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Thai opposition decries PM's announcement of bounty on his
life
BANGKOK, March 13 (AFP) - Thailand's main opposition party on
Thursday accused Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of scaring the public with
his government's announcement that drug kingpins have put a price on his head.
Democrat MP Thavorn Senniem told reporters that Thaksin's public
statement that he faced death threats was detrimental to Thais' sense of
security, which has already come under heavy pressure amidst a deadly war on
drugs.
"When the prime minister says he is not safe, who will feel
safe?" Thavorn said. "Creating news to cover up news is not good."
Thavorn said Thaksin's administration on Wednesday revealed the
bounty, reported to be as high as 1.8 million dollars, in order to tone down
suspicion over what human rights groups fear are extra-judicial killings in a
nationwide drug crackdown.
"There is no other way to lower the
heat on accusations of extra-judicial killings than by calling for sympathy (for
Thaksin) due to his war on drugs that has led to this bounty," he added.
Thavorn also warned that fears sparked by Thaksin's announcement
could affect investment and tourism in the country.
Drug lords
from Myanmar's ethnic Wa group, who are blamed for producing most of the
methamphetamines that flood Thailand, could be the ones seeking Thaksin's death,
Thai narcotics officials have said.
The premier has been
travelling in a bullet-proof van rather than his usual car this week, and
security has tightened in government buildings.
The boosted
measures follow the weekend shooting death of an aide to Interior Minister Wan
Muhamad Nor Matha, who has responsibility for overseeing Thailand's three-month
war on drugs.
Police say nearly 1,500 people have been killed
since the government's crackdown began on February 1. The vast majority are
alleged by the government to be traffickers killing other dealers in order to
protect themselves.
Meanwhile, authorities have expressed concern
that gang members are taking advantage of Thai doctors' expertise in plastic
surgery in order to escape identification and arrest.
"They try to
avoid arrest by having facial surgery or by changing their location," Deputy
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said.
Thai newspapers
reported a woman was arrested at hospital Wednesday after undergoing plastic
surgery. She had been wanted for money laundering and drug dealing.
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Exiled Myanmar group calls for release of ailing prisoners
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, March 13 (AFP) - An exiled Myanmar rights group called on
the United Nations Thursday to pressure Yangon's military rulers to release more
than 100 ailing political prisoners held throughout the country.
The All Women Movement Committee of Burma (AWMCB) said in a
statement to the United Nations Human Rights Commission that 129 political
prisoners in Myanmar's jails need urgent medical treatment for conditions such
as severe hypertension, arthritis, malaria, mental illness, heart disease and
paralysis.
"The ruling military junta needs to release those
prisoners immediately and the AWMCB solemnly urges the United Nations Human
Rights Commission to take action effectively on the junta's human rights
violations," it said.
"Some of these political inmates have been
charged not only with political acts but the military regime has also labeled
them with criminal charges and other penalties," it said.
Among
the ailing prisoners are 11 opposition MPs, four journalists, 11 women and two
men over 80 years old, it added.
The letter was released to the
media March 13, which was named Myanmar human rights day in 1989 by Aung San Suu
Kyi, the country's pro-democracy leader.
On that day in 1988,
General Ne Win's socialist regime was accused of killing a student during a
street protest, sparking nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations which were
brutally suppressed.
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, has endured
frequent criticism about its poor human rights record and has been urged
repeatedly to release its political prisoners, which Amnesty International says
number between 1,200 and 1,300.
Last week exiled representatives
of Myanmar's Mon ethnic group urged the UN to pressure Yangon to release three
ailing Mon leaders jailed on political grounds.
And on March 9 a
Thai-based rights network blasted the junta for using the suffering of women to
solicit aid while doing nothing to tackle the mountains of abuse heaped on them.
The Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (Altsean) said 22 of the 30
articles of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights were being violated
in Myanmar under the ruling State Peace and Development Council.
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Bangkok Post - Thursday 13 March
2003
Third Army to negotiate withdrawal of Shan forces
Cheewin Sattha
The Third Army
will negotiate the withdrawal of anti-Rangoon Shan State Army troops from bases
along the Thai-Burmese border.
Third Army commander Lt-Gen Udomchai
Ongkhasing said talks would focus on the SSA's pullout from strongholds in the
area ranging from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son in the
North.
The move was aimed at easing tension, curbing the flow of
drugs along the border and show the Thai military's sincerity about ending
problems related to the SSA's fierce opposition to Rangoon, he
said.
The Third Army would start negotiating around the middle of
this month for the withdrawal of SSA troops from Kor Wan, Kor Hom, Kor Fa and
Kor Muang bases opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang district. Third Army deputy
chief Maj-Gen Saprang Kallayanamitr had been sent to sound out SSA executives,
including leader Col Yod Suek.
It is hoped the move will convince
Rangoon to ask its ally, the United Wa State Army, to withdraw troops from
border areas, too. The Third Army also wanted to seek Burmese cooperation to
pressure its ethnic minorities to give up drug production.
``We
believe the Wa must agree to go down the hills because Burmese troops can
control the Red Wa. And we are confident we can control Shan
soldiers.
``We will not push them back to Burma, but we will find
new places for them and control their use of weapons,'' Lt-Gen Udomchai
said.
A joint Thai-Burmese military patrol and border demarcation
were expected to follow if the plan succeeded, he added.
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UN Wire - March 12, 2003
MYANMAR:
Forced Labor Continues, ILO Representative Says
The
International Labor Organization's representative to Myanmar, Hong Trang
Perret-Nguyen, yesterday said the ruling State Peace and Development Council's
use of forced labor remains a problem despite recent efforts to improve the
situation.
"It is the army which mainly enforces forced labor,"
Perret-Nguyen said.
ILO officials gave Myanmar's ruling junta a
plan in November on how to curb forced labor. The government returned the
plan, outlining several conditions which Perret-Nguyen said fell short of
realistic efforts at reforms. Perret-Nguyen said the junta's suggested
measures failed to review current labor practices, offered no alternatives and
did not answer proposals for investigation and
mediation.
Perret-Nguyen will submit her own plan, along with the
government's marked-up version, to ILO officials in Geneva later this
month.
"I'm not in a position to endorse the plan of action that
the government has put forward," Perret-Nguyen said. "So there is no joint
plan of action at this stage" (Irrawaddy, March 11).
Meanwhile,
U.N. envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said in a report to be presented to the U.N.
Human Rights Commission in Geneva later this month that the world should
recognize that the movement toward democracy in Myanmar is necessarily slow and
that the country should not be isolated.
"The policy option now
should be engagement, not isolation," Pinheiro said in the report, which was
obtained by Reuters in Yangon. Pinheiro is scheduled to visit Myanmar
March 19-26, his fifth visit since being appointed special rapporteur in
2001.
"Every political transition in the world is a process,
sometimes a torturous and slow one, and it would be unrealistic and naive to
expect an instant regime change in Myanmar," Pinheiro said. "Instead of
continuing to complain that little has changed ... the international community
must have its eyes wide open to see the nuclei of change,'' he said.
Myanmar's military regime last May released opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest, but Western governments have
criticized the government's lack of response to Suu Kyi's repeated calls for
substantive dialogue (Reuters/MSNBC.com, March 12).
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Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-03-13
Burmese refugees in Thailand - ?0.5 million for basic food basket
and cooking fuel.
European Commission's
Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Belgium has decided to grant Burmese refugees in
Thailand - ?0.5 million for basic food basket and cooking
fuel.
Myanmar (Burma) has been affected by civil unrest since 1988
and during this time; the number of refugees along the Thai/Myanmar border has
risen from around 10,000 to 143,000.
The refugees are not permitted
to leave the camps and are thus wholly dependent on aid for their basic needs. A
recent study has shown that the overall diet in the camp is extremely poor and
chronic malnutrition rates are high.
This decision will finance the
provision of a basic food basket for 30,000 refugees, as well as the supply of
cooking fuel.
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More K-8 aircraft to enter overseas
market
(March 13,2003 )(China Daily)
China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp
(CATIC) has agreed to buy 100 K-8 aircraft from the Hongdu Aviation Industry
Group for export.
The two companies signed an agreement in Beijing
yesterday.
Xu Zhanbin, vice-president of China Aviation Industry
Corporation II (AVIC II), the parent of Hongdu Aviation, said the order for the
100 new aircraft showed that AVIC II's K-8 was making inroads into overseas
markets.
In December 1999, CATIC signed a contract with the
Egyptian Defence Department to export 80 K-8 aircraft and its production line.
The K-8 aircraft is designed for both training missions, involving
take off, landing, stunt-flying, night and spin flights, and armament operation
training.
The K-8 aircraft has already been exported to several
countries such as Pakistan, Myanmar and Zambia.
The test flights
indicate that the aircraft is an excellent basic trainer with good flight
quality and performance, and provides satisfactory training efficiency at low
operation and maintenance costs, said Zhang Yanzhong, president of AVIC II.
"We will try our best to make the K-8 aircraft a bestseller by
taking feedback from customers and improving the product in accordance with
customer needs," he said.
Company sources said several Middle
Eastern countries have shown strong interest in the K-8 jet.
Other
Southeast Asian and South American countries are also interested in purchasing
the aircraft, however sources failed to specify the progress of these potential
deals.
To become more competitive in the international market,
Hongdu Aviation has decided to invest more to upgrade and improve production.
Founded in 1979, CATIC is a foreign trade joint venture between
the China Aviation Industry Corp I and the China Aviation Industry Corp II. It
is one of the country's 500 key State-owned companies.
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Far Eastern Economic Review
Issue cover-dated
March 20, 2003
INTELLIGENCE
Top Senators Keep Pressure on
Burma
Two leading Republican senators want the Bush
administration to draw up stricter criteria for Burma's military rulers to
receive funding from the United States in the war against the drugs trade. In a
letter dated March 4 to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Senate Foreign
Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar and Senator Mitch McConnell also
called on the American government to continue putting pressure on the military
government to encourage it to hold talks with Burmese opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi. The two senior senators, apparently responding to reports late last
year that the State Department was close to recommending that Burma be removed
from a U.S. list of major drug producers, called on Powell to develop extra
criteria to assess whether Burma is making progress in its counter-narcotics
efforts. Among the six new criteria, the senators suggest that the U.S.
administration ensure that the military leaders are "arresting and prosecuting
the senior leadership of heroin and amphetamine trafficking organizations" and
"honouring requests by the United States for extradition of drug traffickers."
McConnell, a long-standing critic of Burma's military leaders, is chairman of
the key Senate foreign-aid subcommittee.
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