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Sunday March 30, 1:20 AM
U.S. Court Ruling May Lead To
Unocal Trial Over Myanmar Project
LOS ANGELES
(AP)--A California appellate court
ruling could lead to a trial against Unocal Corp.(UCL) over allegations that it
shares responsibility for abuses allegedly conducted by troops guarding a
pipeline project in Myanmar.
Refugees from the southeast Asian
nation also known as Burma have accused Unocal of being complicit in slavery,
murder and rape related to the 1990s construction of the US$1.2 billion Yadana
pipeline. The pipeline was built by a consortium that includes El Segundo-based
Unocal.
Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney last year ruled that
Unocal should stand trial. Lawyers for Unocal, however, argued that the case did
not belong in a state court because it involved crimes allegedly perpetrated by
foreign troops outside California.
In a ruling dated Wednesday,
the 2nd District Court of Appeal denied Unocal's request, stating only that the
company failed to make a case for preventing a trial.
"That was
Unocal's last hope to avoid trial," said attorney Katie Redford, a co-founder of
Earthrights International, a human rights group backing the suit. "It's the last
obstacle between our clients and trial."
Charles Strathman,
Unocal's chief legal officer, said the company would consider an appeal to the
California Supreme Court.
The refugees first filed suit seven
years ago in federal court, but U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew found that
Unocal was unaware of the military's abuses and could not stand trial for
liability since it did not control the troops.
After the case was
dismissed by Lew, the refugees filed a second suit in October 2000 under state
law in Superior Court.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals reinstated the federal lawsuit in September, after finding that
Unocal was potentially liable because there was evidence the company knowingly
encouraged the alleged abuses. Unocal challenged the judges' ruling and the San
Francisco-based court in February announced it would hear the case in June with
11 judges to determine if Unocal should face a federal trial.
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Myanmar junta urges borrowers to repay banks quickly to
end crisis
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ A senior leader of Myanmar's ruling military
junta has urged those who have borrowed from crippled banks to repay their debts
quickly to alleviate the plight of depositors and the country's economy, a
newspaper reported Sunday.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper
quoted Gen. Khin Nyunt, the No. 3 leader in the junta, as saying that the
condition of crippled banks has improved in the last few weeks but much more
needs to be done.
``I would like to urge those who have taken
loans from the banks to strive to repay their debts speedily in consideration of
those who had deposited money in the banks and to ensure long term interests of
the banks and to strengthen the national economy,'' he was quoted as saying.
Khin Nyunt was speaking at the annual meeting of the Federation of
Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday, the newspaper said.
Myanmar's financial crisis started in February with a panic
withdrawal by depositors from the country's 20 private banks following the
collapse of about a dozen private financial companies.
The
companies had illegally sold shares to the public, offering greater returns than
the interest given by banks.
Assurances given by the Central Bank
governor on Feb. 10 exacerbated the run on the banks because many account
holders believed the rare comment by a normally tightlipped government hid a big
underlying problem.
In a bailout package, the Central Bank is
believed to have given a total credit of 25 billion kyat to the Asia Wealth
Bank, the Kanbawza Bank and the Yoma Bank _ three of the biggest private banks
in the country.
The amount is worth about US$4 billion at the
official exchange rate or US$25 million at the widely used black market rate.
Still, the rush for withdrawals led the three banks to suspend
credit card services, and the Central Bank imposed a limit on withdrawals.
Depositors were allowed to withdraw 500,000 kyat a week on Feb. 18
and the amount was later reduced to 100,000 kyat a week. Lately, some major
banks have further reduced the withdrawal limit to 50,000 kyat a week.
Many people have been forced by banks to repay their loans, often
selling their assets, mostly cars, at a loss, said one businessman forced to
repay his loan who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A second-hand
car dealer said one of his customers sold his vehicle in desperation for about
half the market price because of pressure to pay back his loan.
Ordinary people who took out loans to buy consumer goods or
property have also been hard hit by the new bank regulations.
``This is a breach of contract by the bank. I have been paying the
interest regularly and I have the right to get an extension for the loan as I
have given collateral for the loan,'' said Khin Khin San, who said she had
bought a plot of land with the money.
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Bangkok Post - Sunday 30 March
2003
Red Wa `gearing up' for big drugs push into Thailand
Wassana Nanuam
The Pha Muang task force
chief-of-staff says 500 Red Wa soldiers are being trained to provide security
for drug caravans expected to head for Thailand next month.
Col
Somsak Nilbanjerdkul said a big push was expected by Red Wa drug producers to
smuggle millions of speed pills into Thailand next month, especially during
Songkran festival.
Up to 500 Red Wa soldiers had been sent for
training at a military school in New Yawn town, opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Fa
Luang district.
Ready to be smuggled were about three million speed
pills at Ban Na Mon, opposite Mae Hong Son, two million at a Burmese town
opposite Chiang Mai's Wiang Haeng district, and one million pills at Laos' Bo
Keo, opposite Chiang Rai. The government's war on drugs had curbed the inflow,
causing shortages.
Col Apichart Meesommon, commander of the 5th
Cavalry Regiment, said the way the Red Wa increased the number of soldiers for
training to 500 from 100-200, reflected their preparations for drug trafficking.
He said there were up to 50 methamphetamine production sources in Burma along
the northern border including a major one belonging to the Red Wa at Ban
Hong.
Pithaya Jinawat, director of Northern Narcotics Control
Office, said he doubted whether the Red Wa would stop producing drugs by 2005,
as promised.
A Third Army intelligence officer said the Red Wa's
Hong Pang Company in Burma's Tachilek province was renamed Green Land Company
and still being used for money laundering.
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Hindustan Times
Sunday, March 30, 2003 |
Updated: 11:02 IST
"Yaa baa", the drug driving Thais crazy
Agence France-Presse
Bangkok, March 30
From
the clandestine laboratories of Myanmar to the pockets of several million Thai
users, the methamphetamine pills known as yaa baa are wreaking havoc in
supplanting heroin as Thailand's number one killer drug.
Following
the century-old trade routes used by heroin traffickers and other smugglers, the
potent little pill has woven its way into the fabric of Thai society like no
other vice in decades, and is having disastrous effects on the brains of its
unsuspecting consumers.
Yaa baa, or crazy medicine as
methamphetamine is known in Thailand, is in the crosshairs of a two-month
anti-drugs crackdown here that has resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,900
suspected traffickers.
The brutal, no-holds barred blitz indicates
the soaring level of concern over the drug since its popularity mushroomed in
the mid-1990s, making Thailand the world's number one
consumer.
What's frightening about the psychotropic drug is its
extremely broad use across society, with Thais using it for both work and
pleasure, Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy and Joel Meissonnier explain in Yaa Baa, their
book recently published by the Institute of Research on Contemporary Southeast
Asia (IRASEC).
Construction workers, sailors, farmers and taxi
drivers take the drug to help them through long working days, students use it to
get through exam periods and clubbers use it to help them dance the night
away.
Yaa baa possesses several qualities that have helped it
supplant heroin as the drug of choice in Thailand.
The drug, the
book's authors write, "conveys a completely positive image". Being synthetic, it
appears modern and inoffensive, while the energy, confidence and euphoric
feeling it gives users has lent it an image as a "drug of
happiness".
The small pills, of which there are at least 90 types,
can also be easily consumed: similar to an aspirin, they can be popped or
dissolved in a glass of water, taken intravenously, pulverised and inhaled, even
smoked.
For producers, yaa baa is attractive because it is easy to
manufacture - instructions are available on the Internet - and free from the
climatic uncertainties that dog other drugs.
Heroin, on the other
hand, requires opium poppy as its raw ingredient while cocaine depends on yields
from the coca plant.
Another advantage is its extremely affordable
price: Before the start of Thailand's drugs war on February 1 pushed the price
of yaa baa up by around 300 per cent, it cost a mere 60 baht ($1.50) or so per
pill on the streets.
But the small price still represents a huge
mark-up on the five-cent cost of production - and unleashed the flood of some
800 million pills into Thailand last year from neighbouring
Myanmar.
"The majority of the drug comes indeed from Myanmar
particularly the areas controlled by the Wa of the UWSA (United Wa State Army),"
the authors write, referring to the pro-Yangon ethnic group said to operate
around 50 laboratories close to the border, as well as mobile production
units.
Alleged links between Myanmar's military rulers and the UWSA
- and the resulting lack of law enforcement - as well as the remote jungle
canopy under which the UWSA operate, conspire to make Myanmar an unrivalled
regional producer.
The drug has become a specialty of the Golden
Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar converge and much of the world's opium
is still produced.
Methamphetamine is overtaking heroin as the
production drug of choice in the area and is profiting enormously from the
distribution networks that heroin trafficking has already established, according
to Chouvy and Meissonnier.
Some five percent of Thailand's
population is now estimated to abuse methamphetamine, a figure the International
Narcotics Control Bureau says makes it the largest per capita consumer in the
world.
The drug has been around in other forms for years, first
used in the 1920s as an antidepressant and then as a psychostimulant during
World War II and the Vietnam war.
Armies of "ants," recruited from
among impoverished ethnic minorities, transport the pills along a multitude of
routes, with protectors including Myanmar soldiers and Thai police and
bureaucrats allowing them to eventually reach consumers in
Thailand.
One pill will pass through seven intermediaries from the
frontier runner to the retailer, who will usually sell more to the drug user
than he or she requires, the book's authors say.
This creates
another dealer -- which explains the drug's easy availability across
Thailand.
Owners of boats in the southern coastal province of
Ranong and construction foremen in Bangkok are known to force their workers to
take the drug at the beginning of the workday.
And occasionally in
rural areas, "the farmers dissolve the drug in a bottle which they drink while
working."
But it is the kingdom's youth who are most at risk.
Consumers are as young as seven and "school has become one of the main hubs for
trafficking of methamphetamine."
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