthplace of her father, independence hero Aung San, who
was assassinated in 1947 when Suu Kyi was a child.
The trip was seen as a key test of Suu Kyi's freedom of movement following
her release from 19 months of house arrest on May 6. It was her first major
political trip outside Yangon since she was freed, and she was allowed to travel
freely.
U Lwin, secretary of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party,
told Reuters she was planning another trip out of Yangon next week but that it
would depend on her health.
"We understand that she did not eat or sleep well during this trip," he
said. "Therefore, we will decide about her next trip depending on her health."
YEARS IN DETENTION
Suu Kyi, 57, emerged as the figurehead of Myanmar's democracy movement in
1988 and has spent several years under house arrest since then. She was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
The NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but the military refused to
hand over power. Over the following decade, party members were jailed and
intimidated and political dissent was dealt with harshly.
But the junta has changed tack after starting confidential talks with Suu
Kyi in October 2000. Since then, hundreds of political prisoners have been
released and vitriolic attacks on the NLD in the state-run media have ceased.
The talks, however, have yet to move beyond "confidence building",
officials say. Suu Kyi says she wants substantive talks on Myanmar's political
future as soon as possible.
Suu Kyi's most recent spell under house arrest, from September 2000 to May
this year, was prompted by several high-profile attempts to travel outside
Yangon in defiance of travel restrictions.
A bid to travel south of the capital by road in August 2000 led to a
nine-day roadside stand-off when the authorities blocked her convoy. She was
eventually forcibly returned home, sparking an outcry from the international
community.
A month later she was stopped from travelling by rail to Mandalay, and
placed under house arrest.
The military government insists it is committed to building democracy in
Myanmar but says moving too fast could unleash anarchy. Analysts say the junta's
more conciliatory approach to the democracy movement has been prompted in part
by its desire to get crippling economic sanctions lifted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday July 1, 11:32 AM
Taiwan woman faces drug charge in Cambodia PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court has charged a Taiwanese woman with smuggling nearly two kilograms of opium through Phnom Penh's international airport, police and court officials said on Monday. Huang Feng Mei, 42, was arrested last Wednesday at the airport as she was
about to board a flight to Taipei with 1.9 kg of opium worth some $30,000,
police said.
Court prosecutor Sok Roeun told Reuters she would be charged with drug
trafficking, and would face a jail term of more than 10 years if found guilty.
Cambodia is not known as a producer of opium, or its refined form heroin,
but anti-narcotics officials say the country is used as a conduit for smuggling
the drugs from big producers Myanmar and Laos to the international market.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Opposition Leader
Returns
The Associated Press, Sun 30 Jun 2002 YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi returned Sunday night from her first
political trip outside the capital since her release from house arrest last
month, the spokesman for her political party said.
Her trip to Mandalay, Myanmar's second city, 350 miles north of Yangon, was
``successful,'' said National League for Democracy spokesman U Lwin.
Since her release from house arrest on May 6 this year, Suu Kyi had visited
various offices of her NLD party in the greater Yangon area.
She left her lakeside home in the capital, Yangon, on June 22, stopping
overnight at several points along the way to Mandalay. One stop was at the town
of Natmauk, birthplace of Suu Kyi's father and Myanmar's independence hero Gen.
Aung San.
When Suu Kyi last attempted to travel to Mandalay in September 2000 she was
stopped and put under house arrest. The ruling junta had previously kept Suu Kyi
under house arrest from 1989 to 1995.
She made many stops on her most recent journey, primarily to visit local
party offices.
Party leaders said last week they were very pleased with the large crowds
which turned out to greet her at her stops. They also expressed pleasure that
Suu Kyi was invited to a government dam project, where she was treated as an
honored guest.
News of her trip traveled primarily by word of mouth, as the official state
media doesn't report on her activities. However, some people watch satellite
television or hear the news from shortwave radio stations such as the BBC or
Voice of America.
Since October 2000, even while holding her under house arrest, the junta
has been holding reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize.
The talks and her release have raised hopes that the junta will allow the
return of democracy to the country, which the military has ruled since 1962.
The current group of generals came to power in 1988 after crushing
pro-democracy demonstrations. The junta called elections in 1990, which Suu
Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. But the generals refused to hand over power, and
have said that letting in democracy too quickly would disintegrate the
ethnically diverse country, which is also known as Burma.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Thailand blacklists two Myanmar
journalists of state-owned daily
Mon Jul 1, 7:39 AM ET BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -
Demanding an apology from Myanmar's military regime, Thailand on Monday
blacklisted two journalists of a state-owned Myanmar newspaper that published
disparaging articles about the Thai monarchy.
Ma Tin Win, a columnist at the New Light of Myanmar daily, and Mong Mong
Aye, an editor at the newspaper, will be barred from entering Thailand for
defaming the country's most revered institution, said police spokesman Maj. Gen.
Pongsapat Pongcharoen.
"Their behavior is deemed to have an impact on the national security," he
told reporters.
The New Light of Myanmar has been at the forefront of a recent Myanmar
media campaign against Thailand, publishing a series of insulting articles about
the Thai monarchy, which is revered by Thais as semi-divine. Criticizing the
king is a crime punishable by imprisonment.
The verbal war started after an exchange of artillery fire across the two
countries' border on May 20. Myanmar's military junta accused Thailand of firing
the mortars to support ethnic minority rebels that operate in the area, a charge
denied by Bangkok.
At a separate news conference Monday, the supreme commander of Thailand's
three armed forces, Adm. Narong Yuthavong, reiterated the government position
that the Myanmar junta is responsible for the issue and must apologize.
If not, the already frosty relations will worsen, Narong said.
"This demands cooperation from both sides. It takes two to tango," he
said.
In their vitriolic articles and commentaries, the state media in Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma, described a Thai king who liberated the country from
Burmese occupiers centuries ago as brutal.
Media reports have also referred to Thailand as "Yodaya," a derisive
corruption of Ayutthaya, the name of a Thai kingdom that was later sacked by a
Burmese army.
Besides unleashing its media against Thailand, Myanmar has closed key
border crossings, expelled Thai workers, banned Thai goods and advertisements,
and banned visits by official Thai delegations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Shan rebels urges U.N., ASEAN
mediation with junta
Mon Jul 1, 6:17 AM ET By SUTIN WANNABOVORN, Associated Press Writer DOI HSANJOO, Myanmar - The commander of the Shan State Army, one of a
handful of ethnic guerrilla groups fighting Myanmar's military regime, on Monday
urged the United Nations ( news - web sites) and the Association of Southeast
Asian nations to mediate a political settlement.
"Only the U.N. and ASEAN can help resolve the Shans' political problem with
Myanmar's military, otherwise the civil war will continue," said Yawd Serk, the
self-styled colonel leading the rebel group.
Myanmar is one of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, or ASEAN.
For the last five decades, the Shan have been fighting for autonomy for
their people in parts of eastern Myanmar. They are one of the country's biggest
minorities, making up about 9 percent of its 42 million people.
The Shan rebels have bases in areas along Myanmar's northern border with
Thailand and become a source of friction between the two traditionally hostile
neighbors.
Myanmar military junta accuses the Thai army of giving sanctuary to the
rebels and providing support for their struggle. While Thailand discourages
armed attacks from its soil, it turns a blind eye to other activities such as
political organizing among Shan refugees.
Speaking to The Associated Press at a jungle camp, Yawd Serk tried to
distance the rebels from that dispute.
"The sore relations between Thailand and Myanmar have nothing to do with
the Shan people," he said.
He said that the Thai government had rejected his proposal to mediate talks
between the Shan and the junta ? but continues to hope for peace.
"Without hope, what do we have to fight for?"
Dozens of guerrillas were seen patrolling and manning mortars. Although the
intense fighting of the last month has died down, sporadic gunfire was
audible.
Yawd Serk, 42, has been fighting since 17 and leads one of the last
continuing insurgencies by ethnic minorities against Myanmar's military
government. The junta has signed cease-fire agreements with other groups in
return for limited autonomy.
He said he would prefer to negotiate with Myanmar's opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi if her National League for Democracy party ever takes power.
"If Suu Kyi became the leader of Myanmar, I think it would be easier to
talk with her than with military junta," he said.
He added that his group has no plans to talk with Suu Kyi for the time
being.
Suu Kyi started closed-door negotiations with the junta in October 2000.
The talks are aimed at ending the political deadlock that began when Suu Kyi's
party won a general election in 1990 but the military refused to hand over
power.
Relations between Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and Thailand plunged to
an all-time low after May 20 when the Thai army fired mortar shells that landed
in Myanmar. Thailand said that it merely fired warning shots across the border
after the fighting between the Shan and the military spilled onto Thai
soil.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Opposition says Aung San Suu Kyi's
9-day trip outside Mynamar capital a success
Mon Jul 1, 1:11 AM ET By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer YANGON, Myanmar - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's first unhindered
political trip outside Myanmar's capital was "successful" and she plans to make
similar visits to other parts of the miltary-ruled country, party officials
said.
Suu Kyi returned to Yangon on Sunday night after a nine-day tour during
which she met with local officials of her National League for Democracy in
several towns as well as in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city.
It was her first political trip outside the capital since her release from
house arrest May 6, and demonstrated the military junta's willingness to keep
its promise to give her political latitude as part of a reconciliation
process.
"It was a very successful political trip," U Lwin, the spokesman of the
National League for Democracy party, told The Associated Press on Sunday
night.
Suu Kyi received a tumultuous welcome in all the towns and villages she
stopped on her way to Mandalay, 560 kilometers (350 miles) north of Yangon,
party officials said. She discussed party organization with local NLD officials
and made a brief public appearance in Mandalay to thank people for their
support, said a party member who accompanied her.
The crowds refrained from shouting any anti-government slogans, apparently
to demonstrate a spirit of reconciliation, the party member said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
When Suu Kyi made campaign tours in late 1988 and 1989, before her party
swept a general election that was ignored by Mynamar's military, she was
harassed by authorities and later placed under house arrest for six years.
She was put under house arrest again after her last attempt to travel to
Mandalay in September 2000.
Her release and first political trip outside the capital are the most
positive outcomes of reconciliation talks with the government, and have raised
hopes that the junta will allow the return of democracy to a country that has
been under military rule since 1962.
Suu Kyu is planing more political trips to other towns, the official said,
without elaboration.
On her way to Mandalay, Suu Kyi visited two dam construction sites at the
invitation of the government and also toured a bridge construction site, where
she was treated as an honored guest, he said.
She also inspected United Nations ( news - web sites)-backed projects on
water distribution, health and education near Sagaing, west of Mandalay. She was
escorted by Patrice Coeur Bizot, resident representative of the U.N. Development
Program
Suu Kyi showed a "keen interest" in the aid programs, particularly on
education and health, said a U.N. official, who did not wish to be identified.
Since her release, Suu Kyi has met officials of all nine U.N. agencies in
Yangon.
Besides spending four days in Mandalay, Suu Kyi visited other towns
including her father's hometown, Natmauk, where she met relatives. She also
visited the house where her father, Myanmar's independence hero Gen. Aung San,
grew up, and went to a monastery where her father had studied.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 1 July, 2002, 09:21 GMT
10:21 UK
Suu Kyi's tour 'a success' Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's first unhindered political
trip outside the capital was "successful" and she plans to make similar trips,
party officials have said.
Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Rangoon on Sunday night after a nine-day tour
during which she met local officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD)
in several towns as well as in Mandalay, Burma's second city.
Crowds of people in Mandalay had filled the streets and climbed trees to
witness Aung San Suu Kyi's first political trip outside Rangoon since her
release from house arrest in May.
Analysts say the military government has decided to try being constructive
towards the pro-democracy leader, having faced years of international criticism.
It was the first real test of the junta's promise when it released Aung San
Suu Kyi that she would be able to travel freely.
Long struggle
The visit to Mandalay, 610 kilometres (380 miles) north of Rangoon, was
highly symbolic because it was there that Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to visit
when she was placed under house arrest in September 2000.
"It was a very successful political trip," said NLD spokesman U Lwin.
The NLD overwhelmingly won 1990 elections but the military junta refused to
hand over power.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 57, is the daughter of Burma's independence hero Aung
San, who was assassinated in 1947. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her
efforts to bring democracy to Burma, and has spent long periods under house
arrest.
Many observers hoped Aung San Suu Kyi's release would signal a thaw in
relations with Burma's ruling military junta. But so far she has been largely
ignored by the regime and has met no senior generals, dampening hopes for
political progress.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
Patch-up signal from Burma
Published on Jul 1, 2002
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday said that the Burmese
government had signalled willingness to restore soured Thai-Burmese relations by
agreeing to stop its media from publishing articles that offend Thailand's
monarchy.
The message was conveyed by General Maung Aye, deputy chairman of the
National Peace and Development Council, who made it clear that the military
junta had never had any intention to defame the Thai monarchy, the prime
minister said.
He said Maung Aye had also expressed gratitude to Their Majesties the King
and Queen for granting him an audience when he visited Thailand in April.
"It's a good sign . . . General Maung Aye also reaffirmed that his
government still respected all bilateral agreements on economic and other
international collaboration it had signed with us," Thaksin told reporters at
Parliament House.
The Burmese ambassador to Thailand also met Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai to receive the Thai government's letter of protest against the
newspaper articles.
Thaksin said that the government had also informed the ambassador that
Thailand suspected that Burmese troops had encroached onto Thai soil.
The ambassador promised that his government would look into the matter and
in future correct such mistakes within 24 hours of being informed, Thaksin said.
Surakiart said the Burmese junta had ordered its media to stop publishing
articles deemed insulting to Thailand's past monarchs after the Foreign Ministry
made its written protest.
The Burmese foreign minister also pledged to blacklist media agencies that
published such articles and take action against them, Surakiart said.
Surakiart said the Foreign Ministry had not asked the Burmese government to
apologise. "We just wanted them to stop," he said.
Articles criticising Siamese kings, written by columnist Dr Ma Tin Win, had
been recently published in the New Light of Myanmar, a Burmese state-run
English-language newspaper.
Surakiart said that as far as he knew the New Light of Myanmar was not a
popular newspaper in Burma.
The Thai Ambassador to Burma, Oum Maolanon, said that the New Light of
Myanmar had stopped publishing articles derogatory of Thailand.
He said the articles in question were about King Naresuan the Great and
King Narai the Great.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Nation
The enemy within: the drug lords
destroying Thailand
Published on Jul 2, 2002
Local kingpins hide behind 'nationalism' to conceal their activities while
contributing to the destruction of the state
Drugs are undermining Thai society, yet the core problem is not being
seriously tackled: the use of methamphetamines, or ya ba, has become too
prevalent among Thai youth. What we understand today is that drugs are the
number-one enemy of the state. They are our most immediate threat.
The notion of drugs as the enemy of the state signifies an important change
in Thai nationalism. Historically Burma has represented the real menace to Thai
sovereignty since the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. Then came communism during the
Cold War. Being "Thai" meant being anti-Burmese and anti-communist. But the
psychological reason behind the construction of these images of enemies was the
fact that Thai nationalism was employed to legitimise military elites who
proclaimed themselves champions of "Thainess".
Today the state says that being "Thai" means being anti-drugs. It claims
the origin of drugs is foreign and thus they are alien to Thai nationhood.
Basically drugs are not "Thai" in that in Buddhism drugs are sinful. Yet the
religious factor fails to explain the sharp rise of narcotics use in Thailand.
In fact four of the eight countries which produce most of the world's opium are
Buddhist: Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The claim that drugs are "un-Thai" is a plot to externalise the drugs
problem. Externalisation assigns culpability to foreign sources. These foreign
sources are therefore enemies of the Thai nation.
During the civil war in Burma ethnic warlords made profits from drugs to
fight the central government. When Burma proposed cease-fires Thailand remained
sceptical of its peaceful intentions. Burma, long accused of involvement in the
drugs trade, declared that national peace was its ultimate objective. However,
thriving drug production in the warlords' areas only confirms the fact that just
as the war was financed by opium so is the current peace.
Thailand thus blames both Burma and the ethnic drug barons for its
worsening drugs problem. Khun Sa, also known as Chang Shi-fu, of the Mong Tai
Army was primarily accused of flooding Thailand with drugs. But his role has
faded since he surrendered to the Burmese government in 1996. Now the Wa and the
Kokang are the prime culprits for the increasing domestic use of ya ba.
Khachadpai Burusapatana, secretary-general of the National Security
Council, asserts: "The most serious threat currently to the Thai nation is this
massive flow of ya ba from the ethnic drug lords; it is more dire than the
military or political threats Thailand has experienced in the past."
Thai officials are attempting to deflect the drugs problem from the
country. Condemning foreign drug traffickers from Europe, Africa and Asia also
solidifies the image of drugs as "un-Thai": Thailand is being presented as
having fallen prey to international drug syndicates.
But the flip side of this Thai nationalism is dark and controversial.
Nationalism is once again arbitrarily used to conceal the ugliness of the Thai
narcotics situation. Thai drug traffickers exploit Thai nationalism to protect
themselves and their illegal businesses. In fact ya ba production and
distribution is innate in Thai society. Some high-ranking government officials,
politicians and military men, self-proclaimed Thai nationalists, are actively
involved in the local drug trade.
These Thai traffickers project themselves as practitioners of nationalistic
values; in reality they blur the picture of themselves as criminals and emerge
as true nationalists who are opposed to drugs.
But the list of Thai politicians allegedly involved in drugs as supplied by
US authorities reminds us of the deep-rooted narcotics problem in Thailand. The
Thai government is reluctant to prosecute members of Parliament involved in the
drug trade since revealing their identities and punishing them would affect
traditional political power structures. More importantly, it would also puncture
the state-created image of Thai nationalism as "anti-drugs".
The result is that the rule of law has never applied to high-status people.
Not only does that situation encourage them in their drug activities; it also
attests to the fact that Thai nationalism being "anti-drugs" is a false
perception.
There has been a lot of talk about Thai cooperation with Burma and
international organisations on drug eradication: it is a part of the propaganda
regarding Thai nationalism on the international stage. But connections between
Thai drug dealers and ethnic drug lords in Burma remain strong, as witnessed by
the vast amounts of ya ba flowing onto the Thai market each day.
While claiming to enjoy the enthusiastic cooperation of Burma's Central
Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC), Thailand is recreating the CCDAC in
its own image: a symbol of national adherence to international norms and thus a
shield that can be held up against attacks on that front while Thai nationalism
is used as a defence on other fronts.
The drugs situation is becoming more convoluted as Thailand continues to
drift down the path of globalisation, presenting itself as a nation capable of
living up to commitments. Meanwhile alienating drugs from Thai society only
highlights the fact that those involved in the drugs trade seek to hide the
reality under the cloak of Thai nationalism.
Official promotion of nationalism within the country has effectively
connected drugs with foreign sources. This nationalism allows the integration of
influential drug traffickers and their illegal business into one imaginary
entity that is above the law.
Burma may partly be responsible for the flow of drugs into Thailand. But
Thais are the most threatening source of drugs. These are indeed the worst
enemies of our nation.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a PhD candidate in the
Department of Political Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies at
the University of London.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Monday 01 July 2002
Rangoon ends fight against Shan rebels
No clear reason for withdrawal of forces
Subin Khuenkaew - Chiang Rai
Combined Burmese-Wa forces fighting Shan State Army rebels in an area
opposite Mae Fa Luang started to withdraw yesterday, a military source
said.
It was not clear why, though Col Yawd Serk, the SSA leader, believed Burma
was withdrawing its troops because the offensive has not worked.
Burmese commanders met at the Triangle Force headquarters in Keng Tung
yesterday. ``Burma sent Wa soldiers to fight us, but they could not do anything
to us. We also do not want to fight the Wa soldiers because they are fellow
tribespeople in Shan state,'' the SSA leader said.
More than 2,000 Burmese and Wa soldiers were deployed in Soi Sikhiew and
Doi Kaw Muang areas opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang for the offensive.
Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont, who visited the border, was briefed by
Lt-Col Apisit Nuchbusaba, commander of the 241st Cavalry Battalion of the 4th
Cavalry Regiment.
Wa soldiers who crossed the border to Ban Poona last Thursday had been
pushed out of Thai territory, he was told.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - Monday 01 July 2002
Criticism countered
BURMESE EMBASSY PROTEST
The Interior Ministry's Damrongrachanuparb Library has put out a document
to counter articles considered defamatory to the Thai monarchy published by the
state-run Burmese newspaper, New Light of Myanmar.
The letter distributed to interior ministry officials late last week
branded the contents in the Burmese articles as ``lacking intelligence and
genuine understanding about Thai history''.
``The Burmese articles with insulting contents are inappropriate for a
neighbouring country that has diplomatic relations with us,'' M.L. Panadda
Diskul, head of Damrongrachanuparb Library, said.
Civilised countries always use diplomatic channels to settle their
differences.
They never go as far as distorting the history of others, M.L. Pannada
said.
The Interior Ministry's letter came after the military ordered its media to
counter the Burmese criticism of the Thai monarchy in its paper.
The counter-attack was ordered stopped at the weekend by Deputy PM and
Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Australia to Train Myanmar Plastic
Surgeons
Xinhuanet 2002-07-01 12:52:18 YANGON, July 1 (Xinhuanet) --
Australia will train Myanmar plasticsurgeons under a fellowship program
established by an Australian medical specialists' group, the latest Myanmar
Times journal reported.
The Interplast group comprises Australian plastic surgeons who spend their
time voluntarily to perform operations and give lectures in developing countries
including Myanmar.
The Australian interplast team and its Myanmar counterparts hadworked
together in Myanmar carrying out about 70 operations on cleft palate and lip,
burn contractures, broken jaws and skin cancer.
The first ever long-term fellowship program, offered by the group, will
enable Myanmar plastic surgeons to study in Australia and the first fellowship
recipients are expected to undergo such training in that country starting in the
next three months, the report said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- |